1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Descending of Dana Day by Woundyard Kipling. When the devil 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:13,679 rides on your chest, remember the Chamar native proverb. Once 3 00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:16,719 upon a time, some people in India made a new 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,480 heaven and a new Earth out of broken teacups, a 5 00:00:20,519 --> 00:00:24,960 missing brooch or two, and a hair brush. These were 6 00:00:25,039 --> 00:00:29,280 hidden under bushes or stuffed into holes in the hillside, 7 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:34,200 and an entire civil service of subordinate gods used to 8 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:38,439 find or mend them again. And every one said, there 9 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,399 are more things in heaven and Earth than are drained 10 00:00:41,679 --> 00:00:47,159 in our philosophy. Several other things happened also, but the 11 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,560 religion never seemed to get much beyond its first manifestations. 12 00:00:51,799 --> 00:00:55,759 Though it added an air line, postal duck, and orchestral 13 00:00:55,759 --> 00:00:58,880 effects in order to keep abreast of the times and 14 00:00:59,039 --> 00:01:05,319 stall off competent, this religion was too elastic for ordinary use. 15 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,519 It stretched itself and embraced pieces of everything that medicine 16 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:16,200 men of all ages have manufactured. It approved and stalled 17 00:01:16,239 --> 00:01:20,719 from freemasonry, looted the latter de rosicrusions of half their 18 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,920 pet words, took any fragment of Egyptian philosophy that it 19 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,120 found in the Encyclopedia Britannica annexed as many of the 20 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:33,799 Vedas as had been translated into French or English, and 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,040 talked of all the rest built in. The German versions 22 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,879 of what is left of the Zanda Vesta encouraged white, 23 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:48,439 gray and black magic, including spiritualism, palmistry, fortune telling by cards, 24 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:53,280 hot chestnuts, double kerneled nuts, and tallow droppings would have 25 00:01:53,319 --> 00:01:57,120 adopted voodoo and Obu had it known anything about them, 26 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,840 and showed itself in every way one of the most 27 00:02:00,879 --> 00:02:05,319 accommodating arrangement that had ever been invented since the birth 28 00:02:05,519 --> 00:02:09,680 of the sea. When it was in thorough working order, 29 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,879 with all the machinery down to the subscriptions complete, Dna 30 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,120 Day came from nowhere with nothing in his hands and 31 00:02:18,199 --> 00:02:22,840 wrote the chapter in its history, which has hitherto been unpublished. 32 00:02:24,039 --> 00:02:27,680 He said that his first name was Dana and his 33 00:02:27,759 --> 00:02:32,439 second was They. Now sitting aside Dana of the New 34 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:37,159 York Sundna is a Pahel name and they fits no 35 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:41,919 native of India, unless you accept the bengalide as. The 36 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:47,360 original spelling they is lap or finish, and Dana Day 37 00:02:47,759 --> 00:02:53,919 was neither finn Chin Pahil benga lap ne'er Gaunt, Romany, 38 00:02:54,240 --> 00:03:01,520 mak Bocariot, Kurd, Armenian, Leventine, Jew, Persian, Panjab, Madrasi, Percy, 39 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:05,960 nor anything else known to ethnologists. He was simply Day 40 00:03:06,039 --> 00:03:11,680 a day, and the kind to give further information. For 41 00:03:11,719 --> 00:03:15,199 the sake of brevity, and as roughly indicating his origin, 42 00:03:15,759 --> 00:03:19,560 he was called the Native. He might have been the 43 00:03:19,599 --> 00:03:22,400 original old man of the mountains, who is said to 44 00:03:22,439 --> 00:03:26,439 be the only authorized head of the Teacup Creed. Some 45 00:03:26,479 --> 00:03:30,400 people said that he was, but Dyna Day used to 46 00:03:30,479 --> 00:03:34,879 smile and deny any connection with the court, explaining that 47 00:03:35,039 --> 00:03:41,240 he was an independent experimenter. As I have said, he 48 00:03:41,319 --> 00:03:45,360 came from nowhere with his hands behind his back, and 49 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:50,120 studied the creed for three weeks, sitting at the feet 50 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:55,879 of those best competent to explain its mysteries. Then he 51 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,280 laughed aloud and went away. But the laugh might have 52 00:04:00,319 --> 00:04:05,560 been either of devotion or derision. When he returned, he 