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| Making a Skull Speak.
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Chapter
XLI.—Making a Skull Speak.
But putting a skull on the ground, they make it
speak in this manner. The skull itself is made out of the caul of
an ox;271
| 271 The Abbe
Cruice suggests ἐπίπλεον
βώλου, which he thinks corresponds
with the material of which the pyramid mentioned in a previous chapter
was composed. He, however, makes no attempt at translating
ἐπίπλεον. Does he
mean that the skull was filled with clay? His emendation is
forced. | and when fashioned
into the requisite figure, by means of Etruscan wax and prepared
gum,272
| 272 Or,
“rubbings of” (Cruice). | (and) when this
membrane is placed around, it presents the appearance of a skull, which
seems to all273
to speak when
the contrivance operates; in the same manner as we have explained in
the case of the (attendant) youths, when, having procured the windpipe
of a crane,274
| 274
Some similar juggleries are mentioned by Lucian in his
Alexander, or Pseudomantis, xxxii. 26,—a work of a
kindred nature to Celsus’ Treatise on Magic (the latter
alluded to by Origen, Contr. Cels., lib. i. p. 53, ed. Spenc.),
and dedicated by Lucian to Celsius. | or some such
long-necked animal, and attaching it covertly to the skull, the
accomplice utters what he wishes. And when he desires (the skull)
to become invisible, he appears as if burning incense, placing around,
(for this purpose,) a quantity of coals; and when the wax catches the
heat of these, it melts, and in this way the skull is supposed to
become invisible.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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