ned in the world. However, it does
not much matter and it is useless to discuss that which we cannot prove.

Here at any rate is the story.

In a book or a record which I have written down and put away with others
under the title of "The Ivory Child," I have told the tale of a certain
expedition I made in company with Lord Ragnall. Its object was to search
for his wife who was stolen away while travelling in Egypt in a state of
mental incapacity resulting from shock caused by the loss of her child
under tragic and terrible circumstances. The thieves were the priests of
a certain bastard Arab tribe who, on account of a birthmark shaped like
the young moon which was visible above her breast, believed her to be
the priestess or oracle of their worship. This worship evidently had its
origin in Ancient Egypt since, although they did not seem to know it,
the priestess was nothing less than a personification of the great
goddess Isis, and the Ivory Child, their fetish, was a statue of the
infant Horus, the fabled son of Isis and Osiris whom the Egyptians
looked upon as the overcomer of Set or the Devil, the murderer of Osiris
before his resurrection and ascent to Heaven to be the god of the dead.

I need not set down afresh all that happened to us on this remarkable
adventure. Suffice it to say that in the end we recovered the lady and
that her mind was restored to her. Before she left the Kendah country,
however, the priesthood presented her with two ancient rolls of
papyrus, also with a quantity of a certain herb, not unlike tobacco in
appearance, which by the Kendah was called _Taduki_. Once, before we
took our great homeward journey across the desert, Lady Ragnall and I
had a curious conversation about this herb whereof the property is to
cause the person who inhales its fumes to become clairvoyant, or to
dream dreams, whichever the truth may be. It was used for this purpose
in the mystical ceremonies of the Kendah religion when under its
influence the priestess or oracle of the Ivory Child was wont to
announce divine revelations. During her tenure of this office Lady
Ragnall was frequently subjected to the spell of the _Taduki_ vapour,
and said strange things, some of which I heard with my own ears. Also
myself once I experienced its effects and saw a curious vision, whereof
many of the particulars were afterwards translated into facts.

Now the conversation which I have mentioned was shortly to the effect,
that she,