101 - MATA HARI, Margaretha Zelle (1876–1917).

MATA HARI, Margaretha Zelle (1876–1917). Autograph MANUSCRIPT, *The Princess and the Censer!*. A Hindu tale; 2 pages, in-4 format, on letterhead from the Hôtel Majestic in Paris (slight tear at the fold). A rare Hindu tale in which Mata Hari features herself as a character. Description: “One night, Princess Mata Hari was sitting on the roof of her palace. From her censer, the smoke of incense rose toward the sky in honor of the goddess Tanit. Wishing to question her destiny, she rose and said: ‘What will I gain from my youth, my beauty, my chastity, my love, and from my very self? Tanit (the moon), through her rays, took form in the smoke and replied, ‘Oh Princess—since everything is nothing—and the world and its desires are but illusion and veils. —There is nothing true except the dances that affirm nothing to us except their own charm—and that even astonish the very desires they seem destined to ignite”… She adds the key to the symbol: the Princess, “Humanity,” and the Censer, “the Eternal One.”