Otago Witness Illustrations THE CEYLON DEVIL BIRD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 38

Otago Witness Illustrations

THE CEYLON DEVIL BIRD.

. ♦ j Most people who have visited the island ; of Ceylon, and penetrated into its jungle fastnesses, have heard the cry of the devil bird. This awe-inspiring sound resembles nothing so much as the scream of a human being undergoing the most terrible tor- i ture. Naturalists have identified it with i

the syrnium indrani — a brown wood owl found in Hindoostan. But the devil bird, or " ulama," as the Cingalese call it, is an elusive creature, and no one has had the good fortune to kill or catch a specimen. The Cingalese — naturally a superstitious race — regard the cry of this bird with the utmost horror; they believe that its scream heard at night presages the most dire misfortune, and they are in the habit of offering sacrifices to avert the approaching

disaster. The superstition is probably I of very great antiquity ; but Robert Knox, I who was a prisoner in Ceylon for 20 years about the middle of the seventeenth century, gives an interesting account of- it, although, in common with the natives, he believed the cry proceeded from the devil j himself. " This I can confirm,"' he writes, " that oftentimes the devil doth cry with audible ' I voice in the night ; 'fis very shrill, almost I

like the barking of a dog, that I have I often heard myself. Only this observation the inhabitants of the land have made of this voice, and I made it also, that either just before or very suddenly after this j voice, always the King cuts off people. To i believe that this is the voice of the devil j these reasons urge: Because there is no creature known to the inhabitants that cries like it, and because it will on a I sudden depart from one place and make a

A FAMOUS SIRE AND A FAMOUS SON.

noise in another quicker than any fowl can fly, and because the very dogs will tremble and shake when they hear it, and 'tis so accounted by all the people." A modern account, however, is given by Mr Mittford, of the Ceylon Civil Service, who affirmed that he had often heard the cry while at Kurunegala, where the bird haunted the rocky hill behind the Government house. He had evidently studied the mysterious bird with great interest.

The Scot in Norway: A historic scene at Guldbrandsdale, now marked by a atone to comnieniornte the destruction of a Scots force in 1612. When Christian VIII was crowned King of Norway at Trondiijem. in 1814, h« stopped at Guxl brand sdale and read the striking inscription on a stone, '' Woe to the Norseman whose blood does not coursa more warmly through his veins when he look 3 upon this stone." The histOTio incident was, of oourse, related to King Haakon VII when he passed through Guldbrandsdale oi his way to Thondhjem recently. The stone commemorates the destruction of a Scots force under Captain George Sinclair which was killed out at Kringetn, in Gu'dbrandßda'e, in 1612. Sinclair was a nephew of the Earl of Caithness and the brother of John Sinclair of Stirkag. S/r Robert Gordon, in his "Earldom of Sutherland," says: "Hearing of the -wars then lykelie to fall out and. which ensued shortlie betwein the kings of Denmark and Swaden. Sinclair gathered together one hundred and fyitie men in Catteynes. Haveing made up this company he joynes with Colonell Ramsay and Captane Hay to goe into Swaden to assist and serve that king against the King of Denmark. So, runnng headlong to his owne destruct on, he went forward with Captain Hay into Swaden, with more speid then good look, the yeir 1612, and wold not be persuaded by Colonell Ramsay to stay for him untill he culd> be readie also to goe. In their journey thither through Norway they were all miserablie cut to peeces by the bours of that countrle." — From the Sphere.

A homely incident was witnessed in the streets of Trondhjem by the artist of the Sphere. The streets were crowded, and Dr Nansen was escorting the Princess of Wales and her daughter, Princess Mary, and had to carve a way, as it were, with his arm, among the people to allow them to pass, Dr Nansen thus fulfilling in his new diplomatic role a function similar to the pioneer work which has made him famous as explorer of the Arctio Circle, where he 1 earned the art of restraint and digrnity.