perform the same ceremony
downstairs, I moved the things. Well, I noticed that the spirit who
was here before you was apparently very annoyed. Can you give me any
explanation of that?"

Myself. "Our bodies become soiled by contact with matter, and we wash
ourselves in water. We prefer to do it in our bedrooms."

Spirit. "Why?"

Myself. "We use a certain set of rooms for one purpose and another set
for other purposes."

Spirit. "Why?"

Myself. "I don't know why. We do."

Spirit. "But you are sure of the fact, even if you can give no reason?"

Myself. "Absolutely."

Spirit. "I wish I could prove that. One of my fellow-scientists, who has
recently been able to press his investigations even further than I have
up to the present time, has recently brought forward good evidence to
prove that spirits are all black, wear no coverings on their bodies,
live in the simplest of dwellings, and, although they have a few
ceremonies, certainly have none which in any way corresponds to that you
have just described."

Myself. "He has probably been investigating the habits of the Australian
aborigines."

Spirit. "What are they?"

Myself. "Men, or, as you would say, spirits, like us in a few respects,
but utterly different in most."

Spirit. "Have you ever seen them?"

Myself. "No."

Spirit. "Or met anyone who has?"

Myself. "No."

Spirit. "Then this account of them tallies with nothing in your
experience."

Myself. "No, but they exist all right. There's no doubt of that."

Spirit. "I question it. In any case, I could not accept your word as
evidence, seeing that you have neither seen them yourself nor met with
anyone who has."

And so on, you know (the Researcher muttered, flicking over the pages of
his note-book).

He was infernally sceptical about those aborigines. It seems that he
had had a tremendous argument with the other investigator about the
possibility of "spirits" being black and naked, and he was dead set on
proving that he had been right. I think, as a matter of fact, that what
I said tended to confirm him in his theory. He put it that if there were
such spirits on this plane, I must have seen them or have had some quite
first-hand evidence of their existence; and when I said that I had
seen black people, Indians, and so on, he cross-examined me until I
got confused. You see, I had to confess that they weren't, strictly
speaking, black, that they wore clothes, and washed, and lived in
houses; and