AN ODD CHARNEL HOUSE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2691, 3 November 1881, Page 2

AN ODD CHARNEL HOUSE.

A quantity of human skeletons has been found in a tree near Opotiki. The correspondent of the Tauranga “ Times ” says :—“ An incident of considerable interest to local arclueologists has transpired here. Some distance up the Otara Gorge, on a portion of the estate of Thomas Black, Esq., an enormous puketea tree, probably many hundred years old, has been blown down, disclosing the astounding fact that the whole of the hollow interior, extending from the roots to the first fork, about 45 feet, has been filled with human bodies. Since its fall these have burst out of the butt of the tree in the form of a confused heap of skeletons. A more extraordinary sight than this monarch of the forest lying prone and discharging a perfect hecatomb of human skeletons can scarcely be conceited of. Some are nearly perfect, while others are mixed up in a chaotic mass of heads, arms, hands, feet, and legs indiscriminately. All the Maoris seem to have been quite unaware of this natural charnel house, and declare that it must have happened long before theirs or their fathers’ time. Indeed, the appearance of the tree fully justifies the supposition that it must have been some hundreds of years since the novel family vault was filled with its ghastly occupants.”