Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus: Hoc est vniversalis hieroglyphicae veterum doctrina temporum iniuria abolitae instauratio, 4 Vols (Rome: Vitalis Mascardi, 1652), Vol 1., pp. 243-4 

De OB & Iideonim Moses Leuit. 20. capite agit, vbi sacra Scriptura omnem animam declinantem ad magos & Ariolos extirpandam erit. Pro vocibus Magos & Ariolos Hebraei legunt [...] Oboth vaiideonium. OB plerique vertuunt Pythonem seu Magum; verum ex RR. Moses Mikorti, Rambam, Paulo Riccio, colligo, OB nihil aliud fuisse, quam Spiritum seu Daemonem, qui ab immundis, & quae honeste nominari non possunt, partibus nonnumquam a capite seu axillis, siue Harioli, aut mortui submissa voce, & quae ex Telluris cauitatibus videretur egredi, nec audiri, sed a consulente duntaxat mente concipi posset, responsa dabat; ita Ralbag in 28 l. 1 Sam.  

Dicunt Rabbini felicis memoriae, quod Ob seu Python res fuit, ascendere faciens mortuum; ille absq eo quod audiret verbum, videbat simulachrum mortui; interrogans autem Pythonem, non videbat imaginem seu vmbram mortui, audiebat tamen verba, quae de interrogatione sua mente conceperat. Ita Sauli, Samuelis defuncti species repraesentabatur a foemina, cuius ex obscoenis Ob loquebatur. Foeminam siue Pythonissam, seu vt Septuaginta Interpretes vertunt, [...?] engastrimythoi, illam Scriptura noncupat [...Hebrew...], id est, Mulierem habentem Ob. OB igitur hic ipse spiritus ventriloquus; Pythonissa autem ipsa, siue Ariolus, id est, Baal seu Baalath OB hoc nomine nuncupatur. Et dum initiabantur, tenebat manibus [...Hebrew...] Virgam myrtheam, & suffumigabantur, teste Rambam cit. loco; rituum autem huiusmodi locum fuisse mortui sepulchrum, tradit R. Abraham Ben Dauid. 

Prodiit propudiosa & ridicula Pythonis ventriloqui spiritus religio non aliunde nisi ex Aegypto, quibus spurcus daemon saepe per humani corporis pudenda potissimum per posteriora strepitu emisso responsa dabat, quem ventris sonitum ideo diuinis honoribus ab iis cultum esse in Syntagmate 2. capite de superstitionibus Aegyptiorum tradidimus, & D. Hieronymus in c. 56 Isaiae commentans tradit, aliique quos dicto Syntagmate citauimus. Vt enim spurcissimus hisce oraculis maiorem conciliaret existimationem immundus Diabolus, mentesque superstitiosas facilius implicaret, plerumq; interrogationibus factis, infrallibilem largiebatur effectum, Sed haec de nefandis sacris sufficiant.  

Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus: Hoc est vniversalis hieroglyphicae veterum doctrina temporum iniuria abolitae instauratio, 4 Vols (Rome: Vitalis Mascardi, 1652), Vol 1., pp. 381-2. 
 
