to him as by a flash of lightning. He
immediately walked away with a lofty scowl. Is
Ta?nui, then, the victim of makutu (witchcraft),
—and is the mind of a great chief to be rent
and tortured by devils?

Feeling convinced that old Kaitemata was
at the bottom of all the mischief—for had she
not favoured the slave-daughter of his enemy
from the first?—the king came to the resolution
of destroying both of them at one blow. He,
however, desired to do this by some means
which should take effect so unexpectedly, and
without his laying a hand or weapon upon
either of them, that there should be no excuse
for spirits to interfere in their favour. Such
was the sophistry with which he deceived
himself. As for the plan itself, his territory
offered several local advantages for any
purpose of, apparently, accidental destruction.

The interior of New Zealand contains so
many natural wonders, that it need not require
any great stretch of imagination among the
natives to pass over to the supernatural. As
one, among the various proofs of this which
might be adduced, we will present the reader
with an extract from the travels of Mr.
George French Angas, in New Zealand, whose
unpretending volumes are crowded with
curious facts and interesting information.

"I visited the boiling springs which issue from
the side of a steep mountain above Te Rapa.
There are nearly one hundred of them; they
burst out, bubbling up from little orifices in the
ground, which are not more than a few inches in
diameter, and the steam rushes out in clouds with
considerable force: the hill-side is covered with
them, and a river of hot water runs down into the
lake. The soil around is a red and white clay,
strongly impregnated with sulphur and hydrogen
gas: pyrites also occur. Several women were
busy cooking baskets of potatoes over some of the
smaller orifices; leaves and fern were laid over
the holes, upon which the food was placed; I
tasted some of the potatoes, and they were
capitally done.

"About two miles from this place, on the edge
of a great swampy flat, I met with a number of
boiling ponds; some of them of very large
dimensions. We forded a river flowing swiftly
towards the lake, which is fed by the snows
melting in the vallies of the Tongariro. In many
places in the bed of this river, the water boils up
from the subterranean springs beneath, suddenly
changing the temperature of the stream, to the
imminent risk of the individual who may be
crossing. Along whole tracks of ground I heard
the water boiling violently beneath the crust over
which I was treading. It is very dangerous
travelling, for if the crust should break, scalding
to death must ensue. I am told the Roturua
natives, who build their houses over the hot
springs in that district, for the sake of constant
warmth at night, frequently meet with fatal
accidents of this kind:—it has happened that when
a party have been dancing on the floor, the crust
has given way, and the convivial assembly have
been suddenly swallowed up in the boiling cauldron
beneath! Some of the ponds are ninety feet in
circumference, filled with transparent pale blue
boiling water, sending up columns of steam.
Channels of boiling water run along the ground
in every direction, and the surface of this
calcareous flat around the margin of the boiling
ponds is covered with beautiful encrustations of
lime and alum, in some parts forming flat saucer-
like figures. Husks of maize, moss, and branches
of vegetable substances were encrusted in the
same manner. I also observed small deep holes
or wells here and there amongst the grass and
rushes, from two inches to as many feet in
diameter, filled with boiling mud, that rises up in
large bubbles as thick as hasty-pudding: these
mud pits send up a strong sulphureous smell.
Although the ponds boiled violently, I noticed
small flies walking swiftly, or rather running on
their surface. The steam that rises from these
boiling springs is visible at a distance of many
miles, appearing like the jets from a number of
steam-engines." Vol. ii. pp. 113, 114, 115.

To a certain cavern, beneath which the
king knew there was one of these boiling
springs, he determined to send both Te?ra
and Kaitemata, as soon as he had hewed away
the pumice floor to so thin a substance, that
it would be certain, before long, to crack and
fall in with their weight. He should thus
be rid of two witches—for that they were
such, he now regarded as an ascertained fact.

Of this, if any additional proof were needed,
the king received further confirmation that
very evening. A Maori runner came from
the distant hunting-ground where Ta?nui had
exiled his son Waipata, on account of the
favour he had shown to Te?ra, to inform him
that Waipata had secret communications with
the young slave-girl, who had induced him
to abandon the religion of Tohunga, and
become a Christian; and, finally, that his son
had gone mad, and wore trousers!

Ta?nui, smothering his indignant fury,
still preserved a haughty silence, not
untouched with an air of melancholy, as he
reflected on the humiliating fall of Waipata.
He entertained no doubt but his son had gone
mad. Vengeance and the boiling springs
were, however, at hand; and he now hastened
to his preliminary work in the cavern.

THE PENNY SAVED;
A BLUE-BOOK CATECHISM.

Rising Young Operative. "Please, father,
what is a blue-book?"

Paternal Operative. "A blue-book is a thick
heavy catechism done up in blue covers."

"What is it for?"—"Why, when Parliament
sets some of its Members to inquire
about a subject, and hear evidence quietly
in a room for to get at facts, they print the
evidence and so on, and send it to all the
other Members, so that they may read and
know the facts."

"What is that blue-book you have
borrowed to read?"—"It is all about