A CURIOUS TRADITION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3661, 9 April 1883, Page 4

A CURIOUS TRADITION.

A bird's-uest with eggs in it was discovered a short time since in England in an elm trunk that was being sawn into planks. The fact was recorded as an extraordinary event, and elicited from an anonymous correspondent of the London Standard the following extremely curious story, which had better be given in the writer's ova words :—"May I relate the tacts of si more remarkable incident of this nature which happened a few years ago on the Island of Rarotonga, in the South Pacific Ocean? This island is supposed to .have been first inhabited about 000 years ago, when a warrior named Tonga landed with a large nrmiber of followers from a neighbouring group. AVhen I was Jiving on the island 20 years ago, I often heard traditions relating to this warrior, and among them was one to the effect that when he set irp his kingdom on the Island lie fixed his scat or throne at the foot of si certain ' tamauu tree,' whose shade msidc it a convenient place for holding- his counsels. This seat consisted of a stone measuring about eight cubic feet. According to tradition, it was, at the time of the warrior's death, taken by the gods and hidden from mortal eyes, and it was commonly said that when the ' tamanu

tree ' fell, as it was in clanger of doing in severe storms, on account of its extraordinary height and age, the stone of Tonga would be found in its heart. Here I must explain that the tree iv question was 20 years ago the finest on the island, and measured quite 21ft in circumference, 20ft from the base, and fully twice those dimensions at the base itself. On the lowest computation it must have been GOO years old. The story of the embedded stone proved to be no "legendary myth, for about live years ago the great tree fell, and upon being cut "up for timber there Avas discovered near the centre of the trunk, and about 30ft from the roots, a stone correponding in size to the legendary seat of Tonga.