The morning news., 1894-08-17
MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS.
They Have Always Affected Ears and
Sensitive Nerves.

Delta-The Sound of Distant Cannon
in Famous Battles-The Musi C of
Sand Hills-Forest Noises.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Mysterious sounds, noises heard in the
dead of the night, weird disturbances
that startle and bewilder the listener
have a tendency to disturb ones nerves,
accompanied with cold chills and stealthv
glances cast into dark and grewsome
corners.
These superstitious breads and fancies
are confined to one class as regards in
telligence, and reven julius Cesar shnd-
derded at the growing of a cock, the
poet Beattie suffered keenly from the
same cause, and Kant, the great German
philosopher, abandoned pleasant house
because he could not stand the shrin
notes of a neighbor's chanticleer. Wal
lenstein, though accustomed to the
thunder of artillery and din of arms,
could not endure at home the barking of
dogs nor even the clatter of the large
spurs then in fashion.
OF strange sounds existing, concerning
which no satisfactory explanation has
ever been given, one of the most remark
hDIc HAS 1Ouk DCtn hUONI dS ''LDe guns OF
Barrisaul. The delta of the Ganges is
known in native dialect as the Sunder-
bunds, and is a vast, luXuriant Jungle of
marshy vegetation. One of the stations
is named Barrisaul. From here, IN the
rainy season, have long been heard
mysterious sounds, resembling the dis
charge of artillery, and therefore popu-
larly named the guns of Barrisaul."
Only heard in the rainy season and from
the southward, they have been heard 100
miles off. HindOo superstitions have as
sociated the sounds with their religious
traditions.
The drummer of Tedworth's" phan-
toms sounds have been described by
Aubrey, and people living in the vicinity
of recent date have heard the weird
tap of the invisible drummer.
Many mysterious rumbling has been
attributed TO distant cannonading, heard
over wide stretches of sea and land. The
evening gun at Plymouth, England, has
been heard sixty miles Off. The booming
OF great gunshas been heard from Messina
to Syracuse, from Genoa to Leghorn, a dis
tance of nearly 100 miles. The cannon
aiding at Waterloo was heard 100 miles
away, and the roar of Gems. Meade and
Lees guns al Gettysburg was heard 1870
miles distant. But if for guns we substi-
tute the mightlest sounds of nature, great
volcanic eruptiOns, such as that at Sum
bawa Island, in the Eastern Archipelago.
the rumble and roar may be heard 800
miles away.
The singular sounds proceeding from
masses of stones have been generally sat
isfactnrily accounted for. Humbo
describes gigantic mountain in the Grim
oco region as lone of those from which
travellers have heard, toward sunset,
SubJerrapean sounds resembling those of
an organ. The sound is only heard when
4,
ear close to the surface Near Tor in
Arabia, is mountain which gives forth
curious sound. The native legend con-
corning it runs as follows: A convent of
monks is miraculously preserved under
ground, and the sound occasionally heard
is produced by the nakona, long, metal
lie bar suspended horizontally which
priest strikes with a hammer to summon
the brethren to prayers.
Musical sands have attracted much at
tention from the curious circumstances.
no less than the beauty of their tinkling
notes. These sands are found in occasional
patches along the seashore, of which there
are said to be forty seven in the United
States and many others in different parts
of the world. Musical sand hills are
found in some of the deserts At Stud
land Bay, England, there is patch a few
hundred feet square that thai gives out a
clear, ringing note as musical as a bugle
1t is a singular circumstance that these
sands are in patches of the same kind APP
parently, which are entirely non-musicaI
When one walks across these sands the
tread of the foot causes friction among
the grains, millions in number. and this
friction causes u singing on the same
principle that finger bowl responds to
the rubbing of a moistened finger
On the tlanks of Mount Sinai there is a
sand hill of similar kind, where the down
pouring of the sand causes sweet tink-
ling music, which the Bedoins, disre-
garding the true source, attribute to
wooden gong struck at the time of prayer
by the monks in their underground re-
treat
Out of 500 specimens Of sand from diff
fercnt parts of the world, while musical
sand seemed to be comparatively common,
only two samples of squeaking sand We're
found to have been taken from this coun-
try. They were procured from so-called
boiling springs. One was in Elaine and
the other in Kansas. A very small
quantity of squeaking sand pressed be-
tween the thumb and forehnger produced
when wet a peculiar shrill squeak, a
phenomenon which finds explanation in
friction.
The writer was once passing through
the depths of n vast forest of Brazil in
company with, q number of gentlemen
Suddenly there pealed from the depths of
the wild Jungle the distinct, resonant
sound of bell. The effect was startling,
1t being an assured fact that no habita-
tlon existed in that region, but a native
quickly dispelled the illusion and senti
ments of astOnishment excited among tho
party darting into the tangled depths of
the mighty forest, returning shortly with
teathered deni1en of the Brazilian wild,
which he had transhXed with an arrow
II proved TO be the bell bird. which, until
It's discovery, had been the cause of many
weird and strange story.
There are, however, some mysterious
sounds which will not admit of so salts
factory an explanation as rendered by the
bell bird. There,is a wild strain of un-
canny music, which has been heard on
board many ship and can be vouehed
Tor by hundreds OF seameu. made mani
lest within the circle of a Mozambique
cyclone. The.singular tones and grada-
lions, coupled with the wild, menaCing
appearance Of the weather is sufficient TO
strike awe and superstitious dread to the
heart OF the average sailor.
There is another form of mysterious
sound, connected with nature, extremely
rare and difficult of explanation. The
writer has frequently listened to the sin
guar notes Of music arising from the
gloomy shadows and solemn surroundings
OF Bayou Fascagoulas dusky depths.
There is no trace Of sand in the vicinity.
20 SuSpipiOn of musical napfiptAq Of errfrfy