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.
