Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1873-06-05
VENTRILOQUISM.

deTs are of course aware. is formed fro,
the two Latin words reaier, the belly. an
, Loguor. to speak The origin Of yen,rilo
quIsm Is not known with precision. bu,
Is supposed TO be very ancient. as n
+ practice was common in Egyp, and Tndi
IN the earliest periods of which We hav
information. The Hebrew and Gree
names Of the art have the same signi6ca
ton as The Latin term. and they ori.ina
ted frnm the practice of the wi;ches an,
persons supposed 10 have familiar spiri,
among the PhGnicians and the Jews an,
the priests and pricstesscs of the Greeks
causing the answers to the questions aske,
by those who consulted them, TO procce,
apparently from the abdomen, in which
rs they alleged. resided their demon
There can be no doubt that vcntriloqnisu
was prac,ced in Egypt by the Magician
In the time of Moses. The Scripture
contain manr denunciaiions Of it, in lie.
vIiicus XIX. 81 and Deuteronomy xviii
lu-l4 Isaiah also hluIes to it in chap.
ter xxx, 4th verse. .lasfollows: Thou
shalt be brought-dowh, shalt speak out oI
the ground. thy speech shall be low a.
dust. thy voice hall be as one that has a
familiar spirit out of the ground. ani ,hy
I speech shall whisper out of the dust"
! In all these cases the term translated in
the English Bible Having a familiar spir-
It li'crnIiy means speaking from the
belly" Notwithstanding the fact tia,
the penalty Of death was pronounced
against it. the practice of divination or
ven,rloqnism continued among the Jews.
as the references to it by the prophets
plainly prove. Nor did it cease as pre-
tended means Of revelation in the early
centuries Of the Christian era. as the case
in Acts xvi l6, the wcll-known practice
OF gasir"mancy among the Greeks. and
repeated references Of ~. Chrysos'om and
other of the early Christian Fathers show
It's use for such purposes was finally aian-
doucd during the Middle Ages. II NAV
b. said in connection with the a'lusion TO
the use of the art among the Hebrews.
'tat many persons believe the witch of
Endor to have been ventriloquist. and
hold that she thus conveyed To the alright
Cd Saul tie assumed replies Of the sh.dc
OF Samuel. This view i confirmed. in the
opinion Of certain learned writer's, bv the
historian Joscphus
II was supposed for many ycars-and
eminent Psychologists gave countcnance to
the thcory-that some regularity in the
conformation Of the larynx was requisite
for vcntriloquism. or at least that il was
accomplished by processes essentially diff
tercnt from those adopted in ordinary
speaking or singing: but it has been de-
monS:rnted that the shcal organs Of the
ventriloquist arc the Same rs those Of 9TH
er men. nor is his use of them materiall,
different from that Of others For success
in the exercise of his art. he requires only
keen perceptions. an ear dclicatcly a'tuucd
TO the variations "f sound produced bv
distance or direction. aud n strongly de-
vclcred mimetic faculty. The vocal or
gans possess the power of initiating. un-
der skill:ul training, all the sounds Of an
innate or innnimatc life. and in such way
rs TO represent them rs heard from great
er or less distances and from different ,li
rcctions. The vcntriloquist is well aware
deceived than that Of hearing. because in
listening To sounds VIC judge of their re-
motcnesS by comparing them with other
sounds whose distance we are familiar wHh.
and determine their distance by an nrbi-
trary and often incorrect estimate Of their
relative volume at the place Of their sup
posed em;Ssion--a standard which must
often be faulty.
The uncertainty with regard to the d.
rcction Of sound is the foundation Of the
art of ventriloquism. five place ten men
in row at such distance from us that they
are included in the angle within which we
cannot judge of the direction of sound,
and if on calm day each of them speaks
in succession. we shall not be able with
closed eyes to determine from which of
the ten men any of the sounds proceed.
and We shall be incapable of perceiving
that there is any difference in the direc-
ton of the sounds emitted By the two out
ermost. If man aud child are placed
within the same angle, and if the man
speaks with the same accent Of child.
without any corresponding motion in his
mouth and face. we shall necessarily be-
lieve that his voice comes from the child
hay. If tho child is 50 distant from the
man ,ha; tue voice actually appears to us
to come from the man, we will still con-
tinue TO believe that the child is the speak.
CT; aud this conviction would acquire ai-
ditioual strength If the child favored the
deception by accommodating its features
and gestures to the words spoken By the
man.
So powerful. indeed. is the influence OF
this deception that if a dog placed near
the man were to open its mouth and shake
its head responsive to the words uttered
by bis ncighbor. we would rather believe
that the dog spoke than that the SQUADS
proceeded from a person whose mouth was
shut. and the muscles of whose face we're
in perfect rcpose. II our imagination were
even directed to marble statute or a
lump Of inanimate matter, as the source
frem which We were TO expec, the sounds
TO issue. We would still be deceived. aud
would refer the sounds to these lifeless
objects. The illusion would greatly be
promoted If the voice were totally differ.
snt IN its tone and character from that of
the nan from whom !, really comes. Aud
IL he occasionally speaks in his cwn full.
measured voice, the belief will be irresis-
tible that the assumed voice proceeds from
the qaadruPea or from the inanimats OBJ
ject.
The ventriloquist u,ters the socnd with
The sEect i; would have upon the ls-r.r's