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MAGIC trace of malaria in my blood, which was previously thick with the parasite.
My company commander, Capitaine Lique, of the 7th Company Etrangère, reported this to the District Commissioner at Beni Abbes, who replied that the woman was a well-known sorceress.
In the West we study these strange phenomena with a view to finding out how they occur, but few can offer a satisfactory explanation of the wonderful things which happen before our eyes. Much of the ancient knowledge has been lost to the world at large by the wholesale destruction of the earliest records of mankind contained in the great libraries of antiquity and other depositories of learning; but there is no room for doubt that the secrets of ancient magic have been preserved to this day, and are still possessed by some few who guard them with inviolable fidelity. They are transmitted under such conditions that it is quite impossible for the average student or investigator of mysteries to catch even a whisper of them.
The following story sent to me by a friend indicates that the guardians of secret knowledge are ready to admit those on whom their choice falls to a participation in their secrets. Some of those chosen have devoted previous lives to
