194 
OHINEMUTU 
CHAP. 
always evaded capture. Two years ago he died an 
old man at Rotorua. 
Many places in the neighbourhood of Tauranga are 
“ tapu ” (rendered sacred), and across the bay is the 
site of an old burying-ground. A landslip on the 
cliff had quite recently swept away the graves and 
some old carved monuments. A year ago Judge Gill 
tried a curious native case in the law court here. A 
woman brought an action against an old man for 
casting his evil eye on her husband, who died in 
consequence (so she said). His own grandchildren 
gave evidence against him for having bewitched a 
child, who had pined and died a few weeks after it 
was born. They are most superstitious about such 
things. Some years ago a native servant that we had, 
having taken more wine than was good for him, stuck 
a lighted match into a chief’s beard, when in an impress- 
ive manner the chief told him in three days he would 
die — and he did, though my husband and I did our 
utmost to persuade him to take food, and that there 
was nothing wrong with him. Reinga, on the North 
Cape of the North Island, according to their notions 
is the earthly portal to the entrance of their final 
home — the flitting souls glide noiselessly along through 
a deep cave in the cliff, then they ascend a high hill, 
and journey along a valley, where on the margin of a 
lake a canoe awaits them for the island of Hawaiki, 
the place where their fathers came from and to which 
their spirits return. After all battles (so their legend 
goes) those on earth near this cape can hear the flutter 
of their wings as they go through the air. The chiefs 
ascend to heaven first, leaving behind them their left 
eye, which becomes a star. 
The entrance to Reinga is by a Pohutukawa or 
Christmas tree. If the branches were cut by a white 
