Part 11 (1/2)
The room of conjuration was a closet, dark and dirty, and was lighted by one tallow candle, stuck in a Scotch ale bottle. A number of shabby dresses, bony petticoats, and other mysterious articles of women's gear, hung upon the walls; two weak-kneed chairs, a tattered bit of carpet upon about two feet square of the floor, and a little table covered with a greasy oilcloth, composed the furniture of the mystic cell. The cabalistic paraphernalia was limited, there being nothing but a dirty pack of double-headed cards, a small pasteboard box with some sc.r.a.ps of paper in it, and two kinds of powder in little bottles, like hair-oil pots.
Madame Lent is a woman of medium height, about thirty-five years of age, with light-grey eyes, false teeth, a head nearly bald, and hair, what there is of it, of a bright red. Her manner is hurried and confused, and she has a trick of drawing her upper lip disagreeably up under the end of her nose, which l.a.b.i.al distortion she doubtless intends for a smile.
She was robed in a bright-colored plaid dress, a dirty lace collar, and a coa.r.s.e woollen shawl over her shoulders. Motioning her visitor to one chair, she instantly seated herself in the other, and, without demanding pay in advance, commenced operations. She handed the cards to be cut, and then laying them out in their piles, uttered the following sentences:
”I see that your fortune has been and is quite a curious one.
Your cards run rather mixed up, you have been very much worried in your head, you were born under two planets, which means that you have seen a great deal of trouble in your younger days, but you are now getting over it and your cards run to better luck, but it is rather mixed up, your cards run to a lady, she is light-haired and blue-eyed, but she is jealous of you, for sometimes you treat her more kinder and sometimes more harsher, and just now she is in trouble and very much mixed up about you.
There is a man of black hair and eyes, a dark-_complected_ man who pretends to be your friend and is very fair to your face, but you must beware of him, for he is your secret enemy and will do you an injury if he can; he is trying to get the lady, but I don't think he'll do it, though I don't know, for the thing is so much mixed up-he has deceived you, and the lady has deceived you, they have both deceived you, but now they have got mixed up, and she turns from him with scorn, and seems to like you the best-I don't exactly see how it all is, for it seems rather mixed up like-you must persevere, you must coax her more; you can coax her to do anything, but you can't drive her any more than you can drive that wall-always treat her more kinder and never more harsher, and she will soon be yours entirely-beware of the dark-complected man; you must not talk so much and be so open in your mind, and above all don't talk so much to the dark-complected man, for he seems to worry you, and your affairs and his are all mixed up like.”
Here her auditor expressed a desire to know something definite and certain about his future wife, whereupon the red-haired prophetess shuffled the cards again with the following result:
”You will have but one more wife. She will be good and true, and will not be mixed up with any dark-complected man. She will be rich and you will be rich, for your business cards run very smooth, but your marriage cards do not run very close to you, and you will not be married for six or eight months; you will have three children; you will see your future wife within nine hours, nine days, or nine weeks; do not blame me if it runs into the tens, but I tell you it will fall within the nines. Another man is trying to get her away from you, he is a light-complected man, he has had some influence over her, but she now turns from him with disdain, and she will be yours and yours only-things are a little worried and mixed up now, but she will be yours and yours only, the light-complected man can't hurt you. I have something that I can give you that will make her love you tender and true; it will force her to do it and she won't have no power to help herself, but you can do with her just what you please; I charge extra for that.”
Here was a chance to procure a love-philtre at a reasonable rate, and unless the dark woman kept that article ready made and done up in packages to suit customers, he could observe the terrible ceremonies with which it was prepared, listen to the spells and incantations with an attent eye, and take mental notes of all the mighty magic. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and he at once signified his desire to try a little of the extra witchcraft, and his willingness to draw on his purse for the requisite amount of ready cash to purchase this gratification of a laudable curiosity.
Madame Lent now a.s.sumed an air of the most intense gravity, and shook into a very dirty bit of paper a little white powder from one of the pomatum pots, and a corresponding quant.i.ty of grayish powder from pot No. 2, and stirred them carefully together with the tip of her finger. When she had mixed them to her liking she folded the diabolical compound in a small paper. Then she prepared another mixture in the same manner, and made a pretence of adding another ingredient from a little pasteboard box, which probably hadn't had anything in it for a month. Folding this also in a paper she presented them both to her interested guest, with these directions:
”You must shake some of the first powder on your true-love's head, or neck, or arms, if you can, but if you can't manage this, put it on her dress-the other powder you must sprinkle about your room when you go to bed to-night-this will draw her to you, and she will love you and you alone and can't help herself; this will surely operate, if it don't, come and tell me.”
One more cabalistic performance and the hocus-pocus was ended.
She desired her customer to give her the first letter of his true love's name. He, unabashed by the unexpected demand, with great presence of mind promptly invented a sweetheart on the spot, and extemporized a name for her before the question was repeated.
Then the mysterious Madame required his own initial, which, being obtained, she wrote the two on slips of paper with some mystic figures appended, in manner following. E., 17; M., 24. Then she s.h.i.+veringly whispered:
”You must do as I told you with the powders before eleven o'clock to-night, for between the hours of eleven and twelve I shall boil your name and hers in herbs which will draw her to you, and she can't help herself but will be tender and true, and will be yours and yours only. When she is drawed to you then you must marry her.”
The anxious inquirer promised obedience, and agreed to give the powders as per prescription, before the midnight cookery should commence, paid his dollar (fifty cents for the consultation and a like sum for the love-powders), and made his exit with a comprehensive bow, which included the Madame, the bony petticoats, the beer-bottle, and the fast-vanis.h.i.+ng remains of the single tallow-candle in one reverential farewell.
CHAPTER XII.
Wherein are inscribed all the particulars of a visit to the ”Gipsy Girl,” of No. 207, Third Avenue, with an allusion to Gin, and other luxuries dear to the heart of that beautiful Rover.
CHAPTER XII.
THE GIPSY GIRL.
There is much less affectation of high-flown and lofty-sounding names among the ladies of the black-art mysteries, than might very naturally be expected. Most of them are content with plain ”Madame” Smith, or unadorned ”Mrs.” Jones, and ”The Gipsy Girl”
is almost the only exception to this rule that is to be encountered among all the fortune-tellers of the city.
This arises from no poverty of invention on their part, but from a sound conviction that in this case, simplicity is an element of sound policy. There has been no lack of ”mysteriously gifted prophetesses,” and of ”astonis.h.i.+ng star readers;” there have been, I believe, within the last few years, a ”Daughter of Saturn,” and a ”Sorceress of the Silver Girdle;” and once the ”Queen of the Seven Mysteries” condescended to sojourn in Gotham for five weeks, but on the whole it has been found that a more modest t.i.tle pays better. To be sure, the ”Daughter of Saturn”
was tried for conspiring with two other persons to swindle an old and wealthy gentleman out of seventeen hundred dollars, and the ”Queen of the Seven Mysteries” was dispossessed by a constable for non-payment of rent; and these untoward circ.u.mstances may have acted as a ”modest quencher” on the then growing disposition to indulge in fantastic and romantic appellations.
At this present time ”The Gipsy Girl” enjoys almost a monopoly of this sort of thing, and she is by no means constant to one name, but sometimes announces herself as ”The Gipsy Woman,” ”The Gipsy Palmist,” and ”The Gipsy Wonder,” as her whim changes.
This woman has not been in New York years enough to become complicated in as many rascalities as some of her elder sisters in the mystic arts, but her surroundings are of a nature to indicate that she has not been backward in her American education on these points. She has not been remarkably successful in making money, as a witch; not having been educated among the strumpets and gamblers of the city she lacked that extensive acquaintance on going into business, that had secured for her rivals in trade such immediate success. Her fondness for gin has also proved a serious bar to her rapid advancement, and has given not a few of her customers the idea that she is not so eminently trustworthy as one having the control of the destinies of others should be.
In fact, she loves her enemy, the bottle, to that extent, that she has many times permitted her devotion to it to interfere seriously with her business, leading her to disappoint customers.