For the benefit of those who are not aware of the fact, it may be as well to state that the class of people known as spiritualists, hold that when raps are heard, it is the best thing for the hearer to say aloud, “If you are intelligent, will you please to rap three times?” and if this is done, to ask the intelligence to rap three times for yes, once for no, and twice for doubtful.  It is obvious that considerable conversation can be carried on by such a code, and where it is inadequate, as, for instance, in obtaining proper names, it is usual to propose to repeat the alphabet slowly, asking the intelligence to rap once when the proper letter is reached.  This simple method was entirely unknown to Father H——.  He had done nothing but throw holy water about his rooms, and repeat the prayer Visita quaesumus, which invokes the Divine protection of a house and its inhabitants against all the snares of the Enemy, and which, therefore, in no way concerned any person or thing which is not associated with the powers of darkness.  It was natural that no result should be produced.

Sir W. Huggins told Lord Bute, as the result of his examination of Father H——­, that he felt absolutely certain that what the latter had experienced was not the outcome of morbid hallucination, but that it was possible that the sounds themselves might be hallucinatory or subjective.  To ascertain whether this were so, or whether they had any physical cause, he suggested the use of a phonograph, as this would at least show whether the sounds were accompanied by atmospheric waves.  Lord Bute happened to know Mr. S——­ slightly, having met him accidentally while travelling abroad.  He accordingly wrote to him, and communicated Sir William Huggins’s suggestion.  Mr. S——­, after a delay of some days, refused absolutely to allow any scientific investigation to be made, a refusal remarkably coincident with the recent refusal of his son, the present proprietor, to allow any similar investigation with seismographical instruments.  It would seem a legitimate conclusion that neither father nor son doubted that the sounds are of a psychical character.  As regards the present proprietor, such a conclusion renders it obvious that we must understand in some peculiar sense the letter published in The Times, dated June 10, 1897, in which he says, “As to the stories contained in the article [i.e. of the anonymous Times correspondent], they are without foundation.”  These words must, however, be, in any case, accepted in a special sense, considering the part taken by members of his own family, as well as by tenants and agents, in attesting the stories in question.

Lord Bute states that Father H——­ did not, upon the occasion of his visit to Falkland, say anything as to having seen the brown wooden crucifix (see pp. 132, 142, 154), but after this apparition had been seen by two other persons separately, Lord Bute wrote to Father H——­ to inquire whether he could remember anything of the sort.  His reply was as follows:—­