625 D. The following accounts are extracts from Mr. Andrew Lang's Making of Religion (1898). Mr. Lang tells us that he made the acquaintance of the lady whom he calls "Miss Angus " early in 1897; he obtained a glass ball for the purpose of asking her to experiment with it, and was present when she first did so. The first case given here occurred on the day after she began her experiments, and is described in her own words {op. cit., p. 96).

A lady one day asked me to scry out a friend of whom she would think. Almost immediately I exclaimed, " Here is an old, old lady looking at me with a triumphant smile on her face. She has a prominent nose and nut-cracker chin. Her face is very much wrinkled, especially at the sides of her eyes, as if she were always smiling. She is wearing a little white shawl with a black edge. But... she can't be old, as her hair is quite brown, although her face looks so very, very old." The picture then vanished, and the lady said that I had accurately described her friend's mother instead of himself; that it was a family joke that the mother must dye her hair, it was so brown, and she was eighty-two years old. The lady asked me if the vision were distinct enough for me to recognise a likeness in the son's photograph; next day she laid several photographs before me, and in a moment, without the slightest hesitation, I picked him out from his wonderful likeness to my vision.

Mr. Lang adds: -

The inquirer verbally corroborated all the facts to me, within a week, but leaned to a theory of "electricity." She has read and confirms this account.

The next case which I quote is given, says Mr. Lang (p. 101), first in the version of the lady who was unconsciously scried for, and next in that of Miss Angus. The other lady writes: -

November 23rd, 1897. I met Miss A. for the first time in a friend's house in the south of England, and one evening mention was made of a crystal ball, and our hostess asked Miss A. to look in it, and if possible, tell her what was happening to a friend of hers. Miss A. took the crystal, and our hostess put her hand on Miss A.'s forehead to "will her." I, not believing in this, took up a book and went to the other side of the room. I was suddenly very much startled to hear Miss A., in quite an agitated way, describe a scene that had most certainly been very often in my thoughts, but of which I had never mentioned a word. She accurately described a race-course in Scotland, and an accident which happened to a friend of mine only a week or two before, and she was evidently going through the same doubt and anxiety that I did at the time as to whether he was actually killed or only very much hurt. It really was a most wonderful revelation to me, as it was the very first time I had seen a crystal. Our hostess, of course, was very much annoyed that she had not been able to influence Miss A., while I, who had appeared so very indifferent, should have affected her.

Miss Angus herself writes: -

Another case was a rather interesting one, as I somehow got inside the thoughts of one lady while another was doing her best to influence me!

Miss ------, a friend in Brighton, has strange "magnetic" powers, and felt quite sure of success with me and the ball.

Another lady, Miss H., who was present, laughed at the whole thing, especially when Miss------insisted on holding my hand, and putting her other hand on my forehead. Miss H. in a scornful manner took up a book, and crossing to the other side of the room, left us to our folly.

In a very short time I felt myself getting excited, which had never happened before, when I looked in the crystal. I saw a crowd of people, and in some strange way I felt I was in it, and we all seemed to be waiting for something. Soon a rider came past, young, dressed for racing. His horse ambled past, and he smiled and nodded to those he knew in the crowd, and then was lost to sight.

In a moment we all seemed to feel as if something had happened, and I went through great agony of suspense, trying to see what seemed just beyond my view. Soon, however, two or three men approached, and carried him past before my eyes, and again my anxiety was intense to discover if he were only very badly hurt or if life were really extinct. All this happened in a few moments, but long enough to have left me so agitated that I could not realise it had only been a vision in a glass ball.

By this time Miss H. had laid aside her book and came forward quite startled, and told me that I had accurately described a scene on a race-course in Scotland which she had witnessed just a week or two before - a scene that had very often been in her thoughts, but, as we were strangers to each other, she had never mentioned. She also said I had exactly described her own feelings at the time, and had brought it all back in a most vivid manner.

The other lady was rather disappointed that, after she had concentrated her thoughts so hard, I should have been influenced instead by one who had jeered at the whole affair.

