The swaying of the
flowers in the breeze and the rhythmic motion of the bird's plumage
produce harmonious combinations and recombinations of colors which are
transformed into sounds as exquisite as those of the world of insects. A
cluster of blossoms, when the wind stirs them, shake out a kind of
aeolian melody, and it was that which so entranced Ala a few moments ago.
She hears it still, but now it is mastered by the more perfect harmonies
that come from the bird, partly from its throat but more from the
agitation of its delicate feathers."
You may imagine the wonder with which I listened to this. It immediately
recalled what Jack and I had observed at the shop of the bird fancier,
and when the lady carried off her seemingly mute pets in the palanquin.
"But," I said, after a moment of reflection, "how can such a thing be? To
me it seems surely impossible."
"I can only try to explain it by an analogy," said Edmund. "You know how,
by a telephone, sounds are first transmuted into electric vibrations and
afterwards reshaped into sonorous waves. You know, also, that we have
used a ray of light to send telephonic messages, through the
sensitiveness of a certain metal which changes its electric resistance in
accord with the intensity of the light that strikes it.
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