52 
arising within us a wave of feeling allied 
to that which animated the untutored sav- 
age of bye-gone years, and as We dis- 
mounted from our horses after riding down 
the sharp and narrow declivity that must be 
traversed ere the extreme point of ‘Te 
Reinga promontory is reached, we settled 
down for a quiet rest in the grateful warmth 
produced by a northern sun and_ discussed 
the details of our long ride to this lonely 
spot. 
It will be interesting to many of my 
readers to learn something about the tradi- 
tions associated with the land and ocean 
spaces of the Reinga, and I copy the fol- 
lowing account of those traditions from a 
paper by Mr T. F. Cheeseman on the flora 
of the North Cape district read by him 
before the Auckland Institute, 5th October, 
1896 :— 
Most of us are aware that the Macris be- 
lieved that immediately after death the soul 
made its way to the extreme aorth of the 
country and descended into its future abode 
beneath the earth at a place called Reinga. 
So implicit was their belief in this tradition 
that they asserted 1t was quite possible to 
hear at night the sounds made by the spirits 
passing through the air on their northward 
journey, and that this was especially the case 
after a great battle, when multitudes were 
slain. In such instances they became aware 
of the event long before the news could reach 
them by ordinary means. Persons who had 
been so seriously unwell that their lives were 
despaired of, but who recovered, were said to 
have been at the brink of the Reinga, but 
to have returned. They even have traditions 
of people who had died, and descended to 
Reinga, but who nevertheless returned to 
earth and life and related what they had 
seen. A belief so widespread and so gener- 
ally accepted invested the locality with a 
particular sanctity in the eyes of a Maori, 
and hence in the early days of the colony 
the visits of Europeans were regarded with 
dislike. So far as I can ascertain, the first 
European who actually reached the Reinga 
was the Rev. W. G. Puckey, who journeyed 
thither from Kaitaia in 1834. An account 
of his visit is given in the Missionary Regis- 
ter for 1885. In 1839, the Rev. Mr Matthews 
and Mr W. R. Wade followed in his foot- 
