ved to be
false. In this case, if the donkey had not fortunately come out and
shown himself, I should certainly have returned to Europe half impressed
with the belief that something supernatural had occurred, which was in
some mysterious manner connected with the opening of the magic volume
which we had taken from the altar in the tomb. The echoes of the
subterranean cave so altered the sound of the donkey's bray, that I
never should have discovered that these fearful sounds had so
undignified an origin; a story never loses by telling, and with a little
gradual exaggeration it would soon have become one of the best
accredited supernatural histories in the country.

The well-known story of the old woman of Berkeley has been read with
wonder and dread for at least four hundred years: it is to be found in
early manuscripts; it is related by Olaus Magnus, and is to be seen
illustrated by a woodcut, both in the German and Latin editions of the
'Nuremberg Chronicle,' which was printed in the year 1493. There is no
variation in the legend, which is circumstantially the same in all these
books. Without doubt it was partly founded upon fact, or, as in the case
of the story of the Theban tomb, some circumstances have been omitted
which make all the difference; and a natural though perhaps
extraordinary occurrence has been handed down for centuries, as a
fearful instance of the power of the evil one in this world over those
who have given themselves up to the practice of tremendous crimes.

There are many supernatural stories, which we are certain cannot by any
possibility be true; but which nevertheless are as well attested, and
apparently as fully proved, as any facts in the most veracious history.
Under circumstances of alarm or temporary hallucination people
frequently believe that they have had supernatural visitations. Even the
tricks of conjurers, which have been witnessed by a hundred persons at a
time, are totally incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and in the middle
ages, when these practices were resorted to for religious or political
ends, it is more than probable that many occurrences which were supposed
to be supernatural might have been explained, if all the circumstances
connected with them had been fairly and openly detailed by an impartial
witness.

THE WHITE MONASTERY.

CHAPTER XI.

The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the
Mamelukes--Description of the Monastery--Differ