mystification

noun

Etymology: From French mystification.

1. The act of mystifying or the condition of being mystified.

   “But soon one notices, first in ones and twos, and then in larger groups, men who are very much alive at this hour in the morning, the sorters for the Caledonian, and Edinburgh sections of the "Down Special"; mail is piled high on the platforms, and the postal men glance occasionally towards the platform intermediate signals. By this time the calling-on arm is pulled off, and a few minutes later in comes the train, unannounced by the loud-speakers, to the mystification of many travellers.”

   “For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.”

2. A mystifying thing.