APPENDIX XIV. (original) (raw)

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First S.P.R. Report on H.P.B.

APPENDIX XIV.
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Personation does not seem impossible in this case considering the distance, and that there may have been modes of ingress to the room known only to the Coulombs. Still less does it seem impossible that it can have been the real man in the flesh.

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“Hints on Esoteric Theosophy,” No. 1, pp. 75, 76.

“The undersigned severally certify that, in each other’s presence, they recently saw at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society” (at Bombay) “a Brother of the First Section, known to them under a name which they are not at liberty to communicate to the public. The circumstances were of a nature to exclude all idea of trickery or collusion, and were as follow: ---

“We were sitting together in the moonlight about 9 o’clock upon the balcony which projects from the front of the bungalow. Mr. Scott was sitting facing the house, so as to look through the intervening verandah and the library, and into the room at the further side. This latter apartment was brilliantly lighted.

“The library was in partial darkness, thus rendering objects in the farther room more distinct. Mr. Scott suddenly saw the figure of a man step into the space, opposite the door of the library; he was clad in the white dress of a Rajput, and wore a white turban. Mr. Scott at once recognised him from his resemblance to a portrait in Colonel Olcott’s possession. Our attention was then drawn to him, and we all saw him most distinctly. He walked towards a table, and afterwards turning his face towards us, walked back out of our sight. We hurried forward to get a closer view, in the hope that he might also speak; but when we reached the room he was gone. We cannot say by what means he departed, but that he did not pass out by the door which leads into the compound we can positively affirm; for that door was full in our view, and he did not go out by it. At the side of the room towards which he walked there was no exit, the only door and the two windows in that direction having been boarded and closed up. Upon the table, at the spot where he had been standing, lay a letter addressed to one of our number. The handwriting was identical with that of sundry notes and letters previously received from him in divers ways --- such as dropping down from the ceiling, &c.: the signature was the same as that of the other letters received, and as that upon the portrait above described. His long hair was black and hung down upon his breast; his features and complexion were those of a Rajput.

“Ross Scott, B.C.S.
“Minnie J. B. Scott.
“H. S. Olcott.
“H. P. Blavatsky.
“M. Moorad Ali Beg.
“Damodar K. Mavalankar.
“Bhavani Shankar Ganesh Mullapoorkar.”

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