ative effect of a dose of Koran (a verset written
upon a scrap of paper, and given like a pill of p.q.). I would note that
the "Indian Prince" [608] was no less a personage than Ranjit Singh,
Rajah of the Punjab, that the burial of the Fakir was attested by
his German surgeon-general, and that a friend and I followed
Colonel Boileau's example in personally investigating the subject of
vivi-sepulture. In p. 10: The throngs of pilgrims to Mecca never think
of curing anything but their 'souls,' and the pilgrimage is often
fatal to their bodies. I cannot but take exception to such terms as
'psychology,' holding the soul (an old Egyptian creation unknown to the
early Hebrews) to be the ego of man, what differentiates him from
all other men, in fact, like the 'mind,' not a thing but a state or
condition of things. I rejoice to see Braid [609] duly honoured and
think that perhaps a word might be said of 'Electro-biology,' a term
ridiculous as 'suggestion' and more so. But Professor Yankee Stone
certainly produced all the phenomena you allude to by concentrating the
patient's sight upon his 'Electro-magnetic disc'--a humbug of copper and
zinc, united, too. It was a sore trial to Dr. Elliotson, who having been
persecuted for many years wished to make trial in his turn of a little
persecuting--a disposition not unusual." [610]

165. To Mr. Kirby 15th May 1889.

In a letter to Mr. W. F. Kirby, 15th May 1889, Burton, after referring
to a translation of the Kalevala, [611] upon which Mr. Kirby was then
engaged, says: "We shall not be in England this year. I cannot remove
myself so far from my books, and beside, I want a summer in Austria,
probably at Closen or some place north of Vienna. We had a long ten
months' holiday and must make up for time lost. The Scented Garden is
very hard work, and I have to pay big sums to copyists and so forth.
Yet it will, I think, repay the reader. What a national disgrace is this
revival of Puritanism with its rampant cant and ignoble hypocrisy! I
would most willingly fight about it, but I don't see my way." Writing
again on 6th November (1889) he says, "I like very much your idea of
visiting Sweden in the interests of the Kalevala. Perhaps you might
date the Preface from that part of the world. The Natural History of The
Nights would be highly interesting. Have you heard that Pickering and
Chatto, of Haymarket, London, are going to print 100 (photogravure)
illustrations of the Nights? When