53 00:04:05,759 --> 00:04:10,479 was without money, but his pride was unabated. He declared 54 00:04:10,879 --> 00:04:13,479 that he knew more about the things in heaven and 55 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,480 earth than those who taught him, and for this contumacy 56 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:22,279 was abandoned altogether. His next appearance in public life was 57 00:04:22,319 --> 00:04:25,639 at a big cantonment in Upper India, and he was 58 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,439 then telling fortunes with the help of three laden dies, e, 59 00:04:29,519 --> 00:04:32,600 very dirty old cloth, and a little tin box of 60 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,480 opium pills. He told better fortunes when he was allowed 61 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:40,000 half a bottle of whiskey, but the things which he 62 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:45,199 invented on the opium were quite worth the money. He 63 00:04:45,399 --> 00:04:51,000 was in reduced circumstances. Among other peoples, he told the 64 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,600 fortune of an Englishman who had once been interested in 65 00:04:54,639 --> 00:04:58,360 the similar creed, but who later on had married and 66 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:01,240 forgotten all his old knowledge in the study of babies 67 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,519 and exchange. The Englishman allowed Dya Day to tell a 68 00:05:05,519 --> 00:05:09,639 fortune for charity's sake, and gave him five rupees, a 69 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:14,879 dinna and some old clothes. When he had eaten, Dyna 70 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,800 Day professed gratitude and asked if there were anything he 71 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:23,600 could do for his host. In the esoteric line, is 72 00:05:23,639 --> 00:05:27,560 there any one that you love, said Dyna Day. The 73 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,480 Englishman loved his wife, but had no desire to drag 74 00:05:31,519 --> 00:05:35,800 her name into the conversation. He therefore shook his head. 75 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:39,879 Is there any one that you hate, said deynah Day. 76 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,560 The Englishman said that there were several men whom he 77 00:05:44,639 --> 00:05:49,879 hated deeply. Very good, said Dena Day, upon whom the 78 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:54,120 whiskey and the opium were beginning to tell. Only give 79 00:05:54,199 --> 00:05:57,040 me their names, and I will despatch a sending to 80 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:02,839 them and kill them. Now. Ascending is a horrible arrangement, 81 00:06:03,519 --> 00:06:07,720 first invented, they say in Iceland. It is a thing 82 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:11,560 sent by a wizard, and may take any form, but 83 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,480 most generally wanders about the land in the shape of 84 00:06:15,519 --> 00:06:20,240 a little purple cloud till it finds Descendy, and him 85 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,399 it kills by changing into the form of a horse, 86 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,639 or a cat, or a man without a face. It 87 00:06:27,759 --> 00:06:33,160 is not strictly a native patent, though Tamars can, if irritated, 88 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,879 despatch ascending, which sits on the breast of their enemy 89 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:42,439 by night and nearly kills him. Very few natives care 90 00:06:42,519 --> 00:06:47,560 to irritate Chamars. For this reason. Let me despatch ascending, 91 00:06:48,199 --> 00:06:52,040 said Dana Day. I am nearly dead now with want 92 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:55,399 and drink and opium, but I should like to kill 93 00:06:55,399 --> 00:06:58,680 a man before I die. I can send ascending anywhere 94 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:02,160 you choose, and in any form, except in the shape 95 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:07,360 of a man. The Englishman had no friends that he 96 00:07:07,439 --> 00:07:12,199 wished to kill, but partly to suit Dinna Day, whose 97 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,920 eyes were rolling and partly to see what would be done. 98 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,759 He asked whether a modified sending could not be arranged 99 00:07:19,759 --> 00:07:23,000 for such a sending as should make a man's life 100 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,079 a burden to him and yet do him no harm. 101 00:07:26,959 --> 00:07:30,560 If this were possible, he notified his willingness to give 102 00:07:30,639 --> 00:07:34,480 Diyna Day ten rupees for the job. I am not 103 00:07:34,759 --> 00:07:38,079 what I was, once, said Diyna Day, and I must 104 00:07:38,079 --> 00:07:42,160 take the money because I am poor. To what Englishman 105 00:07:42,279 --> 00:07:46,839 solids send it? Send a sending to Lone Saib, said 106 00:07:46,879 --> 00:07:50,600 the Englishman, naming a man who had been most bitter 107 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,240 in rebuking him for his apostasy from the teacup creed. 