Ventriloquism may be divided into two sections, or general heads, the
first of which may be appropriately designated as Polyphonism, consists
of the simple imitation of the voices of human creatures, of animals,
of musical instruments, and sounds and noises of every description,
in which no illusion is intended, but where, on the contrary, the
imitation is avowedly executed by the mimic, among which we may
classify sawing, planing, door-creaking, sounds of musical instruments,
and other similar imitations.
Secondly, we have ventriloquism proper, which consists in the imitation
of such voices, sounds, and noises, not as originally in him, but in
some other appropriate source, at a given or varying distance, in any,
or even in several directions, either singly or together, a process
exciting both wonder and amusement, and which may be accomplished by
thousands who have hitherto viewed the ventriloquist as invested with
a power wholly denied by nature to themselves.
Polyphony is very common, for there is scarcely a public school which
does not possess at least one boy capable of imitating the mewing of
a cat, the barking of a dog, or the squeaking voice of an old woman.
It is very seldom that even a blundering attempt at ventriloquism is
heard, except from a public platform, simply from the want of knowledge
of how to proceed. The art does not depend on a particular structure
or organization of these parts, but may be acquired by almost any one
ardently desirous of attaining it, and determined to persevere in
repeated trials.
If a man, though in the same room with another, can, by any peculiar
modifications of the organs of speech, produce a sound, which, in
faintness, tone, body, and every other sensible quality, perfectly
resembles a sound delivered from the roof of an opposite house, the
ear will naturally, without examination, refer it to that situation
and distance; the sound which he hears being only a sign, which from
infancy he has been accustomed by experience to associate with the idea
of a person speaking from the house-top. A deception of this kind is
practised with success on the organ and other musical instruments.
The English Cyclopædia says “the _essence_ of ventriloquy consists in
creating illusions as to the distance and direction whence a sound has
travelled.” How these sounds are produced, we will now show.