And the wind in breaking forth deals with his
face as it does with that of the sea, first blackening, then
wrinkling, and at last bursting it into a foam. It is in this guise
the sacred AEolist delivers his oracular belches to his panting
disciples, of whom some are greedily gaping after the sanctified
breath, others are all the while hymning out the praises of the
winds, and gently wafted to and fro by their own humming, do thus
represent the soft breezes of their deities appeased.
It is from this custom of the priests that some authors maintain
these AEolists to have been very ancient in the world, because the
delivery of their mysteries, which I have just now mentioned,
appears exactly the same with that of other ancient oracles, whose
inspirations were owing to certain subterraneous effluviums of wind
delivered with the same pain to the priest, and much about the same
influence on the people. It is true indeed that these were
frequently managed and directed by female officers, whose organs
were understood to be better disposed for the admission of those
oracular gusts, as entering and passing up through a receptacle of
greater capacity, and causing also a pruriency by the way, such as
with due management has been refined from carnal into a spiritual
ecstasy.
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