"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 flood of light, both directly and
indirectly, on the theology of Saul's countrymen--that is to
say, upon their beliefs respecting the nature and ways of
spiritual beings.