Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-09-01
Musical Stones.

The acle.
The chink stowe indicates by its
name its sOnOrous qualities. The red
granite Of the Thebaid in Egypt POS
sesses similar properties. Most of the
obelisks were made Of this. So musi-
cal are the rocks on the banks Of the
Orinoco. visited by Humbolt, that
their sounds are ascribed 10 witchcraft
by the natives. In Brazil are large
blocks Of baSalt which emitted clear
sounds when struck; and the Chinese
employ this stone I'm the fabrication of
musical instruments. Some years
since, an artisan of Keswick exhibited
a rock harmonicon composed Of slabs
Of stone, placed ut certain distances
apart, upon which several pieces of
music were performed. At the Crys-
tai palace, just recently. there was a
performance on musical stones (Welsh).
The most celebrated of these acoustic
wonders Is the Isabel Nakous," or
Mountain of the Bell, a low sandy hill
I'm the peninsula Of Mount Sinai, in
Arabia Petrea, " hich gives sounds va
rying I'm power from that of a hum
ming top to thunder. The late Hugh
Miller, when in the island of Egg
(EIebrides), observed q musical sound
while walking on the dry white sand
of the beach. AS two plates of slick
or quartz (which are but crystals OF
sandy give out n musical sound when
struck together, the collision of two
minute crystals of sand does the same
in however inferior degree, and the
union of all these sounds, though singly
imperceptible, may constitute the mu-
steal notes, of the Mountain of the
Bell, or the lesser sound of the trodden
sea beach of Eigg. The sands near
St Lunaire, Cotes du Nord, give q
faint musical sound at. certain tides
In a cavern at Cheddar, Somerset, are
some stalactites, in the form of folds
Of drapery, which give forth musical
sounds when struck. A chime of bells
can be initiated upon them.
Sir a. Smith distinctly heard sounds
issuing from the historic statue OF
Memnon, and many inscriptions of an
Gent date are TO the same effect, nota
bly, one on the left leg, Of which the
following is translation: 81, Z. Bal
binus, have heard the divine voice OF
the statue of MemnOn, etc, ETC." 81
was in the company of the amiabls
Queen Sabina (wife of Hadrian), tn,
sun was In the first hour OF its course
in the fifteenth year of the reign of Ha
drian." IL was not till the time OF
Nero that this statue had any musica
reputation. IL has been supposed tina
II was shaken I'm an earthquake in tn,
twenty-seventh year before Christ, anC
that the granite. full of cracks, may
under certain atmospheric changes
have given forth sounds. Some sa,
that the action Of the rising sun upoI
the cracks I'm the stone, moist will
dew. caused the peculiar sound pro
duced. Certainly since the repair
were made in the time Of Selaimus Sc
verus, the sounds have rarely beel
heard. Some think the Memnoni
sounds were contrived by the priests
because stone still exists I'm the In
OF the statue. with n recess cut in tn
block Immediately behind Il, in whicl
n person could be completely concealed
and because while important parsonage
like the Emperor Hadrian sometime
heard as many rs three utterances O
sound. ordinary mortals sometime
only heard one sound after repeate
visits.