2»<» S. VII. Jan. 29. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



83 



Happening to have the book close at hand, it 

 occurred to me to compare it with the description 

 and title-page just quoted. My copy I found to 

 be about a quarter of an inch taller, and as much 

 wider, than the measure given in the review ; and, 

 though it has been rebound, it has something very 

 like the look of large paper. But I was surprised 

 to find so many, and such, variations, that I almost 

 began to doubt whether there might not be two 

 octavo editions. The title-page in my copy is as 

 follows : — 



Chronicon 



ECCLESIAE CON- 

 TINENS HISTORIAM RERVM 



gestarum, maximarumq; per totam 



Europam persecutionum b, Vuicle- 



ui temporibus usq; ad no- 



stram aetatem. 



Auihore loanne Foxo. 



HIIS IN CALCE ACCESSERVNT 



Aphorismi loannis Vuicleui, cum collectaneis 



quibusdam, Reginaldi Pecoki Epi- 



scopi Cicestrensis 



Item, OiriToypatpia quajdam ad 



Oxonienses. 



ARGENTORATI 



Excudebat losias Rihelius, 

 M.D.LXIIII. 



Anno 



It will be quite sufficient to indicate four varia- 

 tions — Commentarii and Chronicon; the addition 

 of Anglo to the author's name in one copy and not 

 in the other; the printer's Christian name, Wen- 

 delinus in one, and losias in the other ; and the 

 singular misprint in my copy which dates the 

 work M.D.LXIIII, instead of m.d.liiii. I must far- 

 ther observe that, whereas the reviewer has stated 

 that, beside the 212 numbered leaves, the volume 

 which he used contained seven leaves which were 

 not numbered, my copy contains eight. More- 

 over, after those eight numbered leaves in my 

 copy (and, for anything that I know, in his also,) 

 headed " epistola nvncvpatoria," the work itself 

 begins under a new head-title, which, as far as it 

 goes, bears a great resemblance to the reviewer's 

 title. It is as follows : — 



" Commentarii rervm in ecclesia gestarum Maxima- 

 rumq; per totam Europam persecutionum k VVicleui tem- 

 poribus ad banc usq; Eetatem descriptio, per lo. Foxum." 



It may be worth while to observe that, sup- 

 posing the body of the work to have been always 

 the same, it is clear that there were two title- 

 pages, which we may designate as of the Wende- 



i liiius and of the Josias editions. They may be 

 i presumed to have been printed at different times ; 

 and a trifling circumstance seems to me to indi- 

 cate that the Wendelinus was the earlier of the 

 two. In the date, it will be seen, there is a space 

 between Rihelius and Anno which looks very much 

 as if a long word had been taken out of the line, 

 and a short one put in its stead — indeed, no other 

 way of accounting for the blank occurs to me. I 

 shall be very glad to obtain information respect- 

 ing the volume from any of those who have access 

 to copies of it, either directly, or (if the Editor 

 allows) through " N. & Q." S. R. Maitland. 



VENTRILOQUISM. 



Although there are strong grounds for believ- 

 ing that this art was not unknown to the ancients, 

 and that the consultation of "familiar spirits," 

 mentioned both in sacred and profane writings, 

 was counterfeited by its instrumentality, yet di- 

 rect allusions to it are rare in classical authors. 

 Our term ventriloquism is, I presume, modern ; at 

 least, it belongs to mediaeval Latinity; and the 

 Greek word cyya<TrpiiJi.veos is found, I believe, only 

 in the Septuagint. But I have lately read a pas- 

 sage in Diodorus, which seems to indicate the 

 knowledge of ventriloquism before the first cen- 

 tury, and its practice by the people of Ceylon. 

 Diodorus has incorporated in his work the story 

 of a certain Jambulus, who, in his wanderings 

 over the Indian seas, was driven to an island, 

 the description of which leaves no doubt of its 

 being intended to apply to Ceylon. It will be 

 found in the 2nd Book, c. 56., from which I ex- 

 tract the passage in the Latin version of Din- 

 dorf : — 



" In lingua ipsorum quiddam peculiare est, partini a 

 natura datum, partim ingenii sollertia adscitum. Lin- 

 guam enim quadamtenus habent geminam et ulterius 

 arte divisam, ut duplex ad radicem usque exsistat. Ideo 

 maxima illis est vocis varietas, ita ut non tantum, quid- 

 quid humanse et articulatse est loquelse, imitentur, sed 

 etiam diversos avium garritus, adeoque omnia sonorum 

 genera exprimant. Et quod prse cunctis admirandum, 

 ad duos simul homines perfeete loqui, turn respondendo, turn 

 apposite de suhjectis rebus dissertando, possunt ; ita ut una 

 linguiB plicaliira cum uno, altera cum altero sermoci- 

 nentur." 



This report expresses so ingenuously the eflfect 

 intended to be produced by a ventriloquist on the 

 ear of an auditor, that the story admits of no other 

 solution. Nothing can be more nawe than_ the 

 avowal that the dialogue supposed to be sustained 

 between two persons was so perfectly imitated as 

 to leave the impression that the tongue of the 

 speaker was cleft into two parts : " Sfxre SittAtji' 

 yiveaOai m«XP« 'ns p'T^jy" J- EmerSON TeNNENT. 



