Burn, Witch, Burn!

made a doll in the likeness of the Pharaoh himself; and into this he entered, animating it. His dolls then

carried him into the royal harem, past the guards, who believed even as did the wives of Pharaoh, that he

was the true Pharaoh. And entertained him accordingly.

"But, as he was leaving, the true Pharaoh entered. That must have been quite a situation,

Ricori-suddenly, miraculously, in his harem, the Pharaoh doubled! But Khnum, seeing what had

happened, reached down from Heaven and touched the dolls, withdrawing their life. And they dropped

to the floor, and were seen to be only dolls.

"While where one Pharaoh had stood lay another doll and crouched beside it a shivering and wrinkled

old man!

"You can find the story, and a fairly detailed account of the trial that followed, in a papyrus of the time;

now, I think, in the Turin Museum. Also a catalogue of the tortures the magician underwent before he

was burned. Now, there is no manner of doubt that there were such accusations, nor that there was such

a trial; the papyrus is authentic. But what, actually, was at the back of it? Something happened-but what

was it? Is the story only another record of superstition-or does it deal with the fruit of the dark

wisdom?"

Ricori said: "You, yourself, watched that dark wisdom fruit. Are you still unconvinced of its reality?"

I did not answer; I continued: "The knotted cord-the Witch's Ladder. That, too, is most ancient. The

oldest document of Frankish legislation, the Salic Law, reduced to written form about fifteen hundred

years ago, provided the severest penalties for those who tied what it named the Witch's Knot-"

"La Ghana della strega," he said. "Well, do we know that cursed thing in my land-and to our black

sorrow!"

I took startled note of his pallid face, his twitching fingers; I said, hastily: "But of course, Ricori, you

realize that all I have been quoting is legend? Folklore. With no proven basis of scientific fact."

He thrust his chair back, violently, arose, stared at me, incredulously. He spoke, with effort: "You still

hold that the devil-work we witnessed can be explained in terms of the science you know?"

I stirred, uncomfortably: "I did not say that, Ricori. I do say that Madame Mandilip was as extraordinary

a hypnotist as she was a murderess-a mistress of illusion-"

He interrupted me, hands clenching the table's edge: "You think her dolls were illusions?"

I answered, obliquely: "You know how real was that illusion of a beautiful body. Yet we saw it dissolve

in the true reality of the flames. It had seemed as veritable as the dolls, Ricori-"

Again he interrupted me: "The stab in my heart…the doll that killed Gilmore…the doll that murdered

Braile…the blessed doll that slew the witch! You call them illusions?"

I answered, a little sullenly, the old incredulity suddenly strong within me: "It is entirely possible that,

obeying a post-hypnotic command of the doll-maker, you, yourself, thrust the dagger-pin into your own

heart! It is possible that obeying a similar command, given when and where and how I do not know,

Peters' sister, herself, killed her husband. The chandelier fell on Braile when I was, admittedly, under the

influence of those same post-hypnotic influences-and it is possible that it was a sliver of glass that cut his

carotid. As for the doll-maker's own death, apparently at the hands of the Walters doll, well, it is also

possible that the abnormal mind of Madame Mandilip was, at times, the victim of the same illusions she

induced in the minds of others. The doll-maker was a mad genius, governed by a morbid compulsion to

surround herself with the effigies of those she had killed by the unguent. Marguerite de Valois, Queen of

Navarre, carried constantly with her the embalmed hearts of a dozen or more lovers who had died for

her. She had not slain those men-but she knew she had been the cause of their deaths as surely as

though she had strangled them with her own hands. The psychological principle involved in Queen

Marguerite's collection of hearts and Madame Mandilip's collection of dolls is one and the same."

He had not sat down; still in that strained voice he repeated: "I asked you if you called the killing of the

witch an illusion."

I said: "You make it very uncomfortable for me, Ricori-staring at me like that…and I am answering your

question. I repeat it is possible that in her own mind she was at times the victim of the same illusions she

induced in the minds of others. That at times she, herself, thought the dolls were alive. That in this strange

mind was conceived a hatred for the doll of Walters. And, at the last, under the irritation of our attack,

this belief reacted upon her. That thought was in my mind when, a while ago, I said it was curious that

you should speak of the dark wisdom turning against those who possessed it. She tormented the doll; she

expected the doll to avenge itself if it had the opportunity. So strong was this belief, or expectation, that