L.B.L.
VENTRILOQUISM
(Vol. ii., p. 88.)
Plutarch (tom. ii., p. 397.D.) has these words:
[Greek: "Ou gar esti theou hae gaerus oude ho phthoggos, oude he lexis, oude to metron, alla taes yunaikos: ekeinos de monas tas phantasias paristaesi, kau phos en tae psuchae poiei pros to mellon.">[
If that be the passage referred to be Rollin, nothing is said there about ventriloquism. The Scholiast on Aristoph. (Plut. 39.) tells us how the Pythian received the afflatus, but says nothing about her speaking from her belly: He only has
[Greek: "Ta taes manteias hae mallon manias ephtheggeto hraemata.">[
In another place of Plutarch (tom. ii., p. 414. E.) we have [Greek: eggastrimuthoi] and [Greek: puthones] used as synonymous words to express persons into whose bodies the god might be supposed to enter, "using their bodies and voices as instruments." The only word in that passage which appears to hint at what we call ventriloquism is [Greek: hupophtheggesthai].
I have very little doubt that amongst the various tricks of ancient divination ventriloquism found a place; but I cannot give that direct evidence which MR. SANSOM asks for. I think it very likely that "the wizards that peep and mutter" (Isa. viii. 19.) were of this class; but it is not clear that the [Hebrew: 'obot]—the [Greek eggastrimuthoi] of the LXX.—were so. The English version has "them that have familiar spirits." The Hebrew word signifies bottles; and this may mean no more than that the spirit of divination was contained in the person's body as in a bottle, "using his body and his voice as instruments," as in the place of Plutarch quoted above. We have something like this, Acts, xix. 15., where "the evil spirit answered," no doubt in the voice of the demoniac, "Jesus I know," &c. Michaelis (Suppl., p. 39.) gives a different meaning and etymology to [Hebrew: 'obot]. He derives it from the Arabic, which signifies (1) rediit, (2) occidit sol, (3) noctu venit or noctu aliquid fecit. The first and third of these meanings will make it applicable to the [Greek: nekromanteia] (of which the witch of Endor was a practitioner), which was carried on at night. See Hor. Sat. I. ix.