THE EQUINOX
for he told me he had seen you, and it is I who sent him to
you.”
No more doubt, then; the unhappy priest had found the
fatal grimoive, he had done the evocation, and prepared
himself for the murder by a series of sacrileges. For this is
in what the infernal evocations consist, according to the
grimotre of Honorius:
“Choose a black cock, and give him the name of the
spirit of darkness which one wishes to evoke.
“ Kill the cock, and keep its heart, its tongue, and the
first feather of its left wing.
“Dry the tongue and the heart, and reduce them to
powder.
“Eat no meat and drink no wine, that day.
“On Tuesday, at dawn, say a mass of the angels.
“Trace upon the altar itself, with the feather of the cock
dipped in the consecrated wine, certain diabolical signatures
(those of Mr. Home’s pencil, and the bloody hosts of
Vintras).
“On Wednesday, prepare a taper of yellow wax; rise at
midnight, and alone, in the church, begin the office of the
dead.
“Mingle with this office infernal evocations.
“ Finish the office by the light of a single taper, extinguish
it immediately, and remain without light in the church thus
profaned until sunrise.
“On Thursday, mingle with the consecrated water the
powder of the tongue and heart of the black cock, and let the
whole be swallowed by a male lamb of nine days old... .”
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