In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty old Russian of 70, whom she called “the plumed raven,” but left him after a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the natives.
In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was generally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ——. It was a gloomy, grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic séances, and Madame Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs were heard, strange music “resounded in the air,” and luminous forms were seen trailing their ghostly garments across the “tufted floor.”
FIG. 33—MAHATMA LETTER.
The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:
1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental questions—or “thought reading.”
2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged, [especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].
3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.
4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.