SPIRIT PLACES.

Shannon News, 20 May 1924, Page 1

SPIRIT PLACES.

WHISPERINGS IN THE NIGHT. HAUNTED TREES AND HOCKS. Doited all over Rarotonga and other Eastern Pacilic Islands, as well as New Zealand, are what are known as “Spirit Places.’’ Generally a grove of trees or a particular rock, they are held in very deep awe and reverence b.v the natives, who (writes Wyiifri.a Re.vcil in the Sydney Sun) believe t iiciii to be the assembly and ‘jumpingoff places for spirits on the way to eternity. ; Several years ago, when engaged in developing a Rarotongaa plantation, I erected my camp in a grove of toa,

or ironwod, trees several miles outside the village of Arorang'i. To my mind it was an ideal location. The trees grew just above high-water mark, and a belt of dense scrub protected the site from south-east trades. At high tide the water lapped the root of the scrub. Tirni. my buggy boy, expressed the utmost horror when I announced mat 1 meant to camp there. “Him spirit place!” he confided, not quite sure whether 1 was in earnest or merely joking. "Well, what of that, Timi?” “Bad spirit come. You be found dead one morning.” In vain he pleaded with me to return to his home in the village. I was stubborn and all his bloodcurdling predictions only made me more determined. The Dog Alarmed. It was 10 o'clock when I rolled in.o my blankets, and in a few minutes I was asleep. Not until my dog started ■growling viciously did I awake. He stood in the tent opening, his back a-bristle, staring into the night, snarling deeply and fiercely. With great reluctance he obeyed my order to He down.

On the second night, at the same hour, he again awakened me. This tithe, gripping my revolver ! seached beach and scrub thoroughly. All the while Die dog followed close at my heels, still growling'and snarling, but search as I would, I could not discover what caused him to be so, uneasy. My camp was as f lial left it, and although I closely examined everything on my .return nothing had been touched or in any way interfered with.

I remained camped in t'he toa grove lor several weeks, and was awakened every night by my growling - dog. I could always hear a pecular whispering, as though many thousand voices were speaking softly to each one another. This, was probably caused by breaking of the ripples on the beach being echoed into the scrub and then being refracted by the scrub into the iromvood trees. But 4 this sound was audible throughout the night; it was only between midnight and 2 o'clock that my dog was disturbed. A somewhat similar experience befell me in New Zealand a couple of years-later. I was a member ot a geological" survey party working in the South Island. . . There Were throe, ot -US“the cook, Gordon, once a guide on the famous To Anuu track, and myself—and we were’in little-known sparsely populated country. We had with us a collie named Floss. A Nervous Wreck.

Our tents were pitched in a clearing an the southern bank of the Heapliy Or*AVh akapoai, and dense native bush surrounded us. An old whare or hut served us as a messroom.

One fine, calm evening - , about an hour alter dark, Gordon and I were reading, when Floss, facing the river, began to whine and growl and backed under the flooring of the whare, as though afraid of something. She refused to be coaxed and swore for over an hour.

livery night at about the same time Floss would act in a similar manner, and although we thoroughly searched the vicinity we were never able to discover any cause for the dog’s alarm. Then wc ran suddenly out of stores, Gordon and I set out for Karamea, lying about 20 miles lo the South, while the cook and Floss remained to look after the camp. When we returned after two day’s absence we found the cook almost, a nervous wreck. He explained that while we were away Floss had whined and growled most of every night, and her groAvls had thoroughly unnerved him. When we finally left the Heapliy we were more like lunatics than sane men. Years later I learnt that near the river mouth stood the ruins of an old Maori pa •and that the clearing was a spirit place.