Of course, I was under the impression my friend was dead. Such, however, was not the case; and I met him some four years later, when, without telling him anything of my experience in Cairo, I asked him, in a joking way, could he remember what he was doing on a certain night in November 1864. "Well," he said, "you require me to have a good memory;" but after a little reflection he replied, " Why, that was the time I was so harassed with trying to decide for or against the appointment which was offered me, and I so much wished you could have been with me to talk the matter over. I sat over the fire quite late, trying to think what you would have advised me to do." A little cross-question-ing and comparing of dates brought out the curious fact that, allowing for the difference of time between England and Cairo, his meditations over the fire and my experience were simultaneous. Having told him the circumstances above narrated, I asked him had he been aware of any peculiar or unusual sensation. He said none, only that he had wanted to see me very much.

E. H. Elgee.

In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Elgee says: -

I fear it is quite impossible to get any information from Miss D. She married soon after we reached India, and I never met her since, nor do I know where she is, if alive. I quite understand the value of her corroboration; and at the time she told the whole circumstance to a fellow-traveller, who repeated it to me, and her story and mine agreed in every particular, save that to her the visitant was a complete stranger; and her tale was quite unbiassed by mine, as I always treated hers as a fancy, and never acknowledged I had been aware of anything unusual having taken place in our room at Cairo. I never have seen, or fancied I saw, any one before or since.

My visitant, also, is dead, or he would, I know, have added his testimony, small as it was, to mine. He was a very calm, quiet, clever, scientific man, not given to vain fancies on any subject, and certainly was not aware of any desire of appearing to me.

The publication of Phantasms of the Living led fortunately to our obtaining the testimony of the second percipient, now Mrs. Ramsay, of Clevelands, Bassett, Southampton, whose account follows: -

July 1891.

I have been asked by a leading member of the Psychical Society to write down what I can remember of a strange experience that occurred no less than twenty-seven years ago. I now do so as simply as I can, and to the best of my recollection.

In October 1864 I was travelling to India, going to rejoin my parents, from whom I had been separated twelve years, a kind friend - a Mrs. E. - having undertaken to chaperon me as far as Calcutta. She was going out to join her husband, Major E., of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. We started by a P. & O. steamer - the Ceylon - from Southampton, and travelled by the overland route, via Alexandria, and Cairo, to Suez.

We landed at Alexandria, and went by rail across the desert to Cairo. There all passengers had to sleep the night before proceeding on to Suez. Shepherd's Hotel was the best hotel then, and there was consequently a great rush to try and get rooms in it; but Mrs. E. and I, finding we could get no corner, decided, with two or three other passengers, to get accommodation in the Hotel de l'Europe. We felt somewhat nervous at the swarthy visages of the Arabs all round us, and for this reason selected our quarters on the very highest storey, thinking we should be more out of reach of robbers and thieves than if we were on the ground floor. This is an important point to remember, as no one could have effected an entrance into our room from outside. It was a bright moonlight night when we went to bed, and I can recollect as if it were yesterday this fact, that the shadow of a "pepul" tree was reflected on the wall opposite our beds - the leaves of the tree were trembling and shaking, as the leaves of a "pepul" always do, making the shadows dance about the wall.

Before we finally retired to rest we made the grandest arrangements for personal security! The window looking out on to the street below was much too high up to be at all unsafe. So we left that open (I think), but we closed our door very firmly indeed! It was a large folding door, and opened inwards. We locked it carefully, leaving the key in the lock; pushed an arm-chair against the middle of the door; and, to crown all, we balanced a hand-bag on one of the arms, with a bunch of keys in the lock thereof! so that if any intruder should venture to open that door, we should know of it at any rate!! (But no one did venture, and we found everything in the morning exactly as we had left it.) I remember that Mrs. E. was very careful about tucking her mosquito curtains all round, but I disliked the feeling of suffocation they gave, and put mine up; not realising, of course, in my inexperience, what the consequences would be for myself; for these small plagues of Egypt (!) soon descended upon me, nearly eating me up, and absolutely prevented sleep. This is another important fact to remember, for had I slept I might have dreamed, but, as it happened, I was wide awake.

I was looking at the shadows of the tree shaking on the wall when gradually they seemed to merge into a form, which form took the shape of a man, not of an Arab, but of an English gentleman. Then this form glided into the room, advancing towards my chaperon, stretching out his hands as if in blessing, turned round, looked at me, sadly and sorrowfully (so I thought), and then vanished again into the shadows as it came. I do not remember feeling terrified, only awed - the face was so kind and human, only the moonlight made it look very white. I did not wake Mrs. E., as she appeared to me to be asleep. I felt sure I had seen a vision, and something that had to do with her.

The next morning, while we were dressing, she remarked how odd I looked, and quite apart from the mosquito bites, I know I did. We had a good laugh over my comical appearance, for I had not scrupled to scratch the bites, until my forehead and face resembled a plum bun! I believe I then told her it was not strange that I should look odd, for I "had seen a ghost." She started violently, and asked me to tell her what I saw. I described it as best I could, and she said she had seen "it" too, and that she knew it to be the form and face of a valued friend. She was much disturbed about it - as indeed, so was I, for I had never indulged in "hallucinations" and was not given to seeing visions.

We proceeded next day to join our ship at Suez, and when on board, it was a great relief to us to be able to tell it to a kind fellow-passenger. He was an absolute sceptic in all matters relating to the invisible world, but he was obliged to admit that it was the most extraordinary thing he had ever heard. ... I should like to add, that I have never, before or since, had any kind of vision.

Our experience at Cairo had this sequel, that Mrs. E.'s spirit-friend happened to be, at that very time, in great perplexity of mind - most anxious about some very important event in his life. He was sitting in his room one night in the month of October 1864, and a most intense yearning came over him for her advice and assistance - so great was it, that he felt as if an invisible power had drawn him into some spirit-state, in which he could and did see her.1

1 I noted on this narrative at the time I received it: " This account is entirely concordant with the account written by Mrs. Ramsay before reading Mrs. Elgee's account in 1888, and abstracted by me for an article in Murray's Magazine. There was this discrepancy between Mrs. Elgee and Mrs. Ramsay, - that Mrs. Ramsay thought that the figure wore a beard, whereas Mrs. Elgee saw him as she knew him - with whiskers only. He certainly had no beard at the time".

For a somewhat similar case, that of the apparition of General Frémont (too lengthy to quote here), I may refer the reader to the Journal S. P. R., vol. v. p. 54. The crisis there is the removal of long and wearing anxiety; the self-projection into the home-scene which now at last the General felt assured of being able to reach alive.

Cases of this general character, both visual and auditory, occupy a great part of Phantasms of the Living, and others have been frequently quoted in the S. P. R. Journal during recent years. I cannot in this work attempt any complete collection, but I give examples of various types in Appendices to this section.