_Neve operis famam posset delere vetustas, Instituit sacros celebri certamine ludos Pythia perdomitæ serpentis nomine dictos._ Though, if we will believe _Natalis Comes_ and some others, it was not a Serpent or Dragon that _Apollo_ slew, but a man whose name was _Python_, and his sirname _Draco_, and from that Victory _Apollo_ was called _Pythius_, and those that kept his Oracle at _Delphos_ were called _Pythios vates_, Pythian Priests, or Diviners of _Python_. So that all that can be gathered from hence is, that to have the Spirit of _Python_, was to undertake such Divinations, as the Priests used at the Pythian Oracle at _Delphos_, and that was no more in truth and effect, but Cheaters and Impostors. [Sidenote: _De defect. Oracul. mihi._ _p._ 691.] [Sidenote: _In Præfat. de defect. Oracul._] 3. Those that we call the Septuagint expressing the manner of the performance of this kind of Imposture do (as _Masius_ confesseth, and is true) constantly call them by the name of ἐγγαστριμύθους, because they did speak forth of their Breasts or Bellies, that was by turning their voices backwards down their Throats, which some of the Latines imitating the Greek word have not unfitly called them _ventriloquos_, that is, speaking in their Bellies. And that there were such in ancient times is witnessed by _Plutarch_, who saith, speaking of the ceasing of Oracles, thus: “That it is alike foolish and childish to judge that God himself, as the _Engastrimuthoi_, (that is to say, the _Genii_ hariolating forth of the Belly) which in times past they did call _Eurycleas_, now _Pythonas_, hiding himself in the Bodies of the Prophets, and using their mouth and voice as instruments, should speak.” From whence we may note these things. 1. That in _Plutarch_ time who lived in the Reign of _Trajan_, there were of these persons that could speak (as it were) forth of their Bellies. 2. That though _Plutarch_ was a very learned, sagacious person, yet he either knew not, or else concealed the manner how these _ventriloquists_ performed this speaking, in their Breasts or Bellies, it being nothing but a cheat and artificial imposture, as we shall shew anon, of whom his learned Translator _Adrianus Turnebus_, and of these vanities speaketh thus. “Therefore (he saith) we condemn all sorts of Divinations which are not received from the sacred writings, and do judge them to have been found out, either by the craftiness of men or the wickedness of Devils; but we rejoice to our selves that being Divinely taught, we here see far more than the most learned _Plutarch_ did, who beheld but little light in this his disputation of the defect of Oracles.” 3. We may note that these words (that is to say, the _Genii_ hariolating forth of the Belly) which we have inclosed in a _Parenthesis_, are not found in the Greek written by _Plutarch_, but are only added as the conjecture of _Turnebus_. 4. _Plutarch_ doth hold it