a Memphian priest of Amsu, and, as
the hieroglyphics on his coffin assure me, a prime favourite with one
Queen Amyntas. Beneath these mouldering swaddlings of the grave a great
ruby still cherishes its blood-guilty secret on the forefinger of his
right hand. Most curious is it to reflect how in _all_ lands, and at
_all_ times, precious minerals have been endowed by men with mystic
virtues. The Persians, for instance, believed that spinelle and the
garnet were harbingers of joy. Have you read the ancient Bishop of
Rennes on the subject? Really, I almost think there must be some truth
in all this. The instinct of universal man is rarely far at fault.
Already you have a semi-comic "gold-cure" for alcoholism, and you have
heard of the geophagism of certain African tribes. What if the
scientist of the future be destined to discover that the diamond, and
it alone, is a specific for cholera, that powdered rubellite cures
fever, and the chryso-beryl gout? It would be in exact conformity with
what I have hitherto observed of a general trend towards a certain
inborn perverseness and whimsicality in Nature.'

_Note_.--As some proof of the fineness of intuition evidenced by
Zaleski, as distinct from his more conspicuous powers of reasoning, I
may here state that some years after the occurrence of the tragedy I
have recorded above, the skeleton of a man was discovered in the vaults
of the Manor-house of Saul. I have not the least doubt that it was the
skeleton of Ul-Jabal. The teeth were very prominent. A rotten rope was
found loosely knotted round the vertebrae of his neck.

THE S.S.

'Wohlgeborne, gesunde Kinder bringen viel mit....

'Wenn die Natur verabscheut, so spricht sie es laut aus: das Geschoepf,
das falsch lebt, wird frueh zerstoert. Unfruchtbarkeit, kuemmerliches
Dasein, fruehzeitiges Zerfallen, das sind ihre Flueche, die Kennzeichen
ihrer Strenge.' GOETHE. [Footnote: 'Well-made, healthy children bring
much into the world along with them....

'When Nature abhors, she speaks it aloud: the creature that lives with
a false life is soon destroyed. Unfruitfulness, painful existence,
early destruction, these are her curses, the tokens of her
displeasure.']

[Greek: Argos de andron echaerothae outo, oste oi douloi auton eschon
panta ta praegmata, archontes te kai diepontes, es ho epaebaesan hoi
ton apolomenon paides.] HERODOTUS. [Footnote: 'And Argos was so
depleted of Men (i.e. _after the battle with Cleomenes_)