THE DEVIL SEEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27567, 8 December 1950, Page 8

THE DEVIL SEEN

Woman’s Alarming Discovery CURIOUS EXPLANATIONS NAPLES, ITALY. Signora Maria Giglio moved a picture of the Archangel Michael to dust behind it and found herself face to face with the Devil, leering at her from the dining-room wall. Terrified, she fled to the bathroom and took a cold shower to get rid of the hallucination. Then she came back and peeped behind the Archangel again. The thing was still there—a terrible effigy, complete with horns. She hastily covered it with the Archangel. When Signora Giglio, no less superstitious than her fellow Neapolitans, had regained her nerve, she armed herself with a scrubbing brush. She obliterated the devil from the wall and heaved a sigh of relief, but as she looked at the clean wall, she saw the Devil was re-appearing. One by one the sinister greys, yellows, blacks and reds blended again into the evil face of Beelzebub. Signora Giglio fainted. The news spread like wildfire. A burly police corporal and two men arrived. The corporal was not impressed by the macabre face hiding behind the Archangel Michael. Under scrubbing brushes and soap, the Devil qyickly disappeared. The corporal shrugged expressively. Signora Giglio watched smugly. The Devil reappeared. The police hurried back to their headquarters. The corporal wrote a long report in a shaky hand. The Devil is still there. Everyone in Naples has an explanation to offer. Scientifically-minded citizens declare that Signora Giglio’s wall is damp and an old picture has somehow become chemically absorbed into the plaster. Others claim the house once belonged to a dissolute nobleman who sold his soul to the Devil. —Reuter.