APPARITIONS CAUSED BY VENTRILOQUISM. 



179 



tongr resist the voice of heaven, and, accord- 

 nigly, carried his guest home with him, and paid 

 him down ten thousand crowns ; with which the 

 honest ventriloquist returned to Paris, and mar 

 ried his mistress. The catastrophe was fatal. 

 The secret was afterwards blown, and reached 

 the usurer s ears, who was so much affected by 

 the loss of his money, and the mortifying raille 

 ries ofhis neighbours, that he took to his bed and 

 died. 



Another trick of a similar kind was played off 

 about sixty or seventy years ago, on a whole com 

 munity, by another French ventriloquist. &quot; M. 

 St. Gill, the ventriloquist, and his intimate friend, 

 returning home from a place whither his busi 

 ness had carried him, sought for shelter from an 

 approaching thunder-storm in a neighbouring 

 convent. Finding the whole community in 

 mourning, he inquired the cause, and was told 

 that one of the body had died lately, who was the 

 ornament and delight of the whole society. To 

 pass away the time, he walked into the church, 

 attended by some of the religious, who showed 

 him the tomb of their deceased brother, and spoke 

 feelingly of the scanty honours they had bestowed 

 on his memory. Suddenly a voice was heard, 

 apparently proceeding from the roof of the choir, 

 lamenting the situation of the defunct in purga 

 tory, and reproaching the brotherhood with their 

 lukewarmness and want of zeal on his account. 

 The friars, as soon as their astonishment gave 

 them power to speak, consulted together, and 

 agreed to acquaint the rest of the community 

 with this singular event, so interesting to the 

 whole society. M. St. Gill, who wished to car 

 ry on the joke a little farther, dissuaded them 

 from taking this step, telling them that they 

 would be treated by their absent brethren as a 

 set of fools and visionaries. He recommended 

 to them, however, the immediately calling the 

 whole community into the church, where the 

 ghost of their departed brother might probably 

 reiterate his complaints. Accordingly, all the 

 friars, novices, lay-brothers, and even the do 

 mestics of the convent, were immediately sum 

 moned and called together, In a short time the 

 voice from the roof renewed its lamentations and 

 reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their 

 faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. As a 

 first step, they chanted a Deprofundis in a full 

 choir ; during the intervals of which the ghost 

 occasionally expressed the comfort he received 

 from their pious exercises and ejaculations on 

 his behalf. When all was over, the prior enter 

 ed into a serious conversation with M. St. Gill ; 

 and on the strength of what had just passed, sa 

 gaciously inveighed against the absurd increduli 

 ty of our modern sceptics and pretended philoso 

 phers, on the article of ghosts or apparitions. 

 M. St. Gil! thought it high time to disabuse the 

 good fathers. This purpose, however, he found 

 it extremely difficult to effect, till he had prevail 



ed upon them to return with him into the church, 

 and there be witnesses of the manner ir. which 

 he had conducted this ludicrous deception.&quot; Had 

 not the ventriloquist, in this case, explained tho 

 cause of the deception, a whole body of men might 

 have sworn, with a good conscience, that they 

 had heard the ghost of a departed brother address 

 them again and again in a supernatural voice. 



It is highly probable, that many of those per 

 sons termed witches and necromancers in ancient 

 times, who pretended to be invested with super 

 natural powers, performed their deceptions by 

 the art of ventriloquism. The term literally 

 means, speaking from the belly ; and, in accord 

 ance with this idea, we find that the Pythoness, 

 or witch of Endor, to whom Saul applied for 

 advice in his perplexity, is designated in the Sep- 

 tuagint translation of the Old Testament, &quot;a 

 woman that speaks from her belly or stomach,&quot; 

 as most magicians affected to do ; and some au 

 thors have informed us, that there were women 

 who had a demon which spake articulately from 

 the lower part of their stomachs, in a very loud* 

 though hoarse tone. Umbrae cum sagana reso- 

 narent triste et acutum. Hor. Sat. viii. lib. i. 



Our English translation &quot; familiar spirit,&quot; in 

 Hebrew, signifies &quot; the spirit of Ob or Oboth&quot; 

 The word Ob in its primitive sense, denotes a 

 bottle or vessel of leather, wherein liquors were 

 put ; and it is not unlikely that this name was 

 given to witches, because, in their fits of enthu 

 siasm, they swelled in their bellies like a bottle. 

 The occasion of this swelling is said by some 

 authors to proceed from a demon s entering into 

 the sorcerers per partes genitales, and so ascend 

 ing to the bottom of her stomach, from whence, 

 at that time, she uttered her predictions ; and 

 for this reason, the Latins call such persons Ven- 

 triloqui, and the Greeks Eyyaorpi/ivfloj, that is, 

 people who speak out of their bellies. Caelius 

 Rhodiginus (Antiq. lib. 8. c. 10.) says, in refer 

 ence to such cases, &quot; While I am writing con 

 cerning ventriloquous persons, there is, in my -wn 

 country, a woman of a mean extract, who has an 

 unclean spirit in her belly, from whence may be 

 heard a voice, not very strong indeed, but very 

 articulate and intelligible. Multitudes &quot;f people 

 have heard this voice, as well as my?e&amp;lt;f, and all 

 imaginable precaution has been used in examin 

 ing into the truth of this fact:&quot; &quot; Q,uandofuturi 

 avida portentus mens, saepe accersitum ventrilo- 

 quam, ac exutam amictu, ne quid fraudis occul- 

 taret, inspectare et audire concupivit.&quot; The 

 author adds, &quot; This demon is called Cincinnatu~ 

 lus, and when the woman calls upon him by his 

 name, he immediately answers her.&quot; Several 

 ancient writers have informed us, that in the 

 times of Paganism, evil spirits had communion 

 with these ventriloquce per partes secrettores. 

 Chrysostom says,&quot; Traditur Pythia foemina 

 fuisse, qune in Tripodes sedens cxpansa malignum 

 spiritum per interna immissum, et per genitalw 



