“Oh! yes, show me, do show me.”
“If you promise not to tell.”
“No, by the Holy Virgin, I will not.”
“Then you shall see.”
Amine lighted some charcoal in a chafing-dish, and put it at her feet; she then took a reed pen, some ink from a small bottle, and a pair of scissors, and wrote down several characters on a paper singing, or rather chanting, words which were not intelligible to her young companion. Amine then threw frankincense and coriander seed into the chafing-dish, which threw out a strong aromatic smoke; and desiring Pedro to sit down by her on a small stool, she took the boy’s right hand and held it in her own. She then drew upon the palm of his hand a square figure with characters on each side of it, and in the centre poured a small quantity of the ink, so as to form a black mirror of the size of half a crown.
“Now all is ready,” said Amine; “look, Pedro, what see you in the ink?”
“My own face,” replied the boy.
She threw more frankincense upon the chafing-dish, until the room was full of smoke, and then chaunted:—
“Turshoon, turyo-shoon—come down, come down.
“Be present, ye servants of these names.