Kama‘aina rancher and legislator Valdemar Knudsen (1819-1898) would often listen to Hawaiians tell him stories of their encounters with the supernatural on Kaua‘i.
And, for the longest time, although he doubted their veracity, he would never mock them.
However, there finally came the day when he, too, experienced a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained in any rational manner.
He’d first became aware of the ghostly Singing People during the time he and a Hawaiian named Ono, and Ono’s wife, made plans to fish at dawn at Wai‘ele on the shore between Kekaha and Mana.
But, when he arrived at Wai‘ele, the Onos weren’t there, and when he went to their house in Kekaha to see what might be amiss, he saw them shaking with fear.
Then Ono, speaking in Hawaiian, explained, “When we reached the small coconut grove at Lima Loa, we heard music and people singing. We saw them coming up the road, all dressed in filmy white. There were 20 or 30 people, men, women and children, singing and playing strange music. They were the Singing People, the souls of the dead who haven’t gone to the place of departed spirits. If you join them you never leave them. Terrified, we ran home as fast as we could.”
It was not long after that Knudsen decided to spend the night sleeping in a little hut in Koke‘e after a day riding trails on horseback in the mountains.
Suddenly, he was awakened by the sound of music.
Going outside, he saw that a white stillness lay over everything, and out of the blackness of the forest came men, women and children, dressed in floating garments of sheer white, playing music and singing.
He saw them advance quickly along a trail, but without moving their legs.
Then they turned where the trail led back into the forest, and darkness enveloped them.
They were gone, but Knudsen heard their music and their voices long after they had disappeared.
He stood transfixed, staring at the place where they had vanished.
Yes, he, too, had witnessed the Singing People.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
