Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1901-09-17
vENTR1LooUIsM.
Art That Appealed to the superstitions
in Past Ages.

D
Ventriloquism is now an amuse-
ment, but it used to be a very serious
business. To it the old religions owed
much, and without it nearly all their
oracles and talking statues would
have been dumb. In Persia, Greece
and Egyptthe ventriloquist was made
much Of, and secured for the mys,
teries The people then feared him;
now they laugh at him.
But they only laugh at him in civil
| lied countries, says Golden Days In
Ashantee, for insttnce, the yentrilo-
quistis still a power, or was some years
ago, as the event here related clearly
shows. A man there died, and to dis
cover the cause of his death, the tribe
was assembled. In the center Of
large hut there was put a roughly7cut
wooden doll, symbol of some native
deity, duly decorated with the appro-
pirate mystical ornaments.
Into the hut the people were
brought, and the fetishman, OF priest
feathers and bells complete-be-
gan his violently exciting address
When he had worked sufficiently on
the feelings of the audience, he talked
to the idol-and the idol replied.
Tie asked if the dead man we're sat
isfed with his funeral, and from the
wooden lips came words of thanks;
and in reply to other questions the
idol expressed its approval of all that
had been done, r---t-,-'~
/ Then came the supreme moment.
The fetishman asked the doll to name
the man murderer. Dead was the
silence in the hut. One by one the
name was given of every person there,
and to each name the idol answered.:
E"Nop But when at last came the
name of one who had refused to pay
the customary fee for the services Of
the fctishman the idol joyfully said;
'Yesp And off went the victim to be
tortured and slain. Such was the use
Of ventriloquism on the west coast Of
Africa in 1886.
Not so very long ago there was a
negro in the Island of st. Thomas,
who used to divine on the same lines,
taking about with him clay statue
he had roughly made. In Hayti the
same sort of thing is going on to-day,
and the voices come to condemn from
!, even the trees and the rivers.
This carries us back again to the
past. Did not the tree speak to Apol-
lonius at the command of the Egyp-
tan gymnosophist in a feeble voice
like that of woman? Did not the
, oaks of Dodona answer questions in
every branch? Did not Pythagoras
solemnly talk to the River Nessus,
and receive for reply the equivalent
to "Good-morning, Pythagoras?"
At Fernando Po, on the African
west coast, there still exists the wor-
ship OF Umo, and great is the venera-
ton for the grottoes in which his rites
are held. At the height of the excite
ment the priest stands alone, and the
worshipers one by one lay their gifts
before him, asking him to question
, Umo on some matter in which they
are concerned. Soon the priest be-
comes troubled in look, and tells the
crowd of eager listeners that Umo is
approaching. Then from the ground
comes a sonorous voice, and to every
question put the voice replies. 1t is
| Umo who is talking, but who is Umo?
A similar scene was described by
iCaptain Lyon as taking place among
the Eskimos at Pglulik. The sorcerer
consented to invoke the spirit Of
Tornga if adequately paid The pres
ents were given, and Tonga came.
THE lights were put out, and the sor-
cerew began his chant, ending in an
appeal to Tornga to present himself
Suddenly his. voice became muffled,
and as he spoke seemed to come from
farther and farther away, dropping
to whisper and stopping altogether.
1t had gone in search of Tornga.
In about minute the whisper was
heard again, increasing in strength,
and seemingly approaching, accom-
panied by another voice, loud and
harsh, and very different. Theloud,
harsh voice said a few words, made
itself generally agreeable, and then
took its departure, speaking even
more softly as it went, and subsiding
in whisper that was cut short by the