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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bogel Bomb. Here in Hawaii they call

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Speaker 1: it chicken skin, the prickly, hair raising sensation that we

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Speaker 1: humans experience when we feel creeped out. And no matter

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Speaker 1: how courageous you might think yourself, you can bet the

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Speaker 1: in the presence of Hawaii's ephemeral night marchers or Kaipo,

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Speaker 1: your own personal chicken skin would be on full display.

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Speaker 1: Long before you see the night marchers, you'll hear them.

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Speaker 1: First comes the ominous, deep thudding of war drums. Then

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Speaker 1: you hear the guttural chanting and spine tangling blares from

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Speaker 1: a conk shell. A stench of death might as salt

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Speaker 1: your nose. Finally, you may see a succession of torches

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Speaker 1: winding their way towards you in the darkness. Flee now,

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Speaker 1: or risk the wrath of the supernatural night marchers, which

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Speaker 1: have for generations earned the respect of those who follow

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian folklore. We spoke via email with Lopaka Kapanui, Hawaiian

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Speaker 1: kuna or priest and cultural practitioner who is well acquainted

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Speaker 1: with the island spooky folklore. He said the night marchers

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Speaker 1: are known throughout the Hawaiian archipelago. It's ingrained in our culture.

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Speaker 1: In most stories, they're ghostly warriors who stride through jungles

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Speaker 1: and towns alike, adorned in brilliant costumes of ages past.

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Speaker 1: In their former lives, they protected high ranking chiefs. Kind

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Speaker 1: Of Polly said that particular leader in life was someone

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Speaker 1: that was so sacred that, according to their status, no

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Speaker 1: one could look at them and no one could be

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Speaker 1: clothed in their presence. Innocent bystanders who stumble upon the

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Speaker 1: procession and don't know the kupu or rules are under

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Speaker 1: dire threat of death. In life, kindly chiefs supposedly took

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Speaker 1: to traveling at night in order to avoid being spotted

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Speaker 1: by commoners and leaving a subsequent blood bath everywhere they went.

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Speaker 1: That tradition, according to legend, is carried out into afterlife

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Speaker 1: as night marchers continue their eternal protective escort, continuing to

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Speaker 1: beat their drums out of an extreme sense of duty.

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Speaker 1: Kind Of Polly said, so as it was in life,

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Speaker 1: so too is it in death. Sort Of like working

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Speaker 1: for the state all your life, even after you're dead,

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Speaker 1: you don't get an afterlife. You just go right back

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Speaker 1: to work. If you understand the lunar cycles and history

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Speaker 1: of the night Marchers, he says, you might be able

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Speaker 1: to anticipate their arrival in certain areas. They tend to

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Speaker 1: appear mostly during the last four Hawaiian moon phases as

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Speaker 1: the moon wanes to blackness, and they seem to prefer

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Speaker 1: sacred sites and notable cultural spots. But it's dangerous to

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Speaker 1: seek out the marchers. Locals mostly no better, Kanapui said.

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Speaker 1: Families who claim ancestral ties to these particular processions take

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Speaker 1: the marchers very seriously. Others know well enough to at

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Speaker 1: least respect it, and whatever you do, don't whistle in

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Speaker 1: the dark. Some say you might inadvertently summon the night Marchers,

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Speaker 1: and if they arrive, no walls can stop them. The

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Speaker 1: only thing that's been said to cause them to veer

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Speaker 1: from a path is presence of tea plants around a home.

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Speaker 1: That's t I, not t e a. It's a colorful

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Speaker 1: evergreen plant with cultural significance in Hawaii as a food stuff, medicine,

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Speaker 1: and more. In some instances, you might not notice the

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Speaker 1: marchers approaching. Perhaps a gael force wind drowns out the drums,

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Speaker 1: or you're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Speaker 1: No matter the scenario, you must hope that the ghost

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Speaker 1: warriors will take mercy on you. If not, you'll hear

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Speaker 1: a shriek and that will be the end of you.

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Speaker 1: But the night Marchers respect bloodlines. If you're extremely fortunate,

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Speaker 1: one of the long dead men will be your distant

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Speaker 1: ancestor they'll shout out that you're one of theirs, indicating

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Speaker 1: that the warrior has recognized you as a descendant. The

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Speaker 1: procession will pass you by without causing you harm. If

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Speaker 1: you don't share blood with any of the warriors, you'll

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Speaker 1: be left with only a few resources. As the legend goes,

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Speaker 1: you must strip off all your clothing, lay face down

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Speaker 1: on the ground, close your eyes, and play dead. Also,

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Speaker 1: for good measure, urinate uncontrollably. We did not make that

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Speaker 1: part up. The idea is to convince the night Marchers

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Speaker 1: that you have nothing but fearful respect in their presence.

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Speaker 1: Kind of pool. He says that he once personally encountered

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Speaker 1: the night Marchers. He said, I was in a Chinese

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Speaker 1: cemetery one evening leading a ghost tour. The entire cemeteries

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Speaker 1: built over a night Marchers trail unbeknownst to him, he

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Speaker 1: just happened to be standing in the middle of their path.

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Speaker 1: Their effect on him was immediate and overwhelming. He said,

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Speaker 1: it was like being encapsulated. The sound was gone. I

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Speaker 1: could see the wind moving the trees and the tall

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Speaker 1: grass around me, but couldn't hear it or feel it.

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Speaker 1: It became unbearably hot. Later he would learn from a

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Speaker 1: cousin that ancestors and the other worldly procession must have

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Speaker 1: recognized him and surrounded him to provide protection from the marchers.

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Speaker 1: His professional advice if you happen to encounter the spirits

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Speaker 1: quote the best thing for anyone to do if they

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Speaker 1: hear the night marcher procession approach is to run. Get

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Speaker 1: out of there. Make yourself very scarce. Don't, he says,

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Speaker 1: stop to try to take selfies like some foolish people

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Speaker 1: have done in the past. He said, just run. Don't

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Speaker 1: be that person. In other words, if you're in Hawaii

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Speaker 1: and your chicken skin warns you of an impending night

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Speaker 1: marcher experience, make like a chicken and flee for your life,

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Speaker 1: because that might be exactly what's at stake. Lapaca Cup

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Speaker 1: of Newi diligently chronicles the many ghost stories of Hawaii.

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Speaker 1: He's collected hundreds of stories on his blog Ghosts Next

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Speaker 1: Store and adds more regularly. Today's episode was written by

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Speaker 1: Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is

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Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more

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Speaker 1: in this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet,

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Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com to learn more about the

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Speaker 1: cultures of Hawaii. Check out my other podcast Saber. We

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Speaker 1: took a field trip to Oahu and are doing episodes

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Speaker 1: on the science, history, and culture of the food and

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Speaker 1: drinks there, from coffee to passion, fruit to poi. And

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. Two