Following this midday refreshment, I resumed my labors. Knowing the current, lamentable state of the American literary scene, I fully expected the next book on the stack to be as deplorable as the first. To my surprise, however, the volume turned out to be, not a work of fiction at all, but a scientific study whose title instantly riveted my attention: Curious Belieƒs and Peculiar Customs among the Savage Peoples oƒ Melanesia, Being an Inquiry into the Operations oƒ the Primitive Mentality, along with an Enlightened Scientiƒic Consideration oƒ Certain Notable Superstitious Conceptions and Ritualistic Practices. Its author was a German scholar, unknown to me until that moment, named Maelzel.

True to its title, this volume proved to be replete with information of such surpassing interest and curiosity that it could not fail to make the deepest impression upon my imagination. From its opening section—which dealt with the ghastly, the abhorrent, the unthinkable practice of human cannibalism—each succeeding chapter was more startling than the one preceding it. Before I had perused more than a few pages, my attention was so thoroughly engrossed in this remarkable volume that I became wholly oblivious of my surroundings.

Of all the subjects treated by the author, however, the one which exerted the strongest grip upon my imagination had to do with the widespread superstitious belief in the sinister essence—and autonomous tendencies—of the human shadow. According to Maelzel, the native islanders of the South Pacific universally held it to be true that the shadows cast by their physical bodies were the visible manifestations of their innermost souls. Among the tribesmen of Fiji, for example, the word for shadow—yalo-yalo—was but a duplication of the word for the soul: yalo. Thus, to these savages, every man possesses a mysterious, even daemonic, double or alter ego that operates as the physical projection, or embodiment of the evil impulses reigning in his heart. According to their beliefs, moreover, this shadowy doppelgänger actually has the power to separate itself into an independent entity while its owner is asleep and act out those dark and violent impulses on the latter’s behalf!

As I continued to peruse this remarkable tome, I gradually became aware of an emphatic pounding upon the front door of my dwelling. I remained where I was, fully expecting either Muddy or Sissy to respond to the importunate summons. Several moments elapsed before I recalled that—when Muddy had brought me my midday repast—she had informed me of her intention to take Virginia on a marketing expedition to procure dinner provisions. Quickly glancing at my dock, I was startled to see that the time was already dose to 4:30 P.M.! Of such all-absorbing interest was Maelzel’s singular work that the better part of the afternoon had elapsed while I was engrossed in its pages.