5.--The great majority of attempts at speaking with the dead are of a character much less ambitious and far-reaching than is that of the Expectancy and Progressive Circles method; and the results are correspondingly imperfect. The system most generally adopted is what in early and mid-Victorian days was known as “table-turning” or “raps,” and consisted in a number of persons sitting round a table on which their hands were placed, the right hand of each sitter resting on, or sometimes only touching his neighbour’s left hand. After a little while a tapping or rapping noise would be heard on the table, or the table would tilt up a little at intervals, or it would turn round and round, or it would move about the room. Any of these occurrences admitted of utilisation for signalling purposes, and in that way it was found possible to enter into intelligent communication with the spirit or spirits acting on the table--it being generally the case that the communicator was a deceased relative of one of the sitters. In a Table-sitting--the term now commonly employed--it is desirable for the hands of the sitters to be placed on the table (though the reason for this is not yet clear), but it is not necessary for any sitter’s hands to be in actual contact with those of his neighbours--there not being any electric or other current in circulation. And it is not necessary for the sitters to engage in any form of incantation, whether sung, spoken or thought. They should, however, be serious and attentive, and should be careful not to spoil the sitting by any foolery or conscious attempts to tilt or move the table. It is best for some one of the sitters to act as spokesman and for some outsider--_i.e._ a person not sitting at the table--to officiate as the recorder of all that is said and done. The simplest system of communication to adopt is that of the alphabet; the letters being called out by the spokesman in regular order and the table giving a rap or making a movement whenever the right letter is reached. It must not, however, be taken for granted that words will be spelt correctly or that the letters will be grouped in regular sequences of words. Many a message has been put aside as a mere haphazard unmeaning jumble of letters, and has subsequently been found perfectly intelligible and intelligent when the key to the arrangement of the letters has been hit upon. Why such puzzles should be set with seeming deliberation by the spirits is not understood; all we know is that the phenomenon sometimes occurs and its possibility must therefore be taken into account. * * * * *