unidentified local religion, each column of the small building took the form of a unique stylized figure known as a basasagi to indicate its upside-down attitude, the disproportionally large head of which was dominated by an dispropor- tionally large gaping mouth whose teeth were fashioned of ivory and positioned within this huge grin so as to form a rank of vertical bars, making the inside of each basasagi's mouth into a kind of cage. Each of these nine mouth/cages housed a small flock of one or another species of so-called talking birds. Parrots and mynahs, budgerigars and cockatiels, starlings, ravens and African greys, in fact, any breed of bird capable of mimicking each others' calls, the voicings of other animals, even human speech -- all were collected from around the then-known world to be housed within the folly-like structure. At night the birds largely remained silent. But as the each morning sun's rays reached the columns in turn through the day, the various groupings of birds began sounding their myriad voicings and vocables. The impression created was that the basasagi were speaking, singing and orating. Visitors to the folly, unaware of the presence of the birds, ascribed to the basasagi oracular powers, insisting that questions put to the various personifications were answered, no matter how equivocally or obscurely.
