The Opelousas courier., 1897-12-04
A MOUNTAIN THAT SINGS
MUSICAL PERFORMANCES OF ONE OF
THE PEAKS OF HAWAII.

ieliefofthe SurerS:itious Natives Caused
By CoInlnin1linS OF the Soui;!s OF gi,t
breakers, surf and Storm Eciloin.
-t!l"ns Erags AMI Bales.
II Hawaii is annexed to this country,
says the Washington Star, the Unite
States will possess a mountain that
sings. Remarkable as this statement
may seem, it is literally a fact. Mt.
Iauttin@, just outside Of Honolulu,
can be made to sing any song or Iun
any score il the whole musical roper
toire. Ihe natives attribute it all to
The ghostsof departed warriors sai'lto
inhabit the Businesses round about.
bur science has found the real expla-
nation. Nevertheless, the native al
tribution is interesting, and we'll worth
consideration before the more rrosaic
explanation forces itself upon one.
Six miles out Of Honolulu the pre-
cipiyous cliffs Of Mt. Pail rise 1000
feet above the sea. About 200 feetnp
is a ledge which gives q clear drop OF
more than 10 o feet. From this comes
the name of FAli, or precipice. Here,
in ancient Havaiian history, the great
fighting chief. &amehameha I, penned
in the vanqu' ,hed forces of his arch
enemies, k;',lanipule and kalama,
forcing them from field to field and
crag to crag in q terrible mountain
fight. Standing upon this fatal cra-,
the remnants of the defeated bands.
finding ttat NJ quarter would lie
given, an~Gt'seelng ne meal OF escape,
leapel over the precipice. Theywere
dashed to pieces on the rocks and de
hcis below. Hundreds lay in that ter
riole leap Of death.
To the east Of Pail is the mountain
called Tantalus. The top Of it is
voiced like q dreamland, and even the
most staid nature will thrill and be
mvstiiied by its sweetness and me1aG-
choly. Tt is at nighttime only when
the plaintive and strange sounds are
heard which fall upon the startled
senses like Lamentations in the wind
''strange creams OF DEATH At
times they are loud and boisterous,
like midnight r~evels, and again they
soften into a complete wall. These
voices which moan and scream and
sob about in the night winds aye be-
lieyed by superstitious natives to be
the spirits Of the warriors whose man
gled bodies lay at the foot of Pail al
ter that dreadful leap, and whose
names are still unappeased.
To destroy this pretty illusion is al
most barbarous. Still, these sounds
SO reverently listened to by the Oahu
natives can be caused by nothing more
than the ocean breakers beating on
the windward shore, and the p~laintlve
cadence Of the calmer surf below, al
t%ernating with the angry and wilder
scolding Of the storm above, echolng
among the dales and crags OF the
mountain. The feeling of the
presence Of human spirits about you
cannot be shaken Off, and the weird
song ofterrcr as of human voices can
not be hushel or translated into their
sounds by even a strong mind. On Il
dark night a sensitive and supersti-
mind could not endure with
the hideous focebodings Of
the scene.
Now, if two persons whose voices
chord should sing from 4 Of the
heights it will be found that the noun
ain will catch up the song and take
it from cliff to cliff, carrying it off into
he distance il one direction and
bringing it back in another, until a
round is obtained. Then. il
he two suddenly ceased their feed
song, the mountains will go on
it for quite a long time. The
anne song is being repeated in all Ii
:ections, the first part making a com
,lete circle and being followed by the
middle and the last part, which come
later. 1t might be a few sec
onds, it might be a few minutes, for
he singer forgets to count the ticks
IS the chant of this weird air, cut
Dose from human lungs, ~reyerberates
done through the broken chasm and
'iven rocks as of spirits caroling their
way among the glades and crags of
HIS iiOilltdlu. 1t Is IL lOIS
md tedious climb to Tantalus, but, !.
nee there, the lingering visitor will
lever regret or forget its romance
nd the melancholy cadence of its
This spot abounds in curiosities.
Not far away is a large and strange
;alt mine. It is completely shut in
the ocean by a circle of hills
bout 700 feet high, which girdle it.
The tide rises and falls in the lake as
does in the big ocean miles away.
though there is no perceptible funnel
+ other connection with the ocean,
hese tidal conditions indicate a sub
erranean channel underneath the
fountains to the sea. Great quantities
t salt were once made at this lake.
hat industry is dead now.
IN THE CUMBO OF MONTANA.