[This anecdote was also told to me, within a few days of the occurrence, by Miss Angus. Her version was that she first saw a gentleman rider going to the post and nodding to his friends. Then she saw him carried on a stretcher through the crowd. She seemed, she said, to be actually present, and felt somewhat agitated. The fact of the accident was, later, mentioned to me in Scotland by another lady, a stranger to all the persons. A. L].

The next case is thus described by Mr. Lang (p. 106): -

The following examples have some curious and unusual features. On Wednesday, February 2, 1897, Miss Angus was looking in the crystal, to amuse six or seven people whose acquaintance she had that day made. A gentleman, Mr. Bissett, asked her "What letter was in his pocket ? " She then saw, under a bright sky, and, as it were, a long way off, a large building, in and out of which many men were coming and going. Her impression was that the scene must be abroad. In the little company present, it should be added, was a lady, Mrs. Cockburn, who had considerable reason to think of her young married daughter, then at a place about fifty miles away. After Miss Angus had described the large building and crowds of men, some one asked, "Is it an Exchange ? " "It might be," she said. " Now comes a man in a great hurry. He has a broad brow, and short, curly hair;1 hat pressed low down on his eyes. The face is very serious, but he has a delightful smile." Mr. and Mrs. Bissett now both recognised their friend and stockbroker, whose letter was in Mr. Bissett's pocket.

The vision, which interested Miss Angus, passed away, and was interrupted by that of a hospital nurse, and of a lady in a peignoir, lying on a sofa, with bare feet.2 Miss Angus mentioned this vision as a bore, she being more interested in the stockbroker, who seems to have inherited what was once in the possession of another stockbroker - "the smile of Charles Lamb." Mrs. Cockburn, for whom no pictures appeared, was rather vexed, and privately expressed with freedom a very sceptical opinion about the whole affair. But, on Saturday, February 5, 1897, Miss Angus was again with Mr. and Mrs. Bissett. When Mrs. Bissett announced that she had "thought of something," Miss Angus saw a walk in a wood or garden, beside a river, under a brilliant blue sky. Here was a lady, very well dressed, twirling a white parasol on her shoulder as she walked, in a curious "stumpy" way, beside a gentleman in light clothes, such as are worn in India. He was broad-shouldered, had a short neck and a straight nose, and seemed to listen, laughing, but indifferent, to his obviously vivacious companion. The lady had a "drawn" face, indicative of ill health. Then followed a scene in which the man, without the lady, was looking on at a number of Orientals busy in the felling of trees.

Mrs. Bissett recognised in the lady her sister, Mrs. Clifton, in India - above all, when Miss Angus gave a realistic imitation of Mrs. Clifton's walk, the peculiarity of which was caused by an illness some years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Bissett also recognised their brother-in-law in the gentleman seen in both pictures. On being shown a portrait of Mrs. Clifton as a girl, Miss Angus said it was "like, but too pretty." A photograph done recently, however, showed her "the drawn face" of the crystal picture.2

Next day, Sunday, February 6, Mrs. Bissett received - what was not usual - a letter from her sister in India, Mrs. Clifton, dated January 20. Mrs. Clifton described a place in a native State, where she had been at a great "function " in certain gardens beside a river. She added that they were going to another place for a certain purpose, "and then we go into camp till the end of February." One of Mr. Clifton's duties is to direct the clearing of wood preparatory to the formation of the camp, as in Miss Angus's crystal picture.4 The sceptical Mrs. Cockburn heard of these coincidences, and an idea occurred to her. She wrote to her daughter, who has been mentioned, and asked whether, on Wednesday, February 2, she had been lying on a sofa in her bedroom with bare feet. The young lady confessed that it was indeed so,1 and, when she heard how the fact came to be known, expressed herself with some warmth on the abuse of glass balls, which tend to rob life of its privacy.2

1 Miss Angus could not be sure of the colour of the hair.

2 The position was such that Miss Angus could not see the face of the lady.

3 I saw the photographs.

4 I have been shown the letter of January 20, which confirmed the evidence of the crystal pictures. The camp was formed for official purposes in which Mr. Clifton was concerned. A letter of February 9 unconsciously corroborates.