As you see, Docre is not the only one who practises this abominable science.

It is known in the convents; some laymen, even, have an inkling of it." "But now, admitting that these preparations are real and that they are active, you have not explained how one can poison a man with them either from a distance or near at hand." "Yes, that's another matter.

One has a choice of two methods to reach the enemy one is aiming at.

The first and least used is this: the magician employs a voyant, a woman who is known in that world as 'a flying spirit'; she is a somnambulist, who, put into a hypnotic state, can betake herself, in spirit, wherever one wishes her to go.

It is then possible to have her transmit the magic poisons to a person whom one designates, hundreds of leagues away.