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hawaiian.graveyard
hawaiian.graveyard
From: wright@tiger.vill.edu (Kim Wright)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Ghosts of Hawaii
Date: 19 Mar 1995 04:01:30 GMT
I have two interesting experiences in HI (and I am not
even remotely sensitive to paranormal activity). The first
occurred about fifteen years ago. I was very interested in
photography and went to take pictures of one of the large
stone temples on the big island (on the Hilo tip of the island).
This temple was near the ocean on the big plains of rubble
type lava. It had a sign saying that it was sacred to the
HI people (or something like that) and please don't tresspass.
Being a firm believer in bad karma, I didn't climb up. I
contented myself with shooting about half a roll of film
of it at about 1 AM by the light of a full moon. No, I'm
not making this up - I actually did those sorts of things
back then. I wasn't looking for anything ghostly, I just
wanted some really neat shots of a pretty impressive
temple (I'm more interesten in antiquitues (sp) than
ghosts).
Having finished shooting I went back to the car. I noticed that on
the other side of the road, the ground dipped down about six feet
where there was a very large area that was clear of underbrush
had a few trees, and was very brightly lit by the moon. I climbed
down in hopes of finding some good subject matter for some
more pictures. I thoght at first that it might be a picnic area
since the sandy ground was clear of plants and looked like it
had seen a fair amount of foot traffic that day. As soon as
I started walking around, I realized that I was in a
graveyard. I wandered around, avoiding graves (no
headstones, they wedre just very obviously burial places).
I went and looked at a small stream that went down to the
ocean here (more undergrowth there, looked like a good place
to get bit by something). Walked inland a little bit, the
place got more ravine like, more undergrowth, less light, so
I went back to the graveyard. I took a few pictures but
didn't see anything spectacular so I went back to the road.
I walked a few yards to where the ocean came into a very small cove
and admired the moonlight on the waves for a while, drove
back to where I was staying and went to sleep satisfied that
I had some interesting pictures.
Later on that trip, I had an opportunity to pass that temple in the
day time. I stopped to get some daylight shots of the place then crossed
the road to get some day shots of the graveyard. I was vastly
surprised to find no graveyard. The ravine was there, the
ocean and cove were just like I remembered, but the floor of the
ravine was full of underbrush and densly wooded. There was
no open area and nothing resembling buri
al sites. I was very surprised. I climbed down and gave the
place a thorough exploring (even climbing up the ravine to
where it was crossed by the main (and only) major road
on that part of the island. I found some neat stuff including a
very shallow cave with some petroglyph style figures and old
woven reed mats, but no clearing and no graveyard. The small
straem was there and I followed it from ocean to highway. I found
disturbed areas of sand where I had been walking during my nocturnal
visit.
As an interesting end note, my daytime pictures of the temple
came out beautifully, but my night time roll of film never made
it off the island. Don't know when or where (or how) I lost it
as I am very organized with my film. Another strange thing is
that I didn't realize it was gone until quite some time later.
Another interesting end note. When I checked out the cove during
the day there was a sign put up by the historical society or some
such official group that identified a tall stone on the edge of
the water as "The Leaning Stone." The sign said that a group of
ancient people worshiped a shark god and as tribute they would
take human sacrifices and tie them to a pole in the middle of this
cove at low tide. When high tide came, so did the sharks - munch,
munch, munch. The high priest or king (I can't remember wich)
would lean on this stone and watch the proceedings. I don't think this
had much to do with the vanishing graveyard as the graveyard
was quite peaceful and non spooky (till I couldn't find it by the light
of day). Besides after such a shark feast, I doubt there would
be much to bury.
Sorry about the terrible spelling and typos. Hope you
enjoyed. I know it's an odd story buy it is all absolutely
100% true.
Kim "I went back about five years later (in the daylight) and
the shark sign was gone" Wright
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