TREE FULL OF SKELETONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6439, 2 December 1881, Page 6

TREE FULL OF SKELETONS.

An incident of considerable interest to local archaeologists has transpired at ( Ipotiki. The correspondent of the “ Bay of Plenty Times ” states that some distance up Otara Gorge, on a portion of the estate of Mr Thomas Black, an. enormous puketea tree, probably many hundred years’ old, has been blown down, disclosing the astounding fact that the whole of the hollow interior, extending from the roots to the first fork,, about 45ft, has been filled with, human bodies. Since its fall these have burst out at the tntt of the tree in the form of a confused heap of skeletons. A more extraordinary sight than this monarch of the forest lying prone and discharging a perfect hecatomb of human skeletons can scarcely be conceived. Some are nearly perfect, while others are mixed up in a chaotic mass of heads, hands, feet, arms, and legs indiscriminately. All the Maoris here seem to have been quite unaware of this natural charnel house, and declare that it must have happened long before their or their fathers’ time. Indeed, the appearance of the tree fully justified the supposition that it must have been some hundreds of years since . this novel family vault was filled with its. ghastly occupants.