nner.

This is a very rich family having a large residential house with a
private temple or chapel attached to it, but the members never pay a
penny to the doctor or the chemist either.

In many rich families in Bengal there are private deities the worship of
which is conducted by the heads of the families assisted by the family
priests. There are generally private temples adjoining the houses or
rooms set apart for such idols, and all the members of the family and
especially the ladies say their prayers there.

Such a temple remains open during the day and is kept securely closed at
night, because nobody should be allowed to disturb the deity at night
and also because there is generally a lot of gold and silver articles in
the temple which an unorthodox thief may carry away.

Now what I have just mentioned was the custom of the particular
house-hold referred to above.

One night a peculiar groan was heard issuing from the temple. All the
inmates of the house came to see what the matter was. The key of the
temple was with the family priest who was not present. He had probably
gone to some other person's house to have a smoke and a chat, and it
was an hour before the key could be procured and the door of the temple
opened.

Everything was just as it had been left 3 or 4 hours previously. The
cause or origin of the groans was never traced or discovered.

The next morning one of the members of the family was suddenly taken ill
and died before medical aid could be obtained from Calcutta.

This was about fifty years ago. Since then the members of this family
have become rather accustomed to these groans.

If there is a case of real Asiatic cholera or a case of double pneumonia
they don't call in a doctor though there is a very capable and learned
medical man within a mile.

But if once the groans are heard the person, who gets the smallest
pin-prick the next morning, dies; and no medical science has ever done
any good.

"The most terrible thing in this connection is the suspense" said one of
the members of that family to me once. "As a rule you hear the groans at
night and then you have to wait till the morning to ascertain whose turn
it is. Generally however you find long before sunrise that somebody has
become very ill. If not, you have to wire to all the absent members of
the family in the morning to enquire--what you can guess. And you have
to await the replies to the telegrams. How the minutes pass between