Okey Sisters
(See Spiritualism.) Olcott, Colonel Henry Steel: The founder, together with Madame Blavatsky, of the movement known as Theosophy, and president of the Theosophical Society. Before he identified himself with this movement he was a well-known authority on matters connected with agriculture. In 1856 he founded in America an agricultural school on the Swiss model, was offered by the American Government the Chief Commissionership of Agriculture and by the Greek Government the Professorship of Agriculture at Athens. He was for a time agricultural editor of Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, and published three works on agriculture. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Northerners, saw active service, and was invalided home. The government then made him Special Commissioner of the War Department. On the cessation of the war he retired into private life, and from 1875 till his death in 1906 taught the doctrines of Theosophy and neo-Buddhism. On the death of Madame
Blavatsky he associated himself with Mrs. Annie Besant as the leader of Theosophy in India. (See Theosophy.) Old Hat used for Raising the Devil: A popular mode of raising the devil in former times was to make a circle, place an old hat in the centre, and repeat the Lord's Prayer backwards. It was really a caricature of magical incantation. Old man of the Mountain : (See Assassins.) "Old Scratch": One of the appellations given to the Evil
One. It is supposed to have been derived from Skrati, an old Teutonic faun or Satyr, half-man and half-goat, and possessed of horns.