Deity of human shape and red colour, the great Fetish God,
Sasabonsum. I like Sasabonsum: other Gods are sometimes moved to
pity and forgiveness, but to Him such weakness is unknown. He is
utterly and absolutely implacable; no gifts or prayers, no
holocausts of human victims can appease, or ever, for one
moment, propitiate Him.




_Symptoms_


"But there are certain people I simply cannot stand. A
dreariness and sense of death come over me when I meet them--I
really find it difficult to breathe when they are in the room,
as if they had pumped all the air out of it. Wouldn't it
be dreadful to produce that effect on people! But they never
seem to be aware of it. I remember once meeting a famous
Bore; I really must tell you about it, it shows the unbelievable
obtuseness of such people."

I told this and another story or two with great gusto, and talked
on of my experiences and sensations, till suddenly I noticed, in
the appearance of my charming neighbour, something--a slightly
glazed look in her eyes, a just perceptible irregularity in her
breathing--which turned that occasion for me into a kind of
Nightmare.