Notes from "An Evening's Entertainment" by M.R. James, Part 2

[goatgodschild]

3 Years Later...

September, at dawn in the woods, the young man is found dead:
- hung from the neck from the biggest and eldest oak tree
- wearing a white gown
+ mockery of a church surplice? "Not the same in the fashion of it"
- around his neck is a chain with a metal pendant, wheel-shaped and old-looking
+ a solar cross?
- beside him is a hatchet covered in blood

Horse had to be blindfolded before it would carry the body
- rears and throws body off onto the ground as they approached the cottage
- the body was carried into the living room of the cottage

On the long table in the center of the room lay Mr. Davis
- table is longer than a man
- Mr. Davis is dead
+ eyes covered with cloth
+ arms tied behind back
+ feet bound with another band
+ breast is bare and split through the bone with an axe

In the cupboards of the cottage they found:
- a quantity of herbs
- jars with liquors
+ some of which are "drinks to put a person to sleep"

"And they had little doubt that wicked young man had put some of this into Mr. Davis' drink, and then used him as he did, and, after that, the sense of his sin had come upon him and he had cast himself away."

Papers and writings were found in the drawers and cupboards
- prove them guilty of idolatry "by their own hand"
- fear that there were others
+ calls to repent, lest the same happen
- the writings were burnt