tmanteau on the hotel premises, and had discovered his Memphis
insignia, which they returned to him in the mortuary chamber. As to the
Baphomet, it is very fully described, and is identified with similar
images of Masonic lodges in America, India, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, and
Monte Video. The doctor says that it is the god of the occultists. The
venerable Sata quoted Latin as intelligently as the ape spoke Tamil; he
overwhelmed his benefactor with acknowledgments, and instead of a fee
presented him with a winged lingam, by means of which he would be
received among all worshippers of Lucifer in India, China,--in fact, as
Sata said, _partout, partout_.

So did Dr Bataille make his first acquaintance with practical occultism,
and these things being done, he returned to his hotel and departed
thankfully to bed.

Sec. 4. _A House of Rottenness._

Who would possess a lingam which was an _Open Sesame_ to devildom and
not make use thereof? By effecting an exchange with another ship's
doctor, the exploiter of Lucifer found himself presently at Pondicherry,
with three months of comparative freedom before him to explore the
mysteries of the oriental peninsula. Need I say that he had scarcely
landed at the French seaboard town when he at once made acquaintance
with the very person who of all others was most suitable to his scheme?
This was Ramassamiponnotamly-pale-dobachi--quite a short name, he
assures us, for the natives of this part. All Pondicherry more or less
abounded in lingams and Lucifer, but as he carried his right hand
clenched, the doctor at once suspected the half-naked Ramassam to be
more than commonly devoted to the persuasion of perdition; nor was he
mistaken, for the latter promptly inquired: "What is your age?" "Eleven
years," said the doctor. "Whence do you come?" "From the eternal flame."
"Whither do you go?" "To the flame eternal." And to their mutual
satisfaction they agreed the sacred name of Baal-Zeboub, the doctor
producing his winged lingam, at which the other fell down in the open
streets and adored him. The exhibition of the patent of a Sovereign
Grand Master _ad Vitam_ of the Rite of Memphis inspired further respect;
it was evidently a document with which Ramassam had long been familiar;
and he began to talk glibly of tyling. Like the horrors of Udolpho, the
explanation was of course very simple: Mr John Campbell, an American,
had instituted a lodge of the York Rite at Pondicherry which, in the
most