as an unfavourable omen, and each endeavoured to avert from his own
person. Crabshaw observed, that the figure so suspended was clothed in a
sailor's jacket and trowsers; a truth which the captain could not deny,
but, on the other hand, he affirmed, that the said figure exhibited the
very nose and chin of Timothy, together with the hump on one shoulder. A
warm dispute ensued, and being maintained with much acrimonious
altercation, might have dissolved the new-cemented friendship of those
two originals, had it not been interrupted by the old sibyl, who, coming
into the parlour, intimated that the doctor waited for them above. She
likewise told them, that he never admitted more than one at a time. This
hint occasioned a fresh contest. The captain insisted upon Crabshaw's
making sail a-head, in order to look out afore; but Timothy persisted in
refusing this honour, declaring he did not pretend to lead, but he would
follow, as in duty bound. The old gentlewoman abridged the ceremony by
leading out Crabshaw with one hand, and locking up Crowe with the other.

The former was dragged upstairs like a bear to the stake, not without
reluctance and terror, which did not at all abate at sight of the
conjurer, with whom he was immediately shut up by his conductress, after
she had told him in a whisper, that he must deposit a shilling in a
little black coffin, supported by a human skull and thigh-bones crossed,
on a stool covered with black baize, that stood in one corner of the
apartment. The squire, having made this offer with fear and trembling,
ventured to survey the objects around him, which were very well
calculated to augment his confusion. He saw divers skeletons hung by the
head, the stuffed skin of a young alligator, a calf with two heads, and
several snakes suspended from the ceiling, with the jaws of a shark, and
a starved weasel. On another funeral table he beheld two spheres,
between which lay a book open, exhibiting outlandish characters, and
mathematical diagrams. On one side stood an ink-standish with paper; and