108 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:59,839 Diyna Dy laughed and nodded. I could have chosen no 109 00:08:00,079 --> 00:08:03,720 better man myself, said he. I will see that he 110 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:08,399 finds descending about his path and about his bed. He 111 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,800 lay down on the hearth rug, turned up the whites 112 00:08:11,839 --> 00:08:15,959 of his eyes, shivered all over, and began to snort. 113 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:25,639 This was magic or opium, or descending or all three. 114 00:08:25,959 --> 00:08:29,240 When he opened his eyes, he vowed that descending had 115 00:08:29,279 --> 00:08:32,320 started upon the wall path and was at that moment 116 00:08:32,759 --> 00:08:38,440 flying up to the town where Lone sahiblows give me 117 00:08:38,519 --> 00:08:42,759 my ten rupees, said Dynaday wearily, and write a letter 118 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:46,440 to Lone Sahib, telling him and all who believe with him, 119 00:08:46,759 --> 00:08:49,600 that you and a friend are using a power greater 120 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:53,480 than theirs. They will see that you are speaking the truth. 121 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,480 He departed unsteadily, with the promise of some more repeat 122 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:02,720 if anything came of this, The Englishman sent a letter 123 00:09:02,799 --> 00:09:05,799 to Lone Sahib, couched in what he remembered of the 124 00:09:05,879 --> 00:09:10,360 terminology of the creed. He wrote, I also in the 125 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:12,960 days of what you held to be my back sliding, 126 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:19,279 have obtained enlightenment, and with enlightenment has come power. Then 127 00:09:19,279 --> 00:09:22,240 he grew so deeply mysterious that the recipient of the 128 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,600 letter could make neither head nor tail of it, and 129 00:09:25,759 --> 00:09:32,159 was proportionately impressed, for he fancied that his friend had 130 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,879 become a fifth rounder. When a man is a fifth rounder, 131 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:42,440 he can do more than Slade and Hooden combined. Loneshibe 132 00:09:42,519 --> 00:09:45,799 read the letter in five different fashions, and was beginning 133 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:50,120 a sixth interpretation when his bearer dashed in with the 134 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,919 news that there was a cat on his bed. Now, 135 00:09:54,399 --> 00:09:57,799 if there was one thing that lonesoev hated more than another. 136 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,440 It was a cat. He rated the bearer for not 137 00:10:01,519 --> 00:10:04,799 turning it out of the house. The bearer said that 138 00:10:04,879 --> 00:10:08,000 he was afraid all the doors of the bedroom had 139 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,480 been shut throughout the morning, and no real cat could 140 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:15,519 possibly have entered the room. He would prefer not to 141 00:10:15,519 --> 00:10:19,879 meddle with the creature. Lone Sahib entered the room gingerly, 142 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,559 and there on the pillow of his bed sprawled and whimpered. 143 00:10:25,039 --> 00:10:28,519 A wee white kitten. Not a jump some frisky little beast, 144 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,080 but a slug like crawler, with its eyes barely open 145 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,759 and its pause lacking strength or direction, A kitten that 146 00:10:36,879 --> 00:10:39,879 ought to have been in a basket with its mamma. 147 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:44,120 Lone Sahib caught it by the scruff of its neck, 148 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,960 handed it over to the sweeper to be drowned and 149 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:53,080 find the bearer for on us. That evening, as he 150 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,600 was reading in his room, he fancied that he saw 151 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,919 something moving about on the hearth's rug outside the circle 152 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:03,960 of light from his breathing lamp. When the thing began 153 00:11:04,039 --> 00:11:07,919 to yell, he realized that it was a kitten, A 154 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:13,200 wee white kitten, nearly blind and very miserable. He was 155 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:17,519 seriously angry and spoke bitterly to his bearer, who said 156 00:11:17,639 --> 00:11:19,399 that there was no kitten in the room when he 157 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,600 brought in the lamp, and real kittens of tender age 158 00:11:23,039 --> 00:11:27,960 generally had mother cats