In Ireland we hear but little of the darker powers,[FN#4] and come across any who have seen them even more rarely, for the imagination of the people dwells rather upon the fantastic and capricious, and fantasy and caprice would lose the freedom which is their breath of life, were they to unite them either with evil or with good. And yet the wise are of opinion that wherever man is, the dark powers who would feed his rapacities are there too, no less than the bright beings who store their honey in the cells of his heart, and the twilight1 beings who flit hither and thither2, and that they encompass3 him with a passionate4 and melancholy5 multitude. They hold, too, that he who by long desire or through accident of birth possesses the power of piercing into their hidden abode6 can see them there, those who were once men or women full of a terrible vehemence7, and those who have never lived upon the earth, moving slowly and with a subtler malice8. The dark powers cling about us, it is said, day and night, like bats upon an old tree; and that we do not hear more of them is merely because the darker kinds of magic have been but little practised. I have indeed come across very few persons in Ireland who try to communicate with evil powers, and the few I have met keep their purpose and practice wholly hidden from those among whom they live. They are mainly small clerks and the like, and meet for the purpose of their art in a room hung with black hangings. They would not admit me into this room, but finding me not altogether ignorant of the arcane9 science, showed gladly elsewhere what they would do. "Come to us," said their leader, a clerk in a large flour-mill, "and we will show you spirits who will talk to you face to face, and in shapes as solid and heavy as our own."
[FN#4] I know better now. We have the dark powers much more than I thought, but not as much as the Scottish, and yet I think the imagination of the people does dwell chiefly upon the fantastic and capricious.
I had been talking of the power of communicating in states of trance with the angelical and faery beings,--the children of the day and of the twilight--and he had been contending that we should only believe in what we can see and feel when in our ordinary everyday state of mind. "Yes," I said, "I will come to you," or some such words; "but I will not permit myself to become entranced, and will therefore know whether these shapes you talk of are any the more to be touched and felt by the ordinary senses than are those I talk of." I was not denying the power of other beings to take upon themselves a clothing of mortal substance, but only that simple invocations, such as he spoke10 of, seemed unlikely to do more than cast the mind into trance, and thereby11 bring it into the presence of the powers of day, twilight, and darkness.
"But," he said, "we have seen them move the furniture hither and thither, and they go at our bidding, and help or harm people who know nothing of them." I am not giving the exact words, but as accurately12 as I can the substance of our talk.
On the night arranged I turned up about eight, and found the leader sitting alone in almost total darkness in a small back room. He was dressed in a black gown, like an inquisitor's dress in an old drawing, that left nothing of him visible: except his eyes, which peered out through two small round holes. Upon the table in front of him was a brass13 dish of burning herbs, a large bowl, a skull14 covered with painted symbols, two crossed daggers15, and certain implements16 shaped like quern stones, which were used to control the elemental powers in some fashion I did not discover. I also put on a black gown, and remember that it did not fit perfectly17, and that it interfered18 with my movements considerably19. The sorcerer then took a black cock out of a basket, and cut its throat with one of the daggers, letting the blood fall into the large bowl. He opened a book and began an invocation, which was certainly not English, and had a deep guttural sound. Before he had finished, another of the sorcerers, a man of about twenty-five, came in, and having put on a black gown also, seated himself at my left band. I had the invoker20 directly in front of me, and soon began to find his eyes, which glittered through the small holes in his hood21, affecting me in a curious way. I struggled hard against their influence, and my head began to ache. The invocation continued, and nothing happened for the first few minutes. Then the invoker got up and extinguished the light in the hall, so that no glimmer22 might come through the slit23 under the door. There was now no light except from the herbs on the brass dish, and no sound except from the deep guttural murmur24 of the invocation.
Presently the man at my left swayed himself about, and cried out, "O god! O god!" I asked him what ailed25 him, but he did not know he had spoken. A moment after he said he could see a great serpent moving about the room, and became considerably excited. I saw nothing with any definite shape, but thought that black clouds were forming about me. I felt I must fall into a trance if I did not struggle against it, and that the influence which was causing this trance was out of harmony with itself, in other words, evil. After a struggle I got rid of the black clouds, and was able to observe with my ordinary senses again. The two sorcerers now began to see black and white columns moving about the room, and finally a man in a monk's habit, and they became greatly puzzled because I did not see these things also, for to them they were as solid as the table before them. The invoker appeared to be gradually increasing in power, and I began to feel as if a tide of darkness was pouring from him and concentrating itself about me; and now too I noticed that the man on my left hand had passed into a death-like trance. With a last great effort I drove off the black clouds; but feeling them to be the only shapes I should see without passing into a trance, and having no great love for them, I asked for lights, and after the needful exorcism returned to the ordinary world.
I said to the more powerful of the two sorcerers--"What would happen if one of your spirits had overpowered me?" "You would go out of this room," he answered, "with his character added to your own." I asked about the origin of his sorcery, but got little of importance, except that he had learned it from his father. He would not tell me more, for he had, it appeared, taken a vow26 of secrecy27.
For some days I could not get over the feeling of having a number of deformed28 and grotesque29 figures lingering about me. The Bright Powers are always beautiful and desirable, and the Dim Powers are now beautiful, now quaintly30 grotesque, but the Dark Powers express their unbalanced natures in shapes of ugliness and horror.
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1
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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encompass
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| vt.围绕，包围；包含，包括；完成 | |
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4
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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8
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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arcane
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| adj.神秘的，秘密的 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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11
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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12
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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13
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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14
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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15
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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16
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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invoker
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| 祈求者 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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24
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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25
ailed
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| v.生病( ail的过去式和过去分词 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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26
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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27
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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28
deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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29
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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30
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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