The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-11-03
TABLE-TURNING.
How it was Praeticed by the An
clients.

How many persons who practice, or
who discredit, the fashionable exercise
of table-turning and spirit-invoking,
says writer in the London Examiner,
are aware that, years ago, before our
own ancestors had tables to turn, the
process was a we'll recognized one in
Imperial Rome and Constantinople?
Of abnormal manifestations of dis
turbance in the ordinary range of mo-
bility among human beings we hear
nothing in ancient history, but we do
hear enough of the manner in which
the Greeks and Romans in early Chris
tian ages edeavored, by assumed spirit
ual agency, to influence the movements
of the legs of tables, to make us sensi-
Bile that modern processes for efecting
the same end are inferior in point of
elegance and awe-inspiring effect. This,
we think will scarcely be denied by
those best acquainted with the present
method of conducting seanee when
they learn the Roman method of opera
ton, which is as follows:
When a family or an individual de-
sired to obtain information in regard to
some friend beyond the pale of human
knowledge, recourse was had to priest
i E., professor practlsed in the arts
of superhuman intelligence. Accord
ingly, when the appointed day came, the
officiating medium appeared clothed in
white, and bearing in his hands a small
table standing on a tripod base. Paus-
ing at the entrance door he waited till
| the threshold and the atrium had been
sprinkled with aromatic and symbolic
fluids before be passed on into the prin-
cipal apartment of the house, and de-
posted his tripod over the center of the
floor. This table, which, as we are in
formed, must be made of laurel wood
cut under awe-inspiring auspices, had
attached to its base metallic hoop en-
cireling it, on which the letters of tht
Greek alphabet were craven, while it
upper rim bore a number of catgu
strings, to each of which silveret
leaden ball was suspended.
When after the due course of prayers
incantations, and various gentle aids t.
motion, the tables began to rotate, tn
priest and his attendants, who sat Oh
the floor forming circle round it, note,
down each letter that was in turn touch
ed by the extended strings of the rota
ting tripod. These letters were put to
gether, and the words they formed &C
cepted as the answer of the oracle. l
the case of table-turning in the latte
days of the Empire, which has bee
transmitted to US, we find that body't
conspirators, being desirous of ascel
tanning if the pretender Theodoru
whose cause they advocated, would
the successor of Emperor Valens, ties
ed the question by this interdicted moo
S of divination; and conceiving that,
8 the letters III E 0 d had been struc
e there could be no doubt of the fulfilmel
q of their wishes, they hastily overture
r the table, hurried the priests out of Il
l. house, and dispersed, lest their ey
u deeds might be detected by the imperi
: officers appointed to enforce the pena
ties incurred by dealers in magic. Fat
however, was too strong for them, f
B. Theodorus was seized and put to deaf
ie as history can testify, while Theodosi
D. succeeded Valens, and thus redeem
III the oracle from the charge of mendacit
n