in attendants. If the present will 159 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,720 go out into the verandah and listen, said the bearer, 160 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,840 he will hear no cats. How therefore can the kitten 161 00:11:34,879 --> 00:11:37,080 on the bed and the kitten on the hearthwork be 162 00:11:37,159 --> 00:11:42,080 real kittens? Lone Sahib went out to listen, and the 163 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:46,159 bearer followed him, but there was no sound of Rachel 164 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:51,480 mewing for her children. He returned to his room, having 165 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:54,720 hurled the kitten down the hillside, and wrote out the 166 00:11:54,759 --> 00:11:59,159 incidents of the day for the benefit of his co religionists. 167 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,759 Those people were so absolutely free from superstition that they 168 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,240 ascribed anything a little out of the common to agencies, 169 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:11,879 as it was their business to know all about the agencies. 170 00:12:12,519 --> 00:12:17,080 They were on terms of almost indecent familiarity with manifestations 171 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:22,480 of every kind. Their letters dropped from the ceiling unstamped, 172 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:26,360 and spirits used to squatter up and down their staircases 173 00:12:26,399 --> 00:12:32,080 all night. But they had never come into contact with 174 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:37,360 kittens lond Sahib wrote out the facts, noting the hour 175 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,879 and the minute, as a resychical observer is bound to do, 176 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:45,559 and depending the Englishman's letter because it was the most 177 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,720 mysterious document and might have had a bearing upon anything 178 00:12:49,759 --> 00:12:54,039 in this world or the next. An outsider would have 179 00:12:54,039 --> 00:12:58,120 translated all the tangle does look out. You laughed at 180 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,799 me once, and now I am going to make you 181 00:13:00,919 --> 00:13:05,559 set up. Lonzeib's co religionists found that meaning in it, 182 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,120 but their translation was refined and full of forcelable words. 183 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,960 They held a ceederand and were filled with tremulous joy, 184 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,440 for in spite of their familiarity with all the other 185 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:21,399 worlds and cycles, they had a very human awe of 186 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:26,559 things sent from ghost land. They met in Lonese Haibe's 187 00:13:26,639 --> 00:13:31,600 room in shrouded and sepulchral gloom, and their conclave was 188 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:35,039 broken up by a clinking among the photo frames on 189 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:40,360 the mantel piece. A wee white kitten, nearly blind, was 190 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:45,080 looping and writhing itself between the clock and the candlesticks. 191 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:52,320 That stopped all investigations or doubtings. Here was the manifestation 192 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:56,519 in the flesh. It was so far as could be 193 00:13:56,559 --> 00:14:01,279 seen devoid of purpose, but it was a manifestation of 194 00:14:01,399 --> 00:14:06,919 undoubted authenticity. They drafted the round robin to the Englishman, 195 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:11,480 the backsider of old days, adjuring him in the interests 196 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,360 of the creed, to explain whether there was any connection 197 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,279 between the embodiment of some Egyptian god or other. I 198 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,559 have forgotten the name and his communication. They called the 199 00:14:22,639 --> 00:14:27,039 kitten ra or Thoth or Shem or Noah or something. 200 00:14:27,759 --> 00:14:31,440 And when lone Sahib confessed that the first one had, 201 00:14:31,759 --> 00:14:35,320 at his most misguided instances, been drowned by the sweeper, 202 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,399 they said consolingly that in his next life he would 203 00:14:39,399 --> 00:14:43,279 be a bounder, and not even a rounder of the 204 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:47,840 lowest grade. These words may not be quite correct, but 205 00:14:48,039 --> 00:14:52,679 they expressed the sense of the house accurately. When the 206 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:57,120 Englishman received the round robin, it came by post, he 207 00:14:57,279 --> 00:15:01,879 was startled and bewildered. He sent in to the bazaar 208 00:15:02,159 --> 00:15:04,879 for day in and day who read the letter and laughed. 209 00:15:05,919 --> 00:15:09,080 That is my sending, said he. I told you I 210 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:13,679 would work well. Now give me another ten rupees. But 211 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,440 what in the world is this gibberish about the Egyptian gods? 212 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:23,480 Asked the Englishman. Cats said dyn a Day with a hiccough, 213 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:29,639 for he had discovered the Englishman's whisky bottle. Cats and 214 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:34,039 cats and cats. Never was such a sending A hundred 215 00:15:34,039 --> 00:15:36,919 of cats. Now give me ten more rupees and write 216 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:41,679 as I dictate. Then a Day's letter was a curiosity. 217 00:15:42,559 --> 00:15:46,480 It bore the Englishman's signature and hinted at cats, at 218 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,799 ascending of cats. The mere words on paper were creepy 219 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:55,360 and on canny. To behold, what have you done, though, 220 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:58,480 said the Englishman? I am as much in the dark 221 00:15:58,519 --> 00:16:01,240 as ever. Do you mean to say that you can 222 00:16:01,279 --> 00:16:05,919 actually send this absurd sending? You talk about George for yourself, 223 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,120 said Dinna Day. What does not let him mean? In 224 00:16:10,159 --> 00:16:12,799 a little time they will all be at my feet 225 00:16:12,919 --> 00:16:17,240 and yours, and I O glory will be drugged or 226 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:21,559 drunk or lay long. Din a Day knew his people. 227 00:16:23,039 --> 00:16:25,480 When a man who hates cats wakes up in the 228 00:16:25,519 --> 00:16:28,759 morning and finds a little squirming kitten on his breast, 229 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:32,559 or puts his hand into his oldster pocket and finds 230 00:16:32,559 --> 00:16:35,320 a little half that kitten where his gloves should be, 231 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:39,080 or opens his trunk and finds a vile kitten among 232 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,240 his dress shirts, or goes for a long ride with 233 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,840 macintosh strapped on his saddle bow, and shakes a little 234 00:16:45,879 --> 00:16:49,120 sprawling kitten from its folds when he opens it, or 235 00:16:49,159 --> 00:16:52,080 goes out to dinner and finds a little blind kitten 236 00:16:52,399 --> 00:16:55,279 under his chair, or stays at home and finds a 237 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:59,399 rhything kitten under the coilt, or wriggling among his boots, 238 00:16:59,679 --> 00:17:03,720 or hanging had downward in his tobacco jar, or being 239 00:17:03,759 --> 00:17:07,359 mangled by his terrier in the verandah. When such a 240 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:12,240 man finds one kitten neither more nor less, once a day, 241 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,119 in a place where no kitten rightly could or should be, 242 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:21,000 he is naturally upset. When he dare not murder his 243 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,680 daily trove because he believes it to be a manifestation, 244 00:17:25,039 --> 00:17:28,519 an emissary, an embodiment, and have a dozen other things, 245 00:17:28,519 --> 00:17:31,720 all out of the regular cause of nature, he is 246 00:17:31,759 --> 00:17:36,440 more than upset. He is actually distressed. Some of Lon 247 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:40,680 Sehib's co religionists thought that he was a highly favored individual, 248 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,359 but many said that if he had treated the first 249 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:49,039 kitten with proper respect, as suited as tautah to whomb 250 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:54,759 sinequiib embodiment, all his trouble would have been averted. They 251 00:17:54,759 --> 00:17:59,200 compared him to the ancient mariner, but none the less 252 00:17:59,559 --> 00:18:02,039 they were out of him and proud of the Englishman 253 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:06,759 who had sent the manifestation. They did not call it ascending, 254 00:18:07,079 --> 00:18:13,279 because Icelandic magic was not in their program. After sixteen kittens, 255 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,720 that is to say, after a fortnight, for there were 256 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,359 three kittens on the first day. To impress the fact 257 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:24,200 of descending, the whole camp was uplifted by a letter. 