devil worshipers; in the practices of the Obeah men and women in the
Caribbees--notably their power in matters of love and business, religion
and war--in Jamaica; in the incantations of the kahuna in Hawaii; and in
the devices of the voodoo or conjure doctor in the southern states; in
the fiendish rites and ceremonies of the red men,--the Hoch-e-ayum of
the Plains Indians, the medicine dances of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes,
the fire dance of the Navajos, the snake dance of the Moquis, the sun
dance of the Sioux, in the myths and tales of the Cherokees; and it
rings in many tribal chants and songs of the East and West.

It lives as well, and thrives luxuriantly, ripe for the full vintage, in
the minds of many people to whom this or that trivial incident or
accident of life is an omen of good or evil fortune with a mysterious
parentage. Its roots strike deep in that strange element in human nature
which dreads whatsoever is weird and uncanny in common experiences, and
sees strange portents and dire chimeras in all that is unexplainable to
the senses. It is made most virile in the desire for knowledge of the
invisible and intangible, that must ever elude the keenest inquiry, a
phase of thought always to be reckoned with when imagination runs riot,
and potent in its effect, though evanescent as a vision the brain
sometimes retains of a dream, and as senseless in the cold light of
reason as Monna Sidonia's invocation at the Witches' Sabbath: (_Romance
of Leonardo da Vinci_, p. 97, MEREJKOWSKI.)

"Emen Hetan, Emen Hetan, Palu, Baalberi,
Astaroth help us Agora, Agora, Patrisa,
Come and help us."

"Garr-r: Garr-r, up: Don't knock
Your head: We fly: We fly:"