The kind of electricity by which the body to be operated upon will be
best attracted is well understood in Montalluyah. As a simple example, I
will state that wild birds are caught by means of a sympathetic
electricity. For this purpose a long, hollow metal tube is used, at the
bottom of which is a globe containing a powerful acid. A receptacle at
the top of the tube contains seeds much liked by the birds. They hover
about these seeds, and, when they are within a certain distance, a
slight pressure on a wooden spring causes a drop of the acid in the
globe to escape into the tube, and so to set in movement a current of
electricity, which, being very sympathetic to the bird, acts as an
attractor so powerful, that it cannot get away. The tube is then gently
lowered, and the birds are gradually drawn near to the earth, when a
light net is thrown over the captives, and they are shaken into a
cage-net at the bottom. Calmed by the electricity, they do not flutter or
struggle when thus secured. It is very interesting to see the birds come
nearer and nearer as the rod is lowered towards the ground.
For electrical purposes it is necessary to catch the birds alive. Those
required for food are also caught in the same way, that they may be
killed without pain, as, indeed, are all birds and animals used for
food. Birds supply an electricity for lightening ponderous bodies; and
by means of this, the immense blocks of iron-marble used for the
construction of the Mountain Supporter were temporarily lightened, that
they might be raised to their assigned places.