258 00:18:25,079 --> 00:18:28,519 It came flying through a window from the old Man 259 00:18:28,519 --> 00:18:32,640 of the Mountains, the head of all the Creed, explaining 260 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:36,759 the manifestation in the most beautiful language, and soaking up 261 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:42,000 all the credit of it for himself. The Englishman said 262 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,960 the letter was not there at all. He was a 263 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:49,680 backslider without power or asceticism, who couldn't even raise a 264 00:18:49,759 --> 00:18:53,640 table by force of volition, much less project an army 265 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:58,559 of kitten through space. The entire arrangement said the letter 266 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:03,720 was strictly authored, worked, and sanctioned by the highest authorities 267 00:19:03,839 --> 00:19:07,440 within the pale of the Creed. There was great joy 268 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,720 at this for some of the weaker brethren, seeing that 269 00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:14,559 an outsider who had been working on independent lines could 270 00:19:14,559 --> 00:19:18,440 create kittens, whereas their own rulers had never gone beyond 271 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:22,480 crockery and broken at that were showing a desire to 272 00:19:22,559 --> 00:19:26,720 break a line on their own trail. In fact, there 273 00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,599 was the promise of his chism. A second round Robin 274 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:35,200 was drafted to the Englishman, beginning OUs Coffer and ending 275 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,200 with the selection of courses from the rights of Mizraim 276 00:19:38,599 --> 00:19:43,000 and Memphis, and the combination of Drugana, who was a 277 00:19:43,039 --> 00:19:46,759 fifth rounder, upon whose name an Upstad third rounder once 278 00:19:46,799 --> 00:19:52,200 traded a papal excommunication, is a bier doux. Compared to 279 00:19:52,279 --> 00:19:57,279 the combination of Drougana, the Englishman had been proved under 280 00:19:57,279 --> 00:19:59,680 the hand and seal of the Old Man of the Mountains, 281 00:19:59,839 --> 00:20:03,920 to we have appropriated virtue and pretended to have power, 282 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:09,759 which in reality belonged only to the Supreme Head. Naturally, 283 00:20:09,759 --> 00:20:12,720 the round Robin did not spare him. He handed the 284 00:20:12,799 --> 00:20:17,640 letter today a day to translate into decent English. The 285 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:21,960 effect on day the day was curious. At first he 286 00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:26,759 was furiously angry, and then he laughed. For five minutes. 287 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,559 I had thought, he said, that they would have come 288 00:20:31,599 --> 00:20:35,359 to me in another week. I would have shown that 289 00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:38,880 I sent descending, and they would have discrowned the Old 290 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:43,240 Man of the mountains, who has sent descending of mine? 291 00:20:43,519 --> 00:20:47,119 Do you do nothing? The time has come for me 292 00:20:47,279 --> 00:20:51,000 to act. Write as I dictate, and I will put 293 00:20:51,079 --> 00:20:56,319 them into shame. But give me ten more rupees. At 294 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,839 Dinna Day's dictation, the Englishman wrote nothing less than for 295 00:21:00,279 --> 00:21:04,240 challenge to the Old Man of the mountains. It wound up, 296 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:08,480 and if this manifestation be from your hand, then let 297 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,799 it go forward. But if it be from my hand, 298 00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:16,559 I will that the standing shall seize in two days time. 299 00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,480 On that day there shall be twelve kittens, and thenceforward 300 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:26,640 none at all. The people shall judge between us. This 301 00:21:26,799 --> 00:21:30,559 was signed by Dayna Day, who added pentacles and pentagrams, 302 00:21:30,839 --> 00:21:33,920 and the crooks and satta and half a dozen swastikas 303 00:21:34,279 --> 00:21:37,200 and a triple Tao to his name, just to show 304 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:42,200 that he was all he laid claim to be. The 305 00:21:42,319 --> 00:21:46,359 challenge was read out to the gentlemen and ladies, and 306 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,079 they remembered then that Diyna Day had laughed at them 307 00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:53,000 some years ago. It was officially announced that the Old 308 00:21:53,039 --> 00:21:56,279 Man of the Mountains would treat the matter with contempt. 309 00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:00,319 They a Day, being an independent investigator without a sayled 310 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,359 round at the back of him. But this did not 311 00:22:03,519 --> 00:22:08,279 soothe his people. They wanted to see a fight. They 312 00:22:08,319 --> 00:22:13,200 were very human for all their spirituality. Lone Sahib, who 313 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,759 was really being worn out with kittens, submitted meekly to 314 00:22:16,839 --> 00:22:21,119 his fate. He felt that he was being kittened to 315 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,079 prove the power of day to day as the poets. 