"The spirit has come" said the hypnotist.
"Ask him some question and he will answer" said the hypnotist.
Then we asked how many from our class would obtain the university degree that year.
"Spirit", said the hypnotist "as the names are mentioned one rap means pass, two mean plucked"; then he addressed the others sitting around "see that I am not kicking at the leg of the teapoy."
Half a dozen of the boys sat down on the floor to watch.
As each name was mentioned there came one rap or two raps as the case might be till the whole list was exhausted.
"We can't ascertain the truth of this until 3 months are over" said I.
"How many rupees have I in my pocket" asked one of the lookers-on.
There came three distinct raps and on examining the purse of the person we found that he had exactly 3 rupees and nothing more.
Then we asked a few more questions and the answers came promptly in. "_Yes_" and "_No_" by means of raps.
Then according to the hypnotist's suggestion one student wrote a line from Shakespeare and the ghost was asked what that line was.
"As the plays are named rap once at the name of the play from which the passage has been taken" said the hypnotist, solemnly addressing the Spirit.
"Macbeth" said the hypnotist "now which Act."
"Now what about the lines" said the hypnotist.
A copy of Shakespeare's Macbeth was at once procured and opened at Act V, Sec. III, line 40.
"Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon the heart?"
The student was then asked to produce his paper and on it was the identical quotation.
Then the hypnotist asked us to remove our hands from the top of the teapoy. The hypnotist did the same thing and said "The Spirit has gone."
We all stared at each other in mute surprise.
Afterwards we organized a big show for the benefit of the hypnotist, and that was a grand success.
Lots of strange phenomena were shown to us which are too numerous to mention. The fellows who had sat on the floor watching whether or not it was the hypnotist who was kicking at the teapoy-leg assured us that he was not.