The vanity of these Egyptians did not rest there, for there was something else with them, which can scarcely be spoken of without shame and embarrassment. as Lactantius sets forth in these words: Now who have destroyed religious customs worse than the Egyptian people, who worship figures of foul beasts and cattle, and even, let it be said with shame, adore them as Gods? Felix Minutius says the same in these words: The Egyptians for the most part fear the sting of [coeparum] as much as Ifides: and dread the noises emanating from the private parts of the body as much as Serapides. Origen also adds to this: I do not speak of these Egyptians, he says, who hold the noises of the belly in veneration, the imitation of which in philosophy in service of native ritual will render one the most ridiculous of philosophers, and be most unbecoming for philosophy. St. Jerome also alludes to the absurdities of this worship in these words: Let us pass over in silence the dreadful and horrible /?  [coepe] and the noises of the swollen stomach, which form the religion of Pelusium. I will bring forward no more examples of the stinking religion of these folk, nor of the vain and seemingly inbred superstitition and practice of the Egyptians. For, prostrated by panic and fear of the gods, they found everything in human actions full of foreboding. It is no wonder that in their madness they went as far as to believe that there was something divine in sounds produced in this indecent fashion. To this was added the illusion of demons who, insinuating themselves into oracles and such like, would, when consulted, deliver responses not from the mouth but from the belly. Of this Isaiah, ch. 29 can be seen to complain, in saying And the Egyptians sought counsel of idols and among wizards, pythons and enchanters. The Hebrew for this phrase (pythons and enchanters) is Oboth vaidgonim; Oboth signifies the same thing, and also wine-skins: thus Job 32: Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent, like oboth, which is to say, new bottles, it is ready to burst. From which some have reasoned seriously that pythons were so-called after these skins, because when those with this spirit were addressed, they delivered their responses with mouth closed and from the belly in the same way, as though from a wine-skin or bottle. This is consistent with the fact that they were called engastrimythoi, which is to say, ventriloquists, by the Greeks. For it is the most deceitful and unclean of things, to impose upon all manner of people with the most impure of actions, namely speaking from the body's private parts. Since they were such ignorant and superstitious people I know not what they held sacred; it would be no wonder if breaking of wind were included among the rites of divine worship in the unsurpassable stupidity of mind of the Egyptians. But it is better to veil such foulness in deep silence than to cause offence with their loathsome stench, so nauseating to delicate spirits. Anyone who wishes to know more of these and similar things, especially the extreme care that they devoted to the service of animals, may consult Diodorus and Plutarch, who describe them at length, along with the nature of their feeding, worship and funerary practice. 

Ob and Iideonim are treated in Leviticus ch. 20, where the Holy Scripture declares that every one whoring after them that have familiar spirits and wizards will be cast out. For the words them that have familiar spirits and wizards, the Hebrew reads Oboth vaiideonium. Many translate Ob as Python or one possessed of a familiar spirit. The truth, collating the opinions of the Rabbis Moses Mikorti, Rambam and Paul Riccio, is that Ob was nothing other than a spirit or demon which gave responses from the most unclean parts, not honestly to be named, of the body, or sometimes from the head or the armpit, or a wizard who spoke with the voice of one raised from the dead, who could be seen to appear and to be heard only as far as their minds led them so to believe. As the Rabbis of blessed memory say: In the case of an Ob or Python causing the dead to arise, they caused the one hearing the words to see the image of the dead; however, the one who questioned the Python was only able to see the image or shade of the dead one, and to hear their words, hrough what his own imagination made of the consultation. Thus, the ghost of Samuel was shown to Saul by the woman who spoke by means of this obscene Ob. The Scripture calls this woman or Pythoness, or, as she is named in the Septuagint, engastrimyth, a baalat-obh, which means, a woman having an Ob. OB therefore means this ventriloquial spirit. This Pythoness, or witch, that is, Baal, or Baalath, is also named by this term OB. Admitting them to the ritual, she held in her hand a myrtle branch, with the fumes of which she suffused them, as Rambam affirms in the text cited above; Rab. Abraham ben David submits that by this means the place of the ritual was made a sepulchre of the dead. 

This shameful and ridiculous worship of the ventriloquial spirit of the Python came forth from nowhere but Egypt, among whom the foul demon often gave reply in noise emitted from the shameful, especially the posterior parts of the body, which belly-noise was revered with divine honour by the Egyptians, as we find in Numbers 2, the chapter dealing with the superstition of the Egyptians, and St. Jerome in his commentary on ch. 56 of Isaiah, and other whom we have cited on the said text of Numbers. As this foul and filthiest devil acquired the greatest repute of any of these oracles, it was easy, for the most part, to entangle superstitious minds; once the oracle was consulted, the result was infallible. But enough of these wicked practices.