guide to a charnel house, which the latter had selected as his domicile.
There, with many lamentations over the smoothness of his hair and the
brevity of his nails, the Jogi besprinkled and besmeared Ananda agreeably
to his own pattern, and scored him with chalk and ochre until the peaceful
apostle of the gentlest of creeds resembled a Bengal tiger. He then hung a
chaplet of infants' skulls about his neck, placed the skull of a malefactor
in one of his hands and the thigh-bone of a necromancer in the other, and
at nightfall conducted him into the adjacent cemetery, where, seating him
on the ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him drum upon the skull with
the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the incantations which he began to
scream out towards the western part of the firmament. These charms were
apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for scarcely were they commenced
ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in torrents, phosphoric flashes
darted across the sky, wolves and hyænas thronged howling from their dens,
and gigantic goblins, arising from the earth, extended their fleshless arms
towards Ananda, and strove to drag him from his seat. Urged by frantic
terror, and the example and exhortations of his companion, he battered,
banged, and vociferated, until on the very verge of exhaustion; when, as if
by enchantment, the tempest ceased, the spectres disappeared, and joyous
shouts and a burst of music announced the occurrence of something
auspicious in the adjoining city.

"The hostile king is dead," said the Jogi; "and his army has dispersed.
This will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest of
thee even now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me."

The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and soon
torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The monarch
descended from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself before Ananda,
exclaimed: