_Ventriloquism_.--What evidence is there, that _ventriloquism_ was made
use of in the ancient oracles? Was the [Greek: pneuma puthonos] (Acts,
xvi. 16.) an example of the exercise of this art? Was the Witch of Endor
a ventriloquist? or what is meant by the word [Greek: eggastrimuthos] at
Isai. xix. 3., in the Septuagint?
"Plutarch informs us," says Rollin (_Ancient History_, vol. i. p. 65.),
"that the god did not compose the verses of the oracle. He inflamed the
Pythia's imagination, and kindled in her soul that living light which
unveiled all futurity to her. The words she uttered in the heat of her
enthusiam, having neither method nor connection, and coming only by
starts, to use that expression [Greek: eggastrimuthos] from the bottom
of her stomach, or rather from her belly, were collected {89} with care
by the prophets, who gave them afterwards to the poets to be turned into
verse."
If the Pythian priestess was really a ventriloquist, to what extent was
she conscious of the deception she practised?