728 A. From the "Report on the Census of Hallucinations," Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 383. "In the case we have next to quote" (say the writers of the "Report"), "unless we accept the hypothesis of chance-coincidence - the evidence for the agency of the dead is certainly strong, because any other explanation compatible with the veracity of the narrators requires a very complicated and improbable hypothesis as regards the sub-conscious action of Senhor Cabral's mind. The case came into our collection merely as a tactile hallucination: but the main interest of it depends on the coincident experience of Donna Feliciana Fortes. It seems doubtful from the account given whether she had a hallucinatory vision, or merely a mental vision, but for our present purpose this is unimportant".

From Senhor Ulysses J. C. Cabral.

Rua Escobar 48, Rio de Janeiro, March 12th, 1892.

[After relating his first meeting in June 1886, with "Deolinda," a child whom he had found in great poverty and had taken charge of, and her death from consumption shortly afterwards, Senhor Cabral continues: - ]

Some months passed, and my family (which now included my wife's other sister, Amelia) went to stay at a plantation belonging to friends. I escorted them thither, and returned to attend to my obligations in the city. In order not to be alone, I accepted the invitation of my friend, Barboza de Andrade, and went to live with him in S. Christovam. One month afterwards, a sister of Barboza's, who was ill, came into his house. She grew daily worse, and after the lapse of a few months had sunk so low that we had to sit up with her at night.

One night, when I had taken my turn at nursing, I felt sleepy, and went to lie down. Two sisters, Donnas Anna Ignez Dias Fortes and Feliciana Dias (now deceased), took my place. I had made their acquaintance but a few days before. After stretching myself on the bed, I was filled with a feeling of unbounded joy. I was happy, and could not imagine what was the cause of my happiness. I had a sensation as if some one were holding my head and placing something round it.

Astonished at my experience, I called to the ladies who were watching in the next room, and Donna Feliciana, though from the place where she was seated she could not see me, answered me back, "I see at your bedside a spirit child clothed in white. She places on your head a crown of roses. She says her name is Deolinda, and she comes to thank you for the kindness and charity with which you behaved to her." I was amazed at such a declaration, for that very day was the anniversary of Deolinda's death, and neither I nor vol. 11. z any other person in the house had recollected this.1 Besides, I had never spoken on the subject.

The two ladies were worthy of the highest respect. As for Donna Anna Fortes, who is still alive, our friendship is now of long standing, and I render her all the homage which her virtue and goodness merit.

Ulysses Cabral, (Director of the "Atheneu Brazileiro").

The following corroborative statements were obtained by Professor Alexander:-

Rio de Janeiro, March 16th, 1892.

The part of the above narrative which respects me is exact. I am sure that neither my sister nor I knew of the story of Deolinda before she was seen by the side of Senhor Ulysses Cabral on the night mentioned.

Anna Ignez Dias Fortes.

Rio de Janeiro, March 17th, 1892. The above narrative coincides with our recollection of what happened in our house.2 We are certain that our friend, Senhor Ulysses Cabral, told us the story of Deolinda only after the latter had been seen by Donna Feliciana Fortes. Manuel Jm. Barboza de Andrade.

Emilia Barboza de Andrade.

Professor Alexander writes:-

Rio de Janeiro, March 17th, 1892.

In reply to further questions, Senhor Ulysses Cabral said the sensation on the head was that of a slight but distinct compression. He supposed at first that a towel had in some way wound itself round his head. He did not speak of this sensation to the ladies in the next room. The ecstatic feeling would not allow him to sleep when he lay down. It was on the night of the anniversary of the child's death, about twelve o'clock, that this occurred. Senhor Cabral believed that he had not spoken of Deolinda to the people of the house, and this is confirmed, if there are no lapses of memory, by the statements of the other persons concerned. He thought that the lustre of his deed of charity would be somewhat tarnished if told even to friends. Though at my request he has made the whole incident public, he does so, I am well assured, with the intention of helping us in a quest which he holds to be all-important. Both he and Donna Anna Fortes affirm that they came together in that house for the first time on that night, although they had met once or twice before at Spiritist sittings.

The lady says they were conversing about Spiritism at the time of Senhor Cabral's experience.

Donna Feliciana Fortes, now dead, was a remarkable sensitive, according to the accounts I have received of her by surviving friends.

The witnesses to the above case are all Spiritists; but they are people in whose veracity I can trust implicitly. Alfred Alexander.

