The age-herald., 1897-08-06
HAwAII's SINGING MOUNTAINS
Remarkable Effects of Crags Near the City
 of Honolulu. ,s.

of Honolulu. s.,,..ss Denver Republican.
 If Hawaii is annexed to this country the United States will possess a noun tain that sings. Remarkable, as this statement may sem, it is literally a fact. Mount Tantalus, just outside of Honolulu, can be made to sing any song or run any score in the whole musical repertoire. The natives attribute it to the ghosts of departed warriors said to inhabit tha Businesses round about, but science has found the real explanation Nevertheless, the native attribution is Interesting and we'll worth considera- ton before the more prosaic explanation forces itself upon one.
 Six miles out of Honolulu the precipi- tous cliffs of Mount Pali rise 200 feet above th= sea- About 200 feet up is a ledge which gives a clear drop of more than 1000 feet. From this comes the name of Pali, or precipice. Here, in ancient Hawaiian history, the great fighting chi9f Kamehameha l. penned in the yanauished forc.s of his arch enemies, Kananipule and Kaiana, after forcing them from field to field and crag to crag in a terrible mountain fight. s'~eAiS opoi tiio CTdS, lue TeHl- nants of the defeated bands finding that no quarter would be given, and seeing no means of escape, leaped over the precipice. They We're dashed to pieces on the rocks and debris below. Hun dreds lay in that terrible heap of death
 To the east of Sali is the mountain called Tantalus. The top of it is voiced like dreamland. and even the most staid nature will thrill hnd be mystified by Its sweetness and melancholy. It IS at night time only when the platntive and strange sounds are heard which fall tions in the wind.r strange screams of death" At times they are loud ard boisterous, like midnight revels, and again they soften into a complete wall. These voices which moan and scream and sob about in the night are believed by superstitious5 natives to be the spirits Of the warriors whose maEgled bodies lay at the foot of Pah after that dreadful leap. and whose names are still unap- peased. ~
 To destroy this pretty illusion is almost barbarous. Sti1f. these sounds so rever- entity listened to by the Oahu natives can be caused by nothing more than the ocean breakers beating on the windward shore, and the plaintive cadence sf the oalmer surf below, alternating with the < angry and wilder seolding of the storm above, echoirg amorig the dalas and crags of the lofty mourfain. The feeling as eff the presence of human spirits about B you cannot be shaken off, and the wierd l song of terror as of human voices can not be hushed TOT translated into their sounds by even a strong mind. On a /. dark night sensitive and superstitious < nirs1 could not endure with comfort the i hidecus forebodings of the scene
 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 ansthe-, until perfect round is obtained lIren if the two singers suddenly ce'lse their feeding ss,ng, the mountaiEs will go on singing 1t for quite fong time. The same song is being repeated in all directions. the first part making com plete circle and being followed by the middle ard the last part. which come around later; 1t. might be few seconds, 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, reverbeu,ates alone through the broken chasm and riven rocks as of spir- 1, hts caIpling thear way among the grades and crag:s of this singing mountain It is 8 long and tedious climb to sTantalus, but once ta,eres the lingering visitor will ;, never regret or forget it's romance and the melancholy cadence of It's winds.