Konx Ompax
The popular mind is much attracted by things mysterious. “During my absence from Canton,” said Ho Fi to his beautiful wife, O Mi, “I leave everything in your charge except the large wooden chest in the garden; that you must on no account touch.” After her Lord had left, “I do wonder what is in that big chest,” thought O Mi; “there can be no harm in one little peep.” She raised the lid, and the blood-id hound Bow Wow imprisoned in the chest, sprang at her throat in accordance with the intentions of her loving husband. Ho Fi understood the influence of mystery.
Shelley tells how he once accidentally jostled an Irish navy in Covent Garden, so found himself in danger of an attack from the man and a crowd of his companion roughs. Remembering the influence of mystery, Shelley calmly faced them and solemnly said, “I have put my hand into the hamper, I have eaten out of the drum, I have tasted the sacred barley, I have drunk and am well pleased. I have said ‘Konx ompax’, and it is finished.” The effect of this deliberate utterance was magical. “What barley?” “Where’s the hamper?” “What have you been drinking?” asked the men of the Irishman, and in the middle of the discussion Shelley coolly walked off.
Attempts have been somewhat numerous of late to influence Spiritualists by means of mysteries. The formation of societies with secret signs has been advocated, and certain mediums utter dark sayings that they have the key to mysteries unknowable, and could make awesome revelations if they dared;
Their heads seem sheeted, |
And away in the uttermost recesses of the Himalayas, or conveniently lodged in an unexplored part of Thibet, mysterious Brothers are alleged to exist, Brothers who from their secret haunts have turned the tables of Spiritualists and the heads of Theosophists who believe implicitly in the revelations made through physical mediumship, Brothers whose every act is a mystery, Brothers whose powers have been witnessed by scarcely anyone but the young Indian gentleman with the greasy turban. That the faithful may be successful in their attempts to find these wonderful beings is our earnest wish, but, peradventure long must be their exploration of the darksome land where the nightmare browseth and her nest scenteth the breeze; the land where the jab-berwock moans by the side of the shoreless sea.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Konx Ompax by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 467, August 5, 1881, pp. 61-2
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 467, August 5, 1881, pp. 61-2