© 2025 The Interpreter Foundation. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
All content by The Interpreter Foundation, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.
Interpreter Foundation is not owned, controlled by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board, nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief or practice.
Thanks Stan for the interesting article!
I’ve often wondered about magic hats and rabbits in conjunction with the Book of Mormon translation. According to some google results, the rabbit from the hat trick wasn’t performed until the 1860’s and became popular in the 1880’s. Perhaps the prominence of the top hat in that time period and association with magic influenced people’s memories of Joseph’s translation process.
FWIW
TL,DR: but I have a question/observation about Figure 7. How is he supposed to breath with his face buried like that in a hat? And how is the scribe supposed to clearly hear him – wouldn’t his voice be muffled?
Valid questions. I just did a test by holding the hat shown in figure 7 snuggly around my face for five minutes while talking. My daughter had no problem understanding what I was saying. Breathing was not a problem under these conditions; it felt about like it does when I wear a dust mask or surgical mask.