Speaking Heads
and Sounding Stones.
(1) Jabel Nagus [mountain of the bell ], in Arabia Petræa,
gives out sounds of varying strength whenever the sand slides down its
sloping flanks.
(2) The white dry sand of the beach in the isle of Eigg, of the
Hebrides, produces, according to Hugh Miller, a musical sound when
walked upon.
(3) The statue of Memnon, in Egypt, utters musical sounds when the
morning sun darts on it.
(4) The speaking head of Orpheus, at Lesbos, is said to have
predicted the bloody death which terminated the expedition of Cyrus the
Great into Scythia.
(5) The head of Minos, brought by Odin to Scandinavia, is said to
have uttered responses.
(6) Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., constructed a speaking
head of brass (tenth century).
(7) Albertus Magnus constructed an earthen head in the thirteenth
century, which both spoke and moved. Thomas Aquinas broke it, whereupon
the mechanist exclaimed, “There goes the labour of thirty years!”
(8) Alexander made a statue of Esculapios which spoke, but Lucian
says the sounds were uttered by a man concealed, and conveyed by tubes
to the statue.
(9) The “ear of Dionysius” communicated to Dionysius, Tyrant of
Syracuse, whatever was uttered by suspected subjects shut up in a state
prison. This “ear” was a large black opening in a rock, about fifty
feet high, and the sound was communicated by a series of channels not
unlike those of the human ear.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Speaking Heads from Infoplease:
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