MYSTERIOUS MUMMIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10343, 20 May 1901, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS MUMMIES.

PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS.

The following is from 'the Kawhia Settler: — At intervals, ever since tho early entry of "Europeans into the harbour, of Kawhia, occasional rumoro have been heard of the existence: of catacombs containing mummies of. a race unknown to the Maoris. Recently two tourists from Auckland undertook the difficult and somewhat perilous journey to the high limerton? .rocks, near the head of the Awaroa river, where the embalmed remains wre said to repose in their secret -.ar-::>i>liagu<). These explorers .aver that with the assistance of a guide they puoii-cded/m reaching several cavernous catacombs fair upon a high cliff, which they ascended with much difficulty and- some little danger. In the dark recesses of a cave into "which they peered they beheld some mummified human Remains swathed in - much decayed vestments. Scattered locks of long black hair were on the heads of some, and some of the bodies, upon closer inspection, proved almost as complete as when laid away shortly after death in the unknown past. Those remains, it is said, are not held sacred by the Maoris as with their own dead — there is tpo tapu over these vestiges of an. extinct race. The reason why such. tombs have remained so long unexpjored is, doubtless, because of the, difficulty of ascending a vertical cliff, on the face of which are the entrances to tho tombs, hidden by such vegetation as clings to the 'least fissure or crevice' in rocks of high altitude, and partially closed, at the mouth by the' debris of rock' disintegration, the accfc; mulation of time. It is said that the late Captain Fairchild always. expressed' a doubt as to the existence of these mummies, and some of the oldest Europoan residents here have- shared in his disbelief; but from the necessarily superficial peep into the catacombs mentioned, and what was then see& there is.' sufficient warrant for further investigation.