The word "Ob" was translated by the LXX. [Greek: engastrimuthos], "a ventriloquist," in {310} accommodation to the received opinions respecting the Pythian priestess. See the Notes to Creech's _Lucretius_, book v.; Jones's (of Nayland) _Physiolog. Disquis._ p. 290. The deception practised by the Witch of Endor, and by the damsel mentioned in Acts xvi. 16., was of this description. See Wierus de _Præstig. Dæmon._ p. 203.; and Reginald Scot's _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, p. 148. The serpent, which with heathen mythologists had various acceptations (see Vossius, _Theologia Gent. et Physiologia Christ._), was also understood as a natural symbol or hieroglyphic of the air. Can any of your learned correspondents furnish materials illustrative of this figurative relation between the serpent and the elements? T. J. [Footnote 4: See Parkhurst.] [Footnote 5: Dickinson's _Delphi Phoenic._, p. 10.] [Footnote 6: Stillingfleet's _Orig. Sacræ_, book iii. c. iii. s. 18.] _Meaning of Peep_ (Vol. ii., p. 118.).--You have already told us the meaning of the word _peep_ in the phrase "Wizards that _peep_ and that mutter;" in confirmation I may add that the noise made by the queen bee in the hive previous to swarming is in Devonshire called _peeping_. J. M. (4.) _Venwell or Venville_ (Vol. iii., p. 38.).--_Venwell_ or _Venville_ appears to me to be a corruption of the word _fengfield_; and the meaning of it seems to be, that custom of delivering possession of land to a purchaser by cutting a piece of turf from the field bought, and delivering it into his hands. I well remember, when a boy, accompanying my father to receive possession of an outlying field, distant from the main estate which he had bought; the seller's agent, I think, came with us and cut a small piece of turf from the ground, and delivered it into my father's hands, saying (if I recollect right), "By this turf I deliver this field into your possession." By this means my father "_fenged_" (took) the "_field_" into his own hands, and became the legal proprietor of it. P. _Venville._--The peat or black earth of Dartmoor is still called _ven_ or _fen_. Is it not more probable that the adjoining parishes (or parts of them) are said to be in Venville or fengfield, from their being within the peat district, than that an abbreviation of a legal term, _fines villarum_--_fin. vil._, should become naturalised among the peasantry, as is the case with the word Venville? The second part of the word seems akin to the Scottish _fail_, "a turf, or that clod covered with grass cut off from the rest of the sward." (Jamieson.) K. _Hand-bells at Funerals_ (Vol. ii., p. 478.).--In the _Testamenta Eboracensia_, p. 163., Johannes Esten de Scardeburgh, le Ankersymth, bequeaths 2d.-- "Clerico ecclesiæ pro pulsacione campanarum, et le belman portand' campanam per villam excitandum populum ad orandum."