869 B. The following case was printed in the Journal S.P.R., for May 1899 (vol. ix. PP. 65-8), having been sent to us by Mr. Michael Petrovo-Solovovo, of St. Petersburg, now Hon. Secretary for Russia to the S.P.R.

Mr. Solovovo writes:-

In the following pages I have endeavoured to present all the evidence obtainable concerning an instance of an automatic message, which appears at first sight to be due to some other cause than "unconscious cerebration".

The amount of information unknown contained in the following message is certainly very slight, but still the unexpectedness of the fact that it was in the sea and not in a river that the soldier was drowned may be considered entitled to some weight. The most interesting feature of the case, however, appears to me to have been the circumstance that the mediums did not see the letters of the alphabet. This is stated by both of them as well as by the third person present at the sitting. . . .

Now, a message obtained under such conditions would involve at the very least telepathy in a strangely continuous form from M. Starck [to his wife and daughter]; and makes it increasingly possible that the "veridical" part of the communication may have sprung from a supernormal source too; whilst otherwise we might have put it down with more plausibility either to unconscious reasoning or to chance coincidence.

Most of the "Skrytnikoff case" as presented here appeared in No. 48 of the Rebus (a Russian Spiritistic paper, the editor of which is well known to me), in 1898. . . .

Document I

Extract from a letter by Lieut.-Col. Starck to Baron N. Rausch von Trau-benberg. Rebus, No. 48, 1898, p. 417.

On January 22nd, 1898, I made Z-- and J--1 sit down at a table. I wrote down the alphabet, placed upon it a saucer with a pointer and their hands upon it - and the writing began. Though a firm believer, from what I had read, in mediumistic phenomena, I was still amazed. I bandaged their eyes with the same result; the letters are pointed out exactly and correctly; the mental contents are present. No trance. All the writers are in a perfectly normal state. They are keeping their hands on the saucer with eyes blindfolded; I read and write down. I put down questions aloud or in writing, and get answers which I do not expect, and the contents of which do not correspond to either Z.'s or J.'s mental level. I am looking upon it as a mystification - by whom, I do not know; - then suddenly we get: "I have the honour to present myself, Your High Nobility,1 - Skrytnikoff." This appeared so unexpectedly and had such a meaning that I had to get up from [sheer] emotion and to suspend the sitting for about five minutes. Skrytnikoff was a soldier who had served in my regiment here, in Caucasia, and was drowned in Pzezu-appe river in June or July of last year when I was no more on active service; I had learnt about this event by accident, and had only once spoken about it in the autumn.

We sit down at the saucer again and get: "I was drowned in the sea, far away." I feel perplexed. From what had been communicated to me at the time of the occurrence I thought he had been drowned in the river. Then 1 get: "Doubovik (the local chief of district, i.e. pristav). Go to him." In the morning I go to Doubovik, and without saying what the matter was, I ask whether he knows anything about Skrytnikoff who was drowned - and receive, as I expected, a negative answer, because in such cases inquests, etc, are held by the military authorities themselves. During our conversation in the office the secretary interferes and says: "No, I think there is something about Skrytnikoff in the papers." A search is made in the papers and a proces verbal found by the bailiff or desiatnik of Lazarevskce village, of no special importance, but in which the sentence occurred: "The horse swam out, but he [Skrytnikoff] was carried into the sea." Now this is very natural: the river, which is generally shallow, but swift and deep during high water, must have carried him into the sea.

1 M. Starck's daughter and wife.

Document II

Extract from Lieut.-Col. Starck's letter to M. Aksakoff, dated Sept. 5th [17th], 1898. Sotchi [Black Sea province - Tchernomorskaya Youbernia]. Reims, No. 48, 1898, p. 417.

Sir, - My relative, Baron N. A. Rausch von Traubenberg, has informed me of your wish to print the contents of my letter to him concerning the soldier Skrytnikoff who was drowned, and has asked me to send you my consent. This I do at present with, of course, my whole signature; and beg you - should it be of interest - to append to my letter: (1) An attestation by Doubovik, the then chief of the Sotchi district: (2) a copy of the proces verbal; and (3) the original leaf of paper with the notes of the sitting. ... In the original [account] of the sitting the signature [S.'s] is unfinished because I got up from the table in great excitement; I was struck by the unexpectedness and the reality of the message, though I had read almost everything on the subject and felt quite sure of the possibility of such phenomena. The following words were obtained after I had sat down at the table again; my wife and daughter having not left the table at all. I only told them there was something convincing in the message.

Then I was extremely astonished by the information as to his having been drowned in the sea, whilst I was quite sure this had occurred in the river, as the only information I had accidentally had on the subject from a former colleague of mine was to the effect that Skrytnikoff was drowned in Pzezuappe river, his chiefs being convinced of it till now. I knew no details whatever about . . . Skrytnikoff, and only the idea as to his having been drowned in a river could have originated in my head and among my household - and this only as a transitory long since forgotten impression; it was once mentioned in the autumn, and I am not even quite sure of it.

1 A Russian military formula.

The proces verbal gave me but little that was new, but the words "he was carried away by the water into the sea," gave my thoughts an impulse [in the direction] that it had actually been so, i.e. that he was drowned in the sea: there is not more than half a verst from the spot where the river is crossed to the sea, it being a mountain stream and in high water. Of course he was quickly carried into the sea; his weapon (a sabre, I think) being found cast ashore on the sea coast, not far from the river. A year before I had been his chief, and am sure he felt kindly towards me as the other soldiers did.

The present message was, I think, obtained at the third seance. The conditions were as follows: the alphabet written, not in order, on a leaf of paper, and a saucer with a pointer upon it; my wife and daughter, with eyes blindfolded, kept their hands upon the saucer, and I wrote down the letters. . . .

[M. Starck further states that his daughter is now sixteen and in good health.] [Signed] N. Starck.

M. Starck's letter was followed in the Rebus by a copy of the proces verbal drawn up by Mouhortoff, a police official, which states that in the night of September 7th (19th) Peter Skrytnikoff, a soldier of the Vardony military post, when crossing Pzezuappe river, was carried away by the water together with the horse, which, however, escaped and was taken charge of by soldiers of the Lazarevskoe post; as for S., "he was carried away by the water into the sea," and his body never found, though carefully searched for.

The Rebus also gave a statement by M. Doubovik confirmatory of M. Starck's account of his visit to him the day after the sitting: proces verbal of Skrytnikoff's death found, etc.

In reply to Mr. Solovovo's questions, M. Starck informed him that his wife and daughter knew Skrytnikoff, having seen him several times; also that he himself did not touch the saucer during the communication. Mme. and Mdlle. Starck also sent Mr. Solovovo statements which he combined into one as follows: -

January 12/24, 1899. Sotchi.

We find M. Starck's account concerning a communication from the soldier Skrytnikoff who was drowned, printed in Rebus, No. 48, 1898, to be correct. During the incident described our eyes were bandaged and we positively could not see the alphabet.

[Signed]

Jeannette Starck. Zenaide Starck.