1. This word, as _Buxtorsius_, _Schindlerus_, and _Avenarius_ observe, hath two significations, the one is, _uter vel lagena_, the other _Python_, and so saith learned _Masius_, _significat vero vox Ob utrem vel lagenam_; “From whence the Jewish Nation did call those Devils which did give answers forth of the parts of Men and Womens Bodies, _Ob_, and in the plural number _Oboth_; As it is only once for bottles used in that of _Job_, _Behold, my belly is as wine that hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles_.” And to the same purpose speaketh _Schindlerus_ in these words: “From thence it seemeth to be called ‏אוב‎ _Pytho_, because those that had it, or were possessed with it, being puft up with wind, did swell like blown bladders, and the unclean spirit being interrogated did forth of their bellies give answers of things past, present, and to come, from whence also they were called ἐγγαστρίμυθος, _ventriloqui_, speakers in the belly, or out of the belly.” So that in the sense of these men, it was a Devil or Spirit that spoke in them, as though they had been essentially and substantially possest with a Demon; so prone were they to ascribe all things (almost) unto the Devils power, not considering that they had no other Devil, but that of Imposture and Delusion, as we shall shew anon with unanswerable arguments. [Sidenote: Ovid. _Metam._ _lib._ 1.] [Sidenote: _Mytholog._ _l._ 4. _c._ 10. _p._ 36. 362.] 2. The most or all the translations in the Polyglott do render it _Pythonem, vel spiritum Pythonis_ in this place of _Deuteronomy_, and other places: But what is to be understood by _Python_, or the Spirit of _Python_ is as difficult to find out, as the meaning of the Hebrew word _Ob_, because it must be digged forth of the rubbish of Grecian lies: For some will have it to be derived from the word απὸ τοῦ πυνθάνεσθαι, _à consulendi & interrogandi usu_. But that they were called so rather from the Epithete given to _Apollo_, who (as the Poets fabled) did soon after _Deucalions_ flood slay the Dragon _Python_, πύθων, so called a πύθεσθαι _quod est putrescere_, because he was said to be bred of the putrefaction of the Earth; and so he was called _Apollo Pythius_, and those that kept the Oracle at _Delphos_, and gave answers, were called _Pythii vates_, and the Oracles _Oracula Pythia_: as may be seen in _Plutarch_, _Thucydides_, and _Lucian_: and _Suidas_ and _Hesychius_ say, Πύθων _dicebatur etiam Dæmonium cujus afflatu futura prædicebant, &_ ὁι πύθωνες, _è ventre hariolantes_: From whence _Pythius Apollo_ came because of slaying the Dragon, nam πύθεσθαι _putrescere significat, ut est in his carminibus_. ——Ὁ δ’ ἐπήυξατο φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων, Ἐνταυθοῖ νῦν πύθεν ἐπὶ χθονὶ βωτιανείρη. ——_Sic inde precatus_ Apollo _est: Putrescas tellure jacens campoq; feraci_. And from hence were the Pythian Games instituted: