PREFACE.





The atrocities constituting this "cold collation" of diabolisms are
taken mainly from various Californian journals. They are cast in the
American language, and liberally enriched with unintelligibility. If
they shall prove incomprehensible on this side of the Atlantic, the
reader can pass to the other side at a moderately extortionate
charge. In the pursuit of my design I think I have killed a good
many people in one way and another; but the reader will please to
observe that they were not people worth the trouble of leaving
alive. Besides, I had the interests of my collaborator to consult.
In writing, as in compiling, I have been ably assisted by my
scholarly friend Mr. Satan; and to this worthy gentleman must be
attributed most of the views herein set forth. While the plan of the
work is partly my own, its spirit is wholly his; and this
illustrates the ascendancy of the creative over the merely imitative
mind. Palmam qui meruit ferat-I shall be content with the profit.

DOD GRILE.