"If" (say the writers of the "Report") "we are to exclude Deolinda's agency here, we must suppose that Senhor Cabral was sub-consciously aware that it was the anniversary of her death, and that this sub-conscious recollection produced by association the feeling of happiness and the tactile hallucination, without even then influencing his conscious memory; and, further, that the other witnesses were affected by telepathic influence from his unconscious memory. This is certainly a highly strained hypothesis, and a few more well-evidenced cases of this sort would go far to establish the agency of the dead".

1 Note by the collector, Professor Alexander:- "According to the other statements, no other person in the house knew anything about Deolinda. - A. A".

2 "They were sleeping at the time, and only heard of it the next day. - A. A".

728 B. From the "Report on the Census of Hallucinations," Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 371. Mrs. B. writes as follows:-

April 1892.

At Fiesole, on March 11th, 1869,1 was giving my little children their dinner at half-past one o'clock. It was a fine hot day. As I was in the act of serving macaroni and milk from a high tureen, so that I had to stand to reach it, and give my attention to what I was doing - on raising my head (as much from fatigue as for any purpose), the wall opposite me seemed to open, and I saw my mother lying dead on her bed in her little house at--. Some flowers were at her side and on her breast; she looked calm, but unmistakably dead, and the coffin was there.

It was so real that I could scarcely believe that the wall was really brick and mortar, and not a transparent window - in fact, it was a wall dividing the hotel in which we were living from the Carabinieri.

I was in very weak health - suffering intensely with neuralgia - having gone through a bad confinement, brought on by travelling - the baby was almost still-born, on January 31st.

Owing to a family quarrel, I had left England without telling my people where I was going; but I was so fond of my mother that, when in Paris, I made an excuse to write to an old servant, who lived with my mother, to ask her for a toy which we had left with her, the object being to get news of my mother. Reply came that for years she had not been so well and strong; thus I had no reason for imagining her to be dead.

I was so distressed at the vision that I wrote to her (my mother) to give her my address, and entreat her to let me know how she was. By return of post came the statement that she had died on March 5th, and was buried on the 11th. At the hour I saw her she was removed from her home to Kensal Green Cemetery. She had wished to see me so much that letters had been sent to a great many continental cities, hoping I might be found; but I never got a letter from my sister till long after I had received the news of my mother's death.

When I was married my mother made me promise as I was leaving home to be sure to let her know in any way God permitted if I died, and she would try to find some way of communicating to me the fact of her death, supposing that circumstances prevented the usual methods of writing or telegraphing. I considered the vision a fulfilment of this promise, for my mind was engrossed with my own grief and pain - the loss of baby, and my neuralgia, and the anxieties of starting a new life.

My youngest sister, since dead, was called to my mother, and left Devonshire, where she was staying with friends, to come home. When she arrived at home, she entered the drawing-room, but rushed out terrified, exclaiming that she had seen godmamma, who was seated by the fire in my mother's chair. Godmamma had been dead since 1852. She had been my mother's governess almost foster-mother; had lived with her during her married life, been godmother to her eldest girl, and when my father died, had accepted the duty of taking his place as far as possible in the family, to shield her from trouble and protect her - a duty which she fulfilled nobly.

My other sister went into the drawing-room to see what had scared K--, and saw the figure of godmamma just as K-- had. Later in the day the same figure stood by, then sat on the edge of my mother's bed, and was seen by both my sisters and the old servant, looking just as she had when alive, except that she wore a grey dress, and, as far as we could remember, she had always worn black. My mother saw her, for she turned towards her and said, "Mary"- her name.

We have verified the date of death through the Register at Somerset House.

Mrs. B. has had several other hallucinatory experiences, e.g., in 1876, in an Italian church, she saw an apparition of a child, which had been pointed out to her by her little daughter, then aged three, but was invisible to a friend who accompanied her. It disappeared, and immediately afterwards the body of a dead child, resembling the figure they had seen, was brought into the church. The friend who was with Mrs. B. is now dead, so that no corroboration can be obtained, her daughter not being able to remember the incident. Most of Mrs. B.'s other experiences were, so far as can be ascertained, purely subjective.

Mr. Podmore, who visited Mr. and Mrs. B. on April 8th, 1893, writes:-

April 10th, 1893.

Mrs. B. gave me a full account of her vision of her mother. She had absolutely no cause for anxiety, the last news being that her mother was better than she had been for years. There was a chronic ailment, but no reason to anticipate death soon. The children were too young to remember it, but Mr. B. told me that he came in a few minutes later and comforted his wife, whilst she was crying on the sofa. A written note of the date was taken and compared with the date given in the letter afterwards received, but all memoranda and letters of that time were lost. Both Mr. and Mrs. B. are satisfied of the coincidence of the vision with the day of the funeral.