TESTIMONY TO PHENOMENA

In the month of August last [1883] having occasion to come to Madras in the absence of Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, I visited the Head Quarters of the Theosophical Society to see a wonderful painting of the Mahatma K. H. kept there in a shrine and daily attended to by the chelas.* On arrival at the house I was told that the lady, Madame C—,† who had charge of the keys of the shrine, was absent, so I awaited her return. She came home in about an hour, and we proceeded upstairs to open the shrine and inspect the picture. Madame C— advanced quickly to unlock the double doors of the hanging cupboard, and hurriedly threw them open. In so doing she had failed to observe that a China tray inside was on the edge of the shrine and leaning against one of the doors, and when they were opened, down fell the China tray, smashed to pieces on the hard chunam floor. Whilst Madame C— was wringing her hands and lamenting this unfortunate accident to a valuable article of Madame Blavatsky’s, and her husband was on his knees collecting the débris, I remarked it would be necessary to obtain some China cement and thus try to restore the fragments. Thereupon Monsieur C. was dispatched for the same. The broken pieces were carefully collected and placed, tied in a cloth, within the shrine, and the doors locked. Mr. Damodar K. Mavalankar, the Joint Recording Secretary of the Society, was opposite the shrine, seated on a chair, about ten feet away from it, when after some conversation an idea occurred to me to which I immediately gave expression. I remarked that if the Brothers considered it of sufficient importance, they would easily restore the broken article, if not, they would leave it to the culprits to do so, the best way they could. Five minutes had scarcely elapsed after this remark when Damodar, who during this time seemed wrapped in a reverie— exclaimed, “I think there is an answer.” The doors were opened, and sure enough, a small note was found on the shelf of the shrine—on opening which we read “To the small audience present. Madame C—has occasion to assure herself that the Devil is neither so black nor so wicked as he is generally represented; the mischief is easily repaired.”
On opening the cloth the China tray was found to be whole and perfect; not a trace of the breakage to be found on it! I at once wrote across the note, stating that I was present when the tray was broken and immediately restored, dated and signed it, so there should be no mistake in the matter. It may be here observed that Madame C— believes that the many things of a wonderful nature that occur at the Head-Quarters, may be the work of the Devil—hence the playful remark of the Mahatma who came to her rescue. The matter took
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* [The most likely date being August 13th or the day before.]
† [Emma Coulomb, wife of Alexis Coulomb.]
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place in the middle of the day in the presence of four people. I may here remark that a few days before I came into the room of my house just as Madame Blavatsky had duplicated a ring of a lady in a high position, in the presence of my wife and daughter in broad daylight. The ring was a sapphire and a valuable one—and the lady has preserved it.* On another occasion a note came from the above lady to my wife and was handed into the drawing-room in the presence of several people. On opening it a message was found written across the note in the well known characters of the Adept. The question is how the message got into the note? The lady who wrote it was perfectly astounded when she saw it—and could only imagine it was done at her own table with her own blue pencil.
Whilst on the subject of the shrine I may mention that it is a small cabinet attached to the wall with shelves and double doors. The picture of the Mahatma that I came to see, lately given to the Founders of the Society, is a most marvellous work of art. Not all the R. A.’s put together could equal such a production. The coloring is simply indescribable. Whether it has been produced by a brush or photographed, entirely passes my comprehension. It is simply superb.

H. R. MORGAN, F. T. S.
Major-General.
OOTACAMUND,
2nd November, 1883.

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* [The lady was Mrs. Sara M Carmichael. See pp. 59, 63, of the present volume, for pertinent data on this phenomenon.––Compiler.]
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