The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-25

enemies, Kananipule and kaiana, after
forcing them from field to field and
! crag to crag in terrible mountain
/ fight Standing upon this fatal crag tho
remnants of the defeated bands, find
ing that no quarter would be given, and
seeing no means of escape, leaped over
| the precipice They were dashed to
pieces on the rocks and debris below.
Hundreds lay in that terrible neap of
death.
STRANGE SCREAMS OF DEATH.
To the east of Pail is the mountain
called Tantalus. The top of it is voiced
like a dreamland. and even the most
staid nature will thrill and be .n=sti-
fed by it's sweetness and melancholy. 1t
is at night time only when the plain
tive and strange sounds are heard
which fall upon the startled senses like
lamentations in the wind strange
screams of DEATH" At times they are
loud and boisterous, like midnight rev
els and again they soften into Il COM
plete wall. These voices which Dican
and scream and sob about in the right
winds are believed by supersti.iOus ma
tives to be the spirits of the warriors
whose mangled bodies lay at the foot
of Pail. after that dreadful leap, and
whose names are still unappearsed-
WHERE IT ALL COMES FROM.
To destroy this pretty illusion is al
most barbarous. Still. these sounds so
reverently listened to by the Oahn ma
tives, can be caused by nothing more
than the ocean breakers beating on
the windward shore, and the plaintive
cadence of the calmer serf below, al
ternating with the angry and wilder
scolding of the storm above. echOing
among the dales and crags Of the lofty
mountain. The feeling as of the pres
ence of human spirits about YOU can
not be shaken off. and the wierd song
of terror as of human voices cannot be
husher nor translated into their sounds
by even strong mind. On dark
night a sensitive and superstitiOus
mind could not endure with comfort
the hideous forebodings of the scene.
HOW THE MOUNTAIN SINGS.
Now. if two persons whose voices
chord should sing from one of the
heights, it will be found that the
mountain will catch up the song and
take it from cliff TO cliff. carrying it off
into the distance in one direction and
bringing it back in another, until a
perfect round is obtained. Then if the
two singers suddenly cease their
feeding" song, the mountains will go
on singing ii for quite long time
The same song is being repeated in all
directions the first part making a COM
plete circle and being followed by the
middle and the last part, which come
around later: it might be a few sec
onds it might be a few minutes, for
the singer forgets to count the ticks
as the chant of this weird air, cut
loose from human lungs, reverberates
alone through the broken chasms and
riven rocks as of spirits caroling their
way among the glades and crags of
this singing mountain 1t is long and
serious climb TO Tantalus. but once
there the lingering visitor will never
regret or forget it's romance and the
melancholy cadence of it's winds.
THE CURIOUS TIDAL WAVE
This spot abounds in curiosities. Not
far away is a large and strange salt
lake. 1t is completely shut in from the
ocean by a circle of hills about 700
feet high which girdle it. The tide rises
and falls in the lake as it does in the
big ocean miles away. Though there is
no Derceptible tunnel or other connec- I
ton with the ocean. these tidal condi-
ticns indicate a subterranean channel
underneath the mountains to the sea.
Great quantities of salt were once made
at this lake. That industry is dead
now Along the low. fiat, rich lands
of the Eva. thousands of native Ha
waiians used to live. The native is gone
and the lands are now infested by herds |
of Chinese. The native trao patches |
have given way to Chinese rice fields. !
Once some foolish fellow imported lit
tie birds into those. watered plots to eat
up imaginary insects which he fancied |
would destroy coming harvests. Now. |
unless the firing of guns and the beat |