198

Tutia carrying Water in a Sieve.

[Book II.

was, she succeeded in carrying the water, and thereby not only saved her life, but greatly increased her reputation for sanctity. From the imper

No. 74. Tutia carrying Water in a Sieve.

fect accounts of the transaction that have reached us, it may perhaps be deemed presumptuous to decide on its real character. That it actually occurred there can be no doubt. It is incorporated with both the history and the arts of the Romans. It is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, by Pliny and Livy: representations of Tutia carrying the sieve were also embodied in sculptures, in statues, and engraved on gems. The annexed figure was copied from one of the latter. It is from the first volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities, Plate 28.

As the feat therefore was certainly performed, it must have been either by natural or by supernatural means. Some writers have admitted, and St. Augustine among them, that the miracle was a genuine one; but there are circumstances sufficient to show that the whole was a well conceived and neatly executed trick, on the part of Tutia and her friends; and further, that it was a much more simple one, than other deceptions to which the heathen priests sometimes had recourse. It possesses considerable interest however as fur-nishing another specimen of their proficiency in scientific juggling and natural magic. To say nothing of the absurdity of admitting a divine interposition, in answer to invocations addressed to a heathen goddessand of the improbability of Tutia being condemned while innocent; there certainly was something suspicious in her undertaking to select the test for the goddess, and especially such a one as that of carrying water in a sieve. Instead of asking for a sign by water, it would have been more appropriate and more natural in her (if sincere) to have prayed for one by fire-by that element which was the symbol of the deity she invoked, and which it was her peculiar duty to attend at the altar and preserve purethe element too, which, if the accusation was true, she had polluted; besides, a token by fire was always considered by the heathen as the strongest evidence of divine approbation. What prompted her then to mention the test of the sieve? Doubtless because the device by which it was to be performed was already matured; not by the assistance of Vesta, but by a very simple contrivance furnished her by the priests, from their stores of philosophical and other apparatus with which they wrought their wonders before the people.

The contrivance was, we presume, a modification of the ancient sprinkling pot, just described. The sieve she employed would therefore be a double one; that is, its bottom and sides were hollow, the exterior bottom only being perforated, as in the annexed cut, which represents a double metallic vessel, the inner one being capable of holding water, and the upper edges of both united and made perfectly air tight, with the exception of one or perhaps two small openings shown on the edge in the figure, Thus when such a sieve was pressed slowly under water, the liquid would enter through the perforated bottom, drive the air before it, and fill the cavity; and when the upper part was sunk below the surface, the upper or apparent sieve would also be filled. Then by covering the small opening

No. 75. Supposed construction of Tutia's sieve.

Chap. 3.]

Liquor Taster and Dropping Tube.

199

with the thumb, the vessel might be raised out of the river, the water in the cavity being suspended precisely as in Nos. 69 and 70, so that Tutia might return with it to the temple, and on approaching the altar, by imperceptibly sliding her thumb to one side, the air would enter the opening thus exposed, and the contents of the cavity would descend in a shower, to the amazement of the spectators and to the confusion of her adversaries. With such an instrument she might go with that confidence to the trial, which she is represented to have felt, being fully convinced of success. While she was in the act of carrying the water, the spectators would be unable to detect the slightest imposition, or if, from the elevation at which she seems to have borne it, the bottom of the sieve was exposed, it would be more likely to confirm them in the belief of the miracle, as her movements would cause the suspended water to appear at the openings; but it is more probable that they were kept at too great a distance by the managers of the farce, to afford them any opportunity of exercising an undue curiosity. And when the trial was over, the sieve would be secured by those in the secret, who would have one similar in appearance ready for examination whenever required.

Few devices are better adapted to demonstrate the suspension of water by the atmosphere, than those little instruments which chemists and dealers in ardent spirit use, to examine their various liquids. Those of the former are named dropping tubes,' from the small quantities they are designed to take up, and the latter liquor tasters:' both are substantially the same, for they differ merely in form and dimensions. Some curious experiments may be made with them. For example, a series of liquids similar in appearance but differing from each other in specific gravity, and such as do not readily mix, may be placed in a glass or other vessel, so as to form separate layers, the heaviest at the bottom, and the lightest reposing on the top. An expert manipulator may then by a taster (No. 76) withdraw a portion of each, and No. 76. No. 77. present to the examination of his audience from the same vesLiquor Taster sel, samples of different wines, ardent spirits, water, &c. There is reason to believe that the ancient professors of legerdemain were well acquainted with such devices. It is possible that the trick performed by a Chinese juggler before the Russian embassy at Pekin, in the last century, was of the kind. It is thus described by Mr. Bell: The roof of the room where we sat was supported by wooden pillars. The juggler took a gimblet, with which he bored one of the pillars and asked whether we chose red or white wine? The question being answered, he pulled out the gimblet and put a quill in the hole, through which ran as from a cask the wine demanded. After the same manner he extracted several sorts of liquors, all which I had the curiosity to taste, and found them good of the kinds." Bell's Travels. Lon. 1764, vol. ii, 28. Peter Martyr speaks of old jugglers that "devoure bread, and immediately spit out meale; and when they have droonke wine, they seem presentlie to poure the same out of the midst of their forehed."

and

Dropping Tube.

