My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

;340 MY LIFEthat occurred in his presence, I was invited to go underthe table while an accordion was playing, held inHome's hand, his other hand being on the table.The room was well lighted, and I distinctly sawHome's hand holding the instrument, which movedup and down and played a tune without any visiblecause. On stating this, he said, " Now I will takeaway my hand " —which he did ; but the instrumentwent on playing, and I saw a detached hand holdingit while Home's two hands were seen above the tableby all present. This was one of the ordinary phenomena,and thousands of persons have witnessed itand when we consider that Home's siances almostalways took place in private houses at which he was aguest, and with people absolutely above suspicion ofcollusion with an impostor, and also either in the daytimeor in a fully illuminated room, it will be admittedthat no form of legerdemain will explain what occurred.Perhaps the most interesting of these seances were aseries with Mr. Haxby, a young man engaged inthepost-office, and a remarkable medium for materializations.He was a small man, and sat in MissDouglas's small drawing-room on the first floorseparated by curtains from a larger one, where thevisitors sat in a subdued light. After a few minutes,from between the curtains would appear a tall andstately East Indian figure in white robes, a rich waistband,sandals, and large turban, snowy white, anddisposed with perfect elegance. Sometimes this figurewould walk round the room outside the circle, wouldlift up a large and very heavy musical box, which hewould wind up and then swing round his head withone hand. He would often come to each of us insuccession, bow, and allow us to feel his hands andexamine his robes. We asked him to stand against