316 00:22:26,279 --> 00:22:29,440 When the stated day dawned, the shower of kittens began. 317 00:22:30,279 --> 00:22:33,559 Some were white and some were tabby, and all were 318 00:22:33,599 --> 00:22:37,599 about the same Loathsome age three were on his hearth rug, 319 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,720 three in his bathroom, and the other six turned up 320 00:22:41,759 --> 00:22:44,519 at intervals. Among the visitors who came to see the 321 00:22:44,559 --> 00:22:49,920 prophecy break down, never was a more satisfactory sending. On 322 00:22:50,039 --> 00:22:53,319 the next day there were no kittens, And the next 323 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,359 day and all the other days were kittenless and quiet. 324 00:22:57,359 --> 00:23:00,160 The people murmured and looked to the old man of 325 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:04,519 the mountains for an explanation. A letter written on a 326 00:23:04,559 --> 00:23:08,319 palm leaf dropped from the ceiling, but every one except 327 00:23:08,559 --> 00:23:13,480 Lone Sahib, felt that letters were not what the occasion demanded. 328 00:23:14,559 --> 00:23:17,759 There should have been cats. There should have been cats 329 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:22,720 full ground. Once the letter proved conclusively that there had 330 00:23:22,759 --> 00:23:26,160 been a hitch in the psychic current, which colliding with 331 00:23:26,319 --> 00:23:30,599 a dual identity, had interfered with the precipient activity. All 332 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,680 along the main line, the kittens were still going on, 333 00:23:34,039 --> 00:23:37,279 but owing to some failure in the developing fluid, they 334 00:23:37,279 --> 00:23:42,160 were not materialized. The air was thick with letters for 335 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:47,079 a few days afterwards, unseen hands played Gluk and Beethoven 336 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,880 on finger bowls and clock shades. But all men felt 337 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:55,559 that psychic life was a mockery without materialized kittens. Even 338 00:23:55,640 --> 00:24:00,200 lone tahebe shouted with the majority on this head. These 339 00:24:00,319 --> 00:24:03,519 letters were very insulting, and if he had then offered 340 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,759 to lay the new departure, there is no knowing what 341 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,480 might not have happened. But dinn a Day was dying 342 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,119 of whisky and opium in the Englishman's go down, and 343 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:18,680 had small heart for new creeds. They have been put 344 00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:22,839 to shame, said he never was such as sending it 345 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:29,200 has killed me. Nonsense, said the Englishman. You are going 346 00:24:29,319 --> 00:24:32,279 to die diyn a day, and that sort of stuff 347 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,079 must be left behind. I'll admit that you have made 348 00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:40,319 some queer things come about. Tell me honestly, now, how 349 00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:45,160 was it done? Give me ten more rupees, said Dinna 350 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:49,799 Day faintly, and if I die before I spend them, 351 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:54,839 bury them with me. The silver was counted out, while 352 00:24:54,839 --> 00:24:58,440 dinn a day was fighting with death. His hand closed 353 00:24:58,519 --> 00:25:03,680 upon the money, and he smiled, a grim smile, bent low, 354 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:14,200 he whispered, the Englishman bent Boronnia mission school, expelled, Bokswallah peddler, 355 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:21,000 Ceylon pearl merchant, all mine, English education outcasted and made 356 00:25:21,079 --> 00:25:26,400 up named Dinna day, England with American thought reading man. 357 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:31,559 And you gave me ten rupees several times I gave 358 00:25:31,599 --> 00:25:35,599 the Sahib's bearer to eight a month for cats, little 359 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:40,440 a little cats, I wrote, and he put them about, 360 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,880 very clever man, Very few kittens now in the bazaar, 361 00:25:46,039 --> 00:25:51,880 ask lone sahib sweeper's wife, So, saying dinner day gasped 362 00:25:52,319 --> 00:25:56,440 and passed away into a land where, if all be true, 363 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,920 there are no materializations, and the making of new creeds 364 00:26:01,319 --> 00:26:05,960 is discouraged. But consider the gorgeous simplicity of it all.