There are numerous intimations in history that hydrodynamics was one of the most fruitful sources of scientific imposture, to which ancient magicians had recourse. Besides the sieve of Tutia, the cup of Tantalus, and the Divining cup, there were "the marvellous fountain, which Pliny describes, in the island of Andros, which discharged wine for seven days and water during the rest of the year-the spring of oil which broke out in Rome to welcome the return of Augustus from the Sicilian war-the three empty urns that filled themselves with wine at the annual feast of Bacchus,

200

Divining Cups.

[Book II.

in the city of Ellis-the glass tomb of Belus which was full of oil, and which when once emptied by Xerxes could not again be filled-the weeping statues, and the perpetual lamps;-all the obvious effects of the equilibrium and pressure of fluids."

The cup of Tantalus will be ound described in the Chapter on Siphons in Book V. Divining cups may be noticed here, as there is reason to believe that water was suspended in some of them by atmospheric pressure; while in others, sounds were produced by the expulsion of air through secret cavities formed within them. Divination by water has prevailed from immemorial time, and in the eastern world, has been practised in a great variety of ways. Sometimes the inquirers into futurity performed the requisite ceremonies themselves, and with ordinary instruments, as when a mirror or looking-glass was used; (see page 34) at other times professional sorcerers were employed. These men, as a matter of course, provided their own apparatus, and hence had every opportunity in its construction of concealing within some part, the device upon which their deceptions turned.

Of all the implements connected with Hydromancy, CUPS are the most interesting. They are among the earliest that history has mentioned, (Genesis, xliv, 5,) and they have longer retained a place in the conjurer's budget than any other. They were used by astrologers of Europe during the middle ages, and are not yet wholly abandoned in that part of the world. Like all devices of the old magicians, ingenuity seems to have been exhausted in their formation and in adapting them to different species of jugglery. They were of various materials; while some were of silver like Joseph's, others were of wood, glass, stone, &c. according to the nature of the trick to be performed by them. Sometimes presages were drawn from observing the liquid through the sides of the cup; for this purpose it was made of a translucent material; but then one side was left thick while the others were thin, so that the contents were invisible through the former, but quite plain through the latter. The indications were considered favorable when the liquid was clear and distinctly seen, and unfayorable if the inquirer could not perceive it-thus either side was presented by the conjurer as best suited his views. The same trick is still performed in some of the churches in Italy; one side of the goblet or glass is made opaque, while the other is transparent. With other cups it was the motion or agitation of the liquid that was looked for: if it remained at rest, the omen was bad-if violently moved, good. This kind of divination most likely depended on legerdemain or 'sleight of hand,' in dropping unperceived some substance into the vessel that produced ef fervescence or by opening a secret communication with a cavity in the stem or base of the vessel, containing a liquid that had a similar effect. In Japan it is common to place a pot of water on the head; if the liquid boil over, the presage is good, "but if it stirs not, bad luck."a Among the prodigies mentioned by Herodotus, is one of this kind: the flesh of a victim sacrificed during the Olympic games, was placed in brazen cauldrons, and "the water boiled up and overflowed without the intervention of fire," (B. i, 59.) The emerald cup, by which the priests of Mentz deluded people in the dark ages, belongs to the same class. On certain days, two or three extremely minute fishes were secretly put in, and by their motions in the water produced such an effect that the people were persuaded "the cup was alive."

a Montanus' Japan, translated by Ogilby, Lon. 1670, p. 123.

b Misson's Travels, vol. i, 93. See also Moreri's Dict. vol, iv. Art. Augury.

Chap. 4.]

Impossible to raise Liquids by Suction.

201

The divining cups of the Assyrians and Chaldeans appear, from imperfect accounts of them extant, to have been more artificially contrived. When one was used, it was filled with water, a piece of silver or a jewel having certain characters engraved on it was thrown in; the conjurer then muttered some words of adjuration, when the demon thus addressed, it is said, "whistled the answer from the bottom of the cup." These vessels were probably so contrived, that the water might compress air concealed in some cavity in the base, and force it through the orifice of a minute reed or whistle, as in the musical bottles of Peru. As Julius Cyrenius says such cups were also used by the Egyptians, it is possible that it was one of them by which Joseph divined, or affected through policy to divine. Divination by the cup is still practiced in Japan,

It is well known that the jugglers of Asia have always been unrivalled. Even in modern times, some of their tricks are beautiful applications of science, and are so neatly performed as to baffle the most sagacious of observers. A full account of them would go far to explain all the miracles which ancient authors have mentioned, and would afford some curious information respecting the secrets of ancient temples,

CHAPTER IV.

