lph he leaned more towards monotheism;
and I once found him seated between two guns on the quarter-deck of an
Arab frigate, in the midst of a fry of devotees of little more than his
own age, busily engaged in chanting canticles in praise of Mohammed the
"amber-_ee_." His early leaning towards the ugly gods of Hindoston, had
made it a delicate matter to introduce him to our Evil Principle; and
the fact was, that when he afterwards saw the Freischutz in England, we
had no means of making him comprehend the nature of the crimson fiend,
but by telling him he was a relation of his old elephant-headed friend
Gunputty. On the whole I imagine there never was a better subject to
cope with a sorcerer; and when he asked the cause of the immediate
preparations we told him the man was going to show some feats of
legerdemain such as he used to see in India. The magician began by
throwing grains of incense upon the fire, bowing with a seesaw motion
and repeating "_Heyya hadji Capitan, Heyya hadji Capitan;_" which being
interpreted, if it was intended to have any meaning, would appear to
imply "_Hurra, pilgrim Captain!_" being, as I understood it at the time,
an invocation by his style and title, of the spirit he wished to see.
When nothing came, he increased his zeal after the manner of a priest of
Baal, and seemed determined that if the "Captain" was sleeping or on a
journey, he should not be missed for want of calling. One slight
_variorum_ reading I observed. Instead of saying to the boy "What do you
see?" as had been reported--he said "_Do you see a little man?_" which,
if he had been accessible to fear or phantasy, was manifestly telling
him what he was to look for. The boy, however, resolutely declared he
saw nothing; and the sorcerer continued his calls upon his spirit. When
in this manner curiosity had been roused to something like expectation,
the boy suddenly exclaimed, "I see something!"--_Tremor occupat
artis;_--when he quashed it all by adding, "I see my nose." By the dim
light of the fire, he had succeeded in getting a glimpse of his own
countenance reflected in the ink. The magician doubled his exertions by
way of carrying the thing off; but there was much less gravity in his
audience afterwards; and at last he was forced to declare that the
spirit would not come, and the reason he believed was because we were
Christians. He said, however, if an Arab boy was substituted the spirit
would come. A servant therefore was sent