SUPERSTITIOUS OPINIONS 
140 
present one solid mass of food: the whole is 
decorated with flags, and, when in an elevated 
situation, presents a very imposing appearance. 
The portion belonging to each tribe is particu- 
larly pointed out ; and when the ceremony of 
presenting it is over, the people carry away their 
portions; and the building, upon which it was all 
piled, is left to go to ruin, or cut down for fire- 
wood ; as the natives never use the same wood, 
nor choose the same spot, for a second Hakari. 
It were impossible to describe the belief of the 
New Zealanders respecting the state of the dead; 
for they know not what they themselves believe. 
They do, however, all hold, that when the body 
dies, tlie spirit does not cease to exist, but goes 
away to some distant regions, either for happiness 
or woe. Some think that all spirits go to the 
Reinga, a place of torment ; the entrance to which, 
they suppose, is at the North Cape, a steep cliff* 
with a large cave, into which the tide rushes 
with great impetuosity, causing a deafening noise 
to proceed, apparently, from the bowels of the 
mount. Here it is supposed that Wiro, the evil 
spirit and the destroyer of man, dwells, and feasts 
himself upon those spirits whose bodies he has 
brought into the dust of death. As all the de- 
parted are supposed to be kept in bondage, with 
only now and then liberty to walk the earth, that 
they may converse in whistles with their friends, 
and as in the Reinga all the functions of life are 
supposed to be performed, slaves are, or were 
