dom out of thine hand and given it to
thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
words of Samuel... (v. 14-20).

The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to be
taken to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of the
prophet, but only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic mantle and
to the aged appearance of the spectre convinced him that it was Samuel.
Reuss [3] in fact translates the passage "Alors Saul reconnut que
c'etait Samuel." Nor does the dialogue between Saul and Samuel
necessarily, or probably, signify that Samuel spoke otherwise than by
the voice of the wise woman. The Septuagint does not hesitate to call
her [Greek], that is to say, a ventriloquist, implying that it was she
who spoke--and this view of the matter is in harmony with the fact that
the exact sense of the Hebrew words which are translated as "a woman
that hath a familiar spirit" is "a woman mistress of _Ob._" _Ob_ means
primitively a leather bottle, such as a wine skin, and is applied alike
to the necromancer and to the spirit evoked. Its use, in these senses,
appears to have been suggested by the likeness of the hollow sound
emitted by a half-empty skin when struck, to the sepulchral tones in
which the oracles of the evoked spirits were uttered by the medium.
It is most probable that, in accordance with the general theory of
spiritual influences which obtained among the old Israelites, the spirit
of Samuel was conceived to pass into the body of the wise woman, and
to use her vocal organs to speak in his own name--for I cannot discover
that they drew any clear distinction between possession and inspiration.
[4]

If the story of Saul's consultation of the occult powers is to be
regarded as an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a statement
which is perfectly veracious so far as the intention of the narrator
goes--and, as I have said, I see no reason for refusing it this
character--it will be found, on further consideration, to throw a