HUMAN BONES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 241, 8 September 1927, Page 7

HUMAN BONES

INTERESTING DISCOVERY. MAORI TRADITION RECALLED. (Bv Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 8. An extraordinary result of the heavy rain experienced this winter at the northerly extremity of the. North Island has been to uncover immense quantities of human bones, indicating the presence of old and important Maori burial grounds. The bones are mixed with small bits of obsidian, the latter having been thrown by mourners on to the bodies of the dead at the climax of tho funeral rites.

The site of the cemeteries now uncovered is on the sand and stone hillocks that abound between the North Cape and Cape Maria Van Dieman. Between these two capes lies Spirits’ Bay whose western point is named Cape Reinga. According to tradition, it is to Spirits’ Bay that the spirits of the Maoris come after death. At Cape Reinga there is a semi-circular ledge on which the spirits dance before taking off into the ether. The uncovering of the graves indicates that the tradition was generally accepted by the Maoris and that they sought to place the bodies of their dead as near as possible to the point of departure for the spirits. A further intriguing discovery was made just outside the gates of the Pandora Herbert Mac Quarries camping site. Here there appeared an oval of stones enclosing what had been a suspiciously long Maori camp fire or oven. At four regular intervals, where apparently four people had been sitting and eating the remains of their meal, were human bones.