THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK

153. We have said that a person endowed with a special aptitude can impress a movement of rotation to a table or any other object whatever; take now, instead of a table, a little basket (either of wood or of willow ; no matter which, the substance is indifferent). If a pencil is passed through the bottom of it and solidly fastened, the point outward, then, holding the whole squarely on the point of the pencil placed on a sheet of paper, resting the fingers on the edge of the basket, it will begin to move; but instead of turning, it will carry the pencil in various ways over the paper, whether in insignificant characters or in writing. If a spirit is invoked, and he desires to com- municate, he will answer, not by rappings, as in typtol- ogy, but by written words. The motion of the basket is no longer automatic, as in the turning tables ; it becomes intelligent. In this way, when the pencil reaches the end of the line, it does not return to begin another; it continues circularly, so that the lines of writing form a spiral, and the paper has to be turned several times to read what is written. The writing thus obtained is not very legible, the words not being separated; but the medium, by a sort of intuition, easily deciphers it. For economy, a slate and slate pencil can be substitut- ed for the ordinary paper and pencil. We call this basket corbeille-toupie. For this basket is sometimes substituted a card, the pencil forming the axis of the teetotum.