Suction: Impossible to raise liquids by that which is so called-Action of the muscles of the thorax and abdomen in sucking explained-Two kinds of suction-Why the term is continued-Sucking poison from wounds-Cupping and cupping-horns-Ingenuity of a raven-Sucking tubes original atmospheric pumps-The Sanguisuchello-Peruvian mode of taking tea, by sucking it through tubes-Reflections on it.-New application of such tubes suggested-Explanation of an ambiguous proverbial expression.

AIR is expelled from such vessels as are figured in the last chapter by thrusting them into a liquid, which entering at the bottom, drives out as it rises the lighter fluid at the top. In the apparatus now to be described, it is withdrawn in a different manner. The vessels are not lowered into water, but the latter is forced up into them. The operation by which this is accomplished was formerly named suction, from an erroneous idea that it was effected by some power or faculty of the mouth, independently of any other influence. A simple experiment will convince any one that the smallest particle of liquid cannot be so raised :-fill a common flask or small bottle within a quarter of an inch of the top of the neck, and place it in a perpendicular position; then let a person apply his mouth over the orifice, and he may suck forever without tasting the contents; the veriest lover of ardent spirits would die in despair ere he could thus partake of his favorite liquor; and the exhausted traveler could never moisten his parched throat, although the liquid, as in the case of Tantalus, was at his lips.

As remarked in a previous chapter, the error was not exploded till Torricelli and Pascal's experiments proved that water is not raised in pumps by suction, or any kind of attraction, but by pulsion from aerial pressure. Suction therefore, or that which was so called, merely removes an obstacle [air] to a liquid's ascent-it does not raise it, nor even aid in the act of raising it. In other words, it is simply that action of the muscles of the thorax and abdomen which enlarges the capacity of the lungs

202

Cupping and Cupping Instruments.

[Book II. and chest, so that air within them becomes rarefied and consequently no longer in equilibrium with that without-hence when in this state a communication is opened between them and a liquid, the weight of the atmosphere resting upon the latter necessarily drives it into the mouth; as for example, when a person drinks water from a tumbler or tea from a cup. How singular that the rationale of taking liquids into the stomach was not understood till the 17th century-that so simple an operation and one incessantly occurring, should have remained unexplained through all previous time!

Two kinds of suction have been mentioned by some writers, but the principle of both is the same: one, the action of the chest just mentioned-the other, that of the mouth alone; viz. by lowering the under jaw while the lips are closed, and at the same time contracting and drawing the tongue back towards the throat. There is this difference between them: the former can be performed only in the intervals of respiration, while the latter may be continuous, since breathing can be kept up through the nostrils. One has been named supping, the other sucking. The term 'sucker,' commonly applied to the piston of atmospheric pumps, arose from its acting as a substitute for the mouth. With this explanation of the terms suction, sucking, &c. we shall occasionally use them, in accordance with general custom, for want of substitutes equally popular.

Infants and the young of all mammals not only practice sucking till they quit their mother's breasts for solid food, but most of them continue the practice through life when quenching their thirst: of this man is an example, for it is by sucking that we receive liquids into the stomach, whether we plunge our lips into a running stream, receive wine from a goblet, or soup from a spoon. As the origin of artificial devices for raising liquids by atmospheric pressure may be traced to this natural operation, some other examples may be mentioned. Of these, sucking poison from wounds is one. This has been practiced from unknown antiquity. Job, speaks of sucking the poison of asps-At the siege of Troy, Machaon 'suck'd forth the blood' from the wounds of Menelaus; and the women among the ancient Germans were celebrated for thus healing their wounded sons and husbands. The serious consequences that often attended the custom, led at an early period to the introduction of tubes, by means of which the operation might be performed without danger to the operator; for scrofulous and other diseases were frequently communicated to the latter, by drawing tainted blood and humors into the mouth; whereas, by the interposition of a tube, the offensive matter could be prevented from coming in contact with the lips.

Before the use of the lancet was discovered, these cupping tubes were applied in ordinary blood-letting. Even at the present day such is the only kind of phlebotomy practiced by the oldest of existing nations; for "the name and the use of the lancet are equally unknown among the natives of Hindostan. They scarify the part with the point of a knife and apply to it a copper cupping-dish with a long tube affixed to it, by means of which they suck the blood with the mouth." It is the same with the Chinese, Malays, and other people of the east. These generally use the same kind of apparatus as the Hindoos, but sometimes natural tubes are employed, as a piece of bamboo. The horns of animals, as those of oxen and goats were also much used; these on account of their conical form being better adapted for the purpose than cylindrical tubes.

a Shoberl's Hindostan, v, 42. Chinese Repos. iv, 44. See also Le Comte's China,

and Marsden's Sumatra.