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Contents of
First S.P.R. Report on H.P.B.
APPENDIX
XIII.
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The whole force of the evidence in the following case depends on what value can be
attached to a recognition by moonlight of a person on a balcony above you. Apart
from this recognition, personation through the agency of the Coulombs would appear to be
peculiarly easy in this case.
We give the case chiefly on account of the references to it by Colonel
Olcott and Mr. Ramaswamier in Appendices I.
and XI.
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“Hints on Esoteric Theosophy,” No. 1, pp. 72, 73.
[Certificate.]
“Bombay, December 28th, 9 p.m., 1881.
“The undersigned, returning a few moments since from a carriage ride with Madame
Blavatsky, saw, as the carriage approached the house, a man upon the balcony over the porte
cochere, leaning against the balustrade, and with the moonlight shining full upon
him. He was dressed in white, and wore a white Fehta on his head. His
beard was black, and his long black hair hung to his breast. Olcott and Damodar at
once recognised him as the ‘Illustrious.’ (1) He raised
his hand and dropped a letter to us. Olcott jumped from the carriage and recovered
it. It was written in Tibetan characters, and signed with his familiar cypher.
It was a message to Ramaswamier, in reply to a letter (in a closed envelope) which he had
written to the Brother a short time before we went out for the ride. M. Coulomb, who
was reading inside the house, and a short distance from the balcony, neither saw nor heard
any one pass through the apartment, and no one else was in the bungalow, except Madame
Coulomb, who was asleep in her bedroom.
“Upon descending from the carriage, our whole party immediately went upstairs, but
the Brother had disappeared.
“H. S. OLCOTT.
“DAMODAR K. MAVALANKAR.”
“The undersigned further certifies to Mr. ------- that from the time when he gave
the note to Madame Blavatsky until the Brother dropped the answer from the balcony, she
was not out of his sight.
“S. RAMASWAMIER, F.T.S., B.A.
“District Registrar of Assurances, Tinnevelly.
“P.S. --- Babula was below in the porte-cochere, waiting to open the
carriage door, at the time when the Brother dropped the letter from above. The
coachman also saw him distinctly.
“S. RAMASWAMIER.
“DAMODAR K. MAVALANKAR.
“H. S. OLCOTT.”
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Endnote
(1) A name by which Colonel Olcott's Chohan is known
amongst us. --- H.X.