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popular actions he had introduced the English language, drefs, manners, and religion, in a country at that time full of the most violent prejudicés against every thing which came from a quarter fo hoftile. His obftinate attachment to the interest of his brother in law, Edgar Atheling, involved the nation in a feries of wars more expenfive and calamitous than profitable or glorious. The large eftates which he had fettled on fome noble exiles who followed the fortune of that weak Prince, muft have greatly exasperated the Scottish nobility, and alienated their affettons from his family. He had been overmatched by the conqueror of England,and grofly infulted by his fucceffor, William Rufus. His heir apparent, Prince Edward, had perished unfortunately with Malcolm at Alnwick. The reft of his children by Queen Margaret were under age, and that Princefs, already worn out by the aufterities of a fuperftitious life, overwhelmed with grief, furvived her husband and fon but a few days.

All thefe circumftances confpiring together must have made it eafy for Donald Bane to poffefs himself of the throne vacant by the death of his brother, without purchafing the aid of a Scandinavian potentate, so much at the expence of his country and his own reputation. His pretenfions to the crown were oppofed only by a law neither ancient nor ever much regarded; and the distractions at court in confequence of fo many unhappy events, afforded him the most favourable opportunity of af ferting his claim. The conclufion I would draw from what has been faid on this fubject, appears to me to be perfectly juft: that our hiftorians were ill informed with regard to the manner how, and the time when the Western Ifles fell under the dominion of Nor

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reigned over the Ifles forty years. Olave was a Prince of a peaceable difpofition, diftinguished greatly by the religious virtues of the times,and extremely liberal to ecclefiaftics. He was educated in the court of Henry I. and was on good terms with the monarchs of England throughout his life. He lived in amity with Ireland; and it does not appear that thofe Kings of Scotland, who were his cotemporaries, difputed his title either to Man or the Ifles.

Selden complained that Olaus and Anlave Amlaff and Anlaphus, are names which breed great confufion in the English hiftory; but thefe names feemingly different appear to me to be the fame. The fennachies of the isles call the Olave, of whom we are now speaking, Aula or Ambla, in Latin, Amlavus, Anlaphus, or Olaus; and they diftinguifh him from other Princes of the fame name by the title of Ambla Dearg mac Ri Lochlin, that is to fay, Red Olave, the King of Lochlin's Son. God. red, the father of Olave, was from Scandinavia, which is called Lochlin by the inhabitants of the Highlands and Ifles.

It is the opinion of fome that Lochlin and Denmark are words of the fame import: but it appears to me rather that Lochlin and Scandinavia are

fynonimous terms. Harold Harfager, and Magnus, the Barefooted, were Norwegian Princes, and the iflanders give no other appellation to thofe great conquerors, nor other Nermans, who held their ancestors under fubjection for manay ages, than that of Lochlinich.

In the Galic language, Loch fignifies a great collection of water, whether falt or fresh, and lan full. Lun is the name of a certain bird remarkably voracious. The Baltic might have been very properly called Lochlan, if it neither ebbs nor flows; and many different countries, particularly Scotland and Ireland, experienced that from this fea fwarmed an immenfe number of pi. rates, who by an eafy and just meta.

phor

1

phor might have been compared to birds of prey and of paffage. But whatever the etymon of the word Lochlin may be, it is certain that all the adventurers who came from the Baltic, or from the Northern feas, and the countries bordering upon them, whether Norwegians, Swedes, Finlanders, Ruffians, Livonians, Poles, Pomeranians, Danes, Friedlanders, or Icelanders, were by the Irish and Hebridian Scots called Lochlinich.

It has been thought a matter of wonder that Scandinavia, fo barren in every other refpect, should have been fo very fertile of men, as to pour forth whole inundations of rovers almost every year from the latter end of the seventh century, at leaft, till the thirteenth.

Some ingenious writers have endeavoured to account for this extraordinary phænomenon by refolving it into the effects of polygamy. A plurality of women were, by the laws or cuftom of Scandinavia, confined to the bed of one man, if we believe thefe writers; and hence it was that the inhabitants multiplied almoft beyond belief. A country in this fituation, which did not abound with the neceffaries of life, could not but fend numerous colonies abroad in queft of either plunder or fettlements: and fuch colonies, confifting of adventurers hardy, enterprifing, lawless, poor, and determined to make their

have carried defolation far and wide.

But it is by no means certain that polygamy was established either by law or cuftom among the ancient Scandinavians. The Germania Magna of the old geographers comprehended at leaft the Southern coaft of the Baltic, together with its Ifles. Mela and Ta citus feem to extend it much farther *; and Cluverius is pofitive that Norway, Sweden, and every region lying to the

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Le Ventriloque, &c. The Ventriloquist. By M. De La Chapelle, Cenfor Royal at Paris, Member of the Academies at Lyons and Rouen, and F. R. S. In two Parts, 12mo. London, De'l'Etanville. Paris, Duchefne. 1772.

