

VENTRILOQUISM EXPLAINED. 235 



tightness of the windows, while others, more intent on 

 their newspapers, contented themselves with putting on 

 their hats and buttoning their coats. Mr. Stewart 

 likewise mentions an exhibition formerly common in 

 some of the continental theatres, where a performer on 

 the stage displayed the dumb show of singing with his 

 lips and eyes and gestures, while another person unseen 

 supplied the music with his voice. The deception in 

 this case he found to be at first so complete as to impose 

 upon the nicest ear and the quickest eye ; but in the pro- 

 gress of the entertainment he became distinctly sensible 

 of the imposition, and sometimes wondered that it should 

 have misled him for a moment. In this case there can be 

 no doubt that the deception was at first the work of the 

 imagination, and was not sustained by the acoustic 

 principle. The real and the mock singer were too distant, 

 and when the influence of the imagination subsided, the 

 true direction of the sound was discovered. This detec- 

 tion of the imposture, however, may have arisen from 

 another cause. If the mock singer happened to change 

 the position of his head, while the real singer made no 

 corresponding change in his voice, the attentive spectator 

 would at once notice this incongruity, and discover the 

 imposition. 



In many of the feats of ventriloquism the performer 

 contrives, under some pretence or other, to conceal his 

 face, but ventriloquists of great distinction, such as M. 

 Alexandre, practise their art without any such conceal- 

 ment. 



Ventriloquism loses its distinctive character if its 

 imitations are not performed with a voice from the belly. 

 The voice, indeed, does not actually come from that 

 region, but when the ventriloquist utters sounds from the 

 larynx without moving the muscles of his face, he gives 

 them strength by a powerful action of the abdominal 



