| Ventriloquism is almost as old as the world, or at least | | | | as the voices described were such as having always |
| as old as intelligible spoken language, but just when and | | | | been peculiarly identified with ventriloquism, the practice |
| where in the dim and misty ages of the past it had its | | | | of this art by unscrupulous priests would seem to |
| origin will forever remain unknown. Unlike other arts it | | | | afford a natural solution of the mystery. |
| was not brought to perfection through the slow | | | | This explanation might also be applied to the |
| development and accretion of years. From its very | | | | phenomenon attending the dawning of a new day |
| nature it must have sprung into existence full grown, | | | | upon the colossal statue of Memnon, which stood near |
| like Venus from the sea. Under various guises its | | | | Thebes in Egypt on the bank of the Nile, and became |
| practice may be traced by the student in those | | | | renowned as the "Vocal Memnon." According to |
| venerable chronicles which faintly echo the | | | | ancient tradition, this statue when first touched by the |
| long-vanished life of antiquity. | | | | rays of the rising sun emitted a musical tone, like the |
| Although proof positive is wanting of the fact, it is fair | | | | snapping of a harp string, which the imaginative Greeks |
| to assume that many of the occurrences involving the | | | | conceived to be the voice of Memnon greeting his |
| assistance of an apparently super-natural voice, by | | | | mother Eos (the dawn). Although the particular cause |
| which many of the old superstitions were fostered | | | | and character of the sounds have never been |
| among the early races, were feats of ventriloquism. | | | | satisfactorily explained, the state of expectancy with |
| At one time this belief in a "second voice," or "familiar | | | | which the silent and probably awe-struck worshipers |
| spirit," as it was so often called, took the form of | | | | awaited the sunrise, and their sublime faith in the reality |
| divination by which the supposed spirit was evoked | | | | of the phenomenon, were distinctly favorable to the |
| and consulted as to the right course of conduct on | | | | production of a ventriloquial illusion by an attendant |
| important occasions; and this divination, which was | | | | priest. |
| practiced in a variety of ways among the different | | | | If there is any doubt as to the part ventriloquism played |
| semi-barbaric races of the ancient world, can be | | | | in this divination by a familiar spirit, there can be none in |
| traced through a long period of time. | | | | the method employed by the Greeks, which was |
| By the Mosaic Law, which was given about fifteen | | | | termed gastromancy. In this the voice of the "spirit" |
| hundred years before Christ, the Jews were forbidden | | | | made its oracular replies apparently from the priest's |
| from consulting those having familiar spirits. So | | | | belly, the diviner himself standing in the meanwhile with |
| accustomed, however, were the Hebrews, who had | | | | impassive countenance and immovable lips. |
| evidently become acquainted with the voice during | | | | Coming down to modern times, we find that Louis |
| their captivity in Egypt, with this mode of divination that | | | | Brabant, valet de chambre of Francis I, won for himself |
| one of their prophets compares it to the power of | | | | a rich and beautiful heiress by aid of his wonderful |
| sanctified utterance where he says (Isaiah 29: 4): "And | | | | talent as a ventriloquist; and the works of M. L'Abbe La |
| thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit out | | | | Chappelle, published in 1772, contain references to the |
| of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the | | | | astonishing ventriloquial achievements of Baron Menge |
| dust." | | | | at Vienna, and those of M. St. Gille, a grocer living near |
| Just where the Egyptians obtained their knowledge of | | | | Paris. Another famous performer, M. Alexandre, was |
| the art is uncertain, but in the performance of the | | | | also so great and adept at changing his countenance, |
| "mysteries" which accompanied their worship of Osiris, | | | | that at one time he completely deceived a sculptor, |
| the judge of the dead in the lower world, a seemingly | | | | before whom he sat five times in the borrowed |
| unearthly voice, proceeding either from the earth or | | | | character of a famous clergyman of Abbotsford, with |
| from overhead, played no unimportant part. Inasmuch | | | | whom the sculptor was well acquainted. |