HIS work, as the Author, at

T fase

placence, more than once declares, is an Unique, and on a very singular and curious fubject. Euftathius indeed, the learned bishop of Antioch in the fourth century, and his tranflator and commentator, Leo Allatius, about the beginning of the feventeenth, have, hẹ acknowledges, likewife treated of the fame matter; but they have discussed it only incidentally, and with a parti. cular view to the circumstances atten

ding

*Mela, lib. chap. 3. Tacit. de mor. Germ. cap. 45. + See Ware's Antiquities of Ireland, chap 24.

ding the vifit made by Saul to the witch of Endor*. The prefent Author, on the contrary, confiders the fubject in a general light, and confirms all his remarks and reasonings upon it by actual obfervations made on two very capital Ventriloquifts now living. As this is a kind of maiden fubject, or at least not much known to the generality of Readers, we fhall dwell fomewhat largely upon it.

Ventriloquifm, if we may be allowed to use the term, in order to avoid circumlocution, is a peculiar gift, art, or quality, of which certain perfons are and have been poffeffed, by means of which they have been enabled to modify the voice in fuch a manner, as to make it appear to thofe prefent to proceed from the belly of the ipeakers: (from which circumftance it derives its appellation) or rather to make it seem to proceed from any distance, or in any direction whatever. Some faint traces of this art or faculty are to be found in the writings of the antients; but many more are to be discovered there, if we adopt the Author's opinion; that the refponfes of many of the antient oracles were actually delivered by perfons poffeffed of this quality, fo very capable of being applied to the purpoles of prieft-craft and delufion.

Nay, it will appear in the courfe of this Article, that an intire community even of priests themselves, in the very neighbourhood of Paris, as we conjecture, were fairly taken in by it, in confequence of an innocent piece of wag gery plaid off upon them, by a perfon who poffeffes this talent in a very eminent degree.

The Author of this performance is known to many of the curious, by an invention of his that has lately been announced in fome of the foreign papers, which he calls the Scaphandre, and of which we shall give a fhort account at the end of this Article. Having brought this ufeful piece of

machinery, as he affirms, to its utmost perfection, his attention was excited towards a new and very different object, in confequence of a converfation at which he was prefent about two years ago; in which fome persons of learning and probity related many furprizing circumftances concerning the talents of a certain Ventriloquist, one M. St. Gille, a grocer at St. Germain en-Layne, not far from Paris; whofe powers in that way were aftonishing, and had given occafion to many fingu lar and diverting fcenes. The Author was fo ftruck at the marvellous anec. dotes related to him, that he immediately formed the resolution of first afcertaining the matter of fact by the teftimony of his own fenfes, and then of enquiring into the cause and manner in which the phenomena were produced.

After fome preparatory and neceffary fteps, (for M. St. Gille, he had been told, did not choose to gratify the curiofity of every one) the Abbe waited upon him, informed him of his design, and was very cordially received. He was taken into a parlour on the ground floor, when M. S. Gille and himself fat on the oppofite fides of a fmall fire, with only a table between them: the Author keeping his eyes conftantly fixed upon M. St. Gille all the time. Half an hour had paffed, during which that gentleman diverted the Abbe with the relation of many comic scenes which he had given occafion to by this talent of his; when, all on a fudden, the Abbe heard himself called by his name and title, in a voice that feemed to come from the roof of a house at a distance. He was almoft petrified with aftonithment: on recollecting himfelf however, and asking M. St. Gille whether he had not just then given him a fpecimen of his art, he was answered only by a fmile: but while the Abbe was pointing to the house from which the voice had appeared to him to proceed, his

*See Samuel, chap. xxviii.

furprize

furprize was augmented on hearing himself anfwered, "It was not from that quarter," apparently in the fame kind of voice as before, but which now feemed to iffue from under the earth, at one of the corners of the room. In fhort this factitious voice played, as it were, every where about him, and feemed to proceed from any quarter, or distance, from which the operator chose to transmit it to him. The illufion was fo very strong, that prepared as the Abbe was for this kind of converfation, his mere fenfes were abfolutely incapable of undeceiving him. Though confcious that the voice proceeded from the mouth of M. St. Gil le, that gentleman appeared abfolutely mute, while he was exercifing this talent; nor could the Author perceive any change whatever in his countenance. He obferved however, at this firft vifit, that M. St. Gille contrived, but without any affectation, to prefent only the profile of his face to him, while he was fpeaking as a Ventriloquift.

principally fupported their credit, and
derived their influence, from the exer-
cife of this particular art.
This fup-
pofitión, he thinks, will not appear by
any means forced or incredible: whe-
ther we reflect on the nature of the art
itfelf, fo very capable of impofing on
the multitude; or on the various other
confiderations here offered in fupport
of it. The vocal or peeking oaks for
inftance, of Dodona, (the feat of one of
the most celebrated of the antient ora-
cles) receive from hence a much more
fimple and plaufible folution, than from
any of the hypothefes invented by the
Authors who have treated on this fub-
ject. There was no neceffity, he ob-
ferves, to conceal the priest, who was
to utter the refponfes, in a hollow tree;
or to form fubterraneous cavities for
his reception. These contrivances
could fcarce be executed or employed
without frequent danger of discovery:
whereas a fingle Ventriloque, without
any apparatus, could render not only
oaks, but even rocks and clouds, vocal,
without any hazard of detection.

After various difcuffions, more or lefs connected with his principal fubject, the Author relates at length all the teftimonies that he has been able to collect, relating to the few Ventriloquifts that have been defcribed by different authors, within the last two or three hundred years. From this collection we shall only extract the fubftance of a little history given by Brodeau, a learned critic in the 16th century; who

The Abbe, who is a moft unconfcionable and multifarious digreffer, and is continually ftarting out of his way to explain or difcufs the minuteft matter that comes across him, proceeds directly from his nartative of the first vifit he made to M. St. Gille, to account for all the circumftances attending Saul's conference with the witch of Endor; and endeavours to fhew that the fpeech fuppofed to be addreffed to Saul by the ghost of Samuel, actually proceeded from the mouth of the re-relates one of the fingular feats performputed forcerefs, whom he fuppofes to have been a capital Ventriloquift. On thefe grounds he explains that tranfaction, and reconciles all its circumftances to the relation given of it in the bible; where, it is to be observed, that Saul is not faid to have feen Samuel, but only to have heard a voice; which it now appears, a Ventriloquift can produce and tranfmit from any quarter, and with any degree of ftrength whatHe afterwards brings many inftances to prove that the ancient oracles

ever.

ed by a moft capital Ventriloquift and
cheat, in his time; who had not only
the talent of emitting a voice, from any
diftance, or in any direction; but had
likewife a particular knack at counter-
feiting the tone or manner of speaking
of those with whom he had at any time
conversed. He was called Louis Bra-
bant, and was Valet de Chambre to
Francis the firft.
Our countryman
Dickenfon fpeaks of him particularly,
in his tract, intitled Delphi Phænici-

Zantes

zantes, printed in 12mo. at Oxford, in 1655.

Louis, it feems, had fallen moft defperately in love with a young, handfome, and rich heiress; but was reject ed by the parents, as an unfuitable match for their daughter, on account of the lownefs of his circumftances. The young lady's father dying, he makes a visit to the widow, who was totally ignorant of his fingular talent. Suddenly, on his firft appearance, in open day, in her own houfe, and in the prefence of feveral perfons who were with her, the hears herfelf accofted, in a voice perfectly refembling that of her dead husband, and which seemed to proceed from above; exclaiming, "Give my daughter in marriage to Louis Brabant. He is a man of great fortune,and of an excellent character. I now endure the inexpreffible torments of purgatory, for having refufed her to him. If you obey this admonition, I fhall foon be delivered from this place of torment. You will at the fame time provide a worthy husband for your daughter, and procure everlafting repofe to the foul of your poor huf

band.

The widow could not for a moment relift this dread fummons, which had not the most diftant appearance of proceeding from Louis Brabant; whofe countenance exhibited no vifible change, and whofe lips were clofs and motion lefs, during the delivery of it. Accordingly the confents immediately to receive him for her fon-in-law. Louis's finances, however, were in a very low fituation; and the formalities attending the marriage contract rendered it neceffary for him to exhibit fome fhew of riches, and not to give the ghoft the lye direct. He accordingly goes to work upon a fresh fubject; one Cornu, an old and rich banker at Lyons; who had accumulated inmenfe wealth by ufury and extortion, and was known to be haunted by remorfe of conscience on account of the manner in which he had acquired it. VOL. III.

TRE.

393

Paffing over the prelimina, and prepararions, behold Louis Brabant tete a tete with the old ufurer, in his little back parlour, preparing him for his enfuing operations upon him, by artfully turning the converfation upon religious fubjects; on demons and fpectres, the pains of purgatory, and the torments of hell. During an interval of filence between them, a voice is heard, which to the astonished banker feems to be that of his deceased fa

ther, complaining, as in the former cafe, of his dreadful fituation in purgatory, and calling upon him to deliver him inftantly from thence, by putting into the hands of Louis Brabant, then with him, a large fum for the redemption of Chriftians then in flavery with the Turks: threatening him at the fame time with eternal damnation, if he did not take this method to expiate likewife his own fins. The Reader will naturally fuppofe that Louis Brabant affected a due degree of aftonishment upon the occafion; and further promoted the deception by acknowledging his having devoted himself to the profecution of the charitable defign imputed to him by the ghoft.

ous.

An old ufurer is naturally fufpici

Accordingly the wary banker makes a fecond appointment with the ghoft's delegate, for the next day; and, to render any defign of impofing upon him utterly abortive, takes him into the open fields; where not a house, or a tree, or even a bush, or a pit, were in fight, capable of screening any fuppofed confederate.

This extraordinary caution excited the Ventriloquift on his part, to exert all the powers of his art. Wherever the banker conducts him, at every step, his ears are faluted on all fides, with the complaints and groans not only of his father, but of all his deceased relations, imploring him for the love of God, and in the name of every faint in the calendar, to have mercy on his own foul and theirs, by effectually feconding with his purfe the intentions of his worthy E e e companion.

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