I then had only the logical supposition that it was perhaps only because the room in which this sacred scene occurred, which was to have tremendous significance for the whole of my further life, was permeated through and through with the scent of a special incense brought from the monastery of “Old Athos” and very popular among followers of every shade of belief of the Christian religion. Whatever it may have been, this fact still now remains a bare fact. BTG I

“On resuming our journey the next day after a restful night, we passed very near the monastery of these sectarians of the Buddhist religion of the Orthodoxhydooraki doctrine. BTG XXII

“At that time of the day we usually made a halt to feed our quadruped workers, and so we asked the monks to allow us to make our necessary halt in the shelter of their monastery. BTG XXII

“The monastery of the Orthodoxhydooraki sect of the Buddhist religion occupied a large square with a strongly built wall around it, which protected everything within. both from beings similar to themselves and from wild beings. BTG XXII

“In the middle of this enormous walled enclosure stood a large structure, also strongly built, which constituted the main part of the monastery. BTG XXII

“It was just these same ‘cells’ that represented the difference between this monastery and other monasteries in general on the planet Earth. BTG XXII

“At that time when we came within the walls of that terrible monastery, all these monstrous cells were already occupied; and the care of the immured, that is, giving them once in twenty-four hours, through the aforementioned tiny apertures, a piece of bread and a small jug of water, was carried out with great reverence by those sectarians who were candidates for that immurement, and who, while waiting their turn, existed in the said large building that stood in the monastery square. BTG XXII

“Your immured favorites did indeed exist in the said monastery sepulchres until their existence, so full of deprivations, half-starved and motionless, came quite to an end. BTG XXII

“‘And the cause of my further serious interest in the laws of vibrations was the following: “‘Once the Sheikh of our monastery called me to him and said: “‘”Hadji! In the monastery where I was still an ordinary dervish, whenever during certain mysteries our musician dervishes played the melodies of the sacred canticles, all of us dervishes always experienced from these melodies of the sacred canticles particular sensations corresponding to the text of the given sacred canticle. BTG XLI

“‘After long deliberations we finally decided that probably the whole cause lay in the nature itself of the vibrations of the sounds. And we came to this conclusion because from our conversation it further became clear that in the monastery in which our Sheikh had been an ordinary dervish, they played, besides the tambour, stringed musical instruments, while here, in our monastery, they played these same sacred melodies exclusively on wind instruments. BTG XLI

“‘We further decided to replace immediately all the wind instruments of our monastery by stringed instruments; but then another very serious question arose for us, namely, that it would be impossible to get together from among our dervishes the necessary number of specialists for playing the stringed instruments. BTG XLI

“‘And in the monastery also, he devoted all his free time to this favorite craft of his. BTG XLI

“‘When we finally handed over our original zimbal to our Sheikh and told him what interested us most of all at that moment, he not only gave us his blessing to leave the monastery for a while for our purpose to occupy ourselves with the question which interested us, but even put at our disposal a large sum of money from the resources accumulated in the monastery. BTG XLI

“‘But unfortunately, the dervishes of this brotherhood soon produced a disillusioning effect on me, and I therefore transferred to another brotherhood; but there again the same thing happened, until finally I was enrolled as a dervish of the brotherhood of the monastery, the Sheikh of which set me the task of devising that mechanical stringed musical instrument of which I have already spoken to you. BTG XLI

“When I chanced to visit this monastery where Brother Asiman existed with the other brethren of the said small group of your contemporary favorites, this preparation had already been used by all the brethren for five months, and Brother Asiman with the participation of others of the brethren who were also very familiar with this question was intensively busy with elucidatory experiments on a large scale. BTG XLII

“Several months later I again happened to come upon that monastery and acquainted myself personally with the document of these brethren which had been composed by them on the day when they finally ceased the use of this indeed astonishing preparation. BTG XLII