Villagers still waiting for a magical sign from Merapi

Beautiful but dangerous. This is Gunung Merapi in Indonesia. After weeks of warnings and rumblings, the Merapi volcano is now perilously close to an eruption. It has already started oozing lava down the side, with ash and rock spewing from the mountaintop.

Authorities are warning than an eruption is imminent but villagers are still reluctant to evacuate their homes at the base of the mountain.

Some have resorted to burning incense and floated offerings to the spirits to ward off the eruption. Scientists dashed their beliefs by predicting that the growing lava dome could collapse and shoot deadly, red-hot gases down the sides of the volcano.

Villagers dispute this scientific prediction, saying that they will receive a message from the mountain’s spirits on the timing of the eruption.

"People around here believe that if Merapi is going to explode there will be a sign, a magical sign…Either it comes in a dream, or in the form of a hallucination,” said a villager Edi, as reported by the Associated Press.