204 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



and those of the other three pair with no 

 weight at all. These three tubes ascended 

 through the body of the figure and terminated in 

 three small reservoirs placed in its trunk. These 

 reservoirs were thus united into one, which, 

 ascending into the throat, formed by its enlarge- 

 ment the cavity of the mouth terminated by two 

 small lips, which rested upon the ^hole of the 

 flute. These lips had the power of opening more 

 or less, and by a particular mechanism, they could 

 advance or recede from the hole in the flute. 

 "Within the cavity of the mouth there is a small 

 moveable tongue for opening and shutting the 

 passage for the wind through the lips of the 

 figure. 



The motions of the fingers, lips, and tongue 

 of the figure were produced by means of a 

 revolving cylinder, thirty inches long and twenty- 

 one in diameter. By means of pegs and brass 

 staples fixed in fifteen different divisions in its 

 circumference, fifteen different levers, similar to 

 those in a barrel organ, were raised and depressed. 

 Seven of 'these regulated the motions of the 

 seven fingers for stopping the holes of the flute, 

 which they did by means of steel chains rising 

 through the body, and directed by pulleys to the 

 shoulder, elbow, and fingers. Other three of 

 the levers communicating with the valves of the 

 three reservoirs, regulated the ingress of the air, 

 so as to produce a stronger or a weaker tone. 

 Another lever opened the lips so as to give a free 

 passage to the air, and another contracted them 

 for the opposite purpose. A third lever drew 

 them backwards from the orifice of the flute, and 

 a fourth pushed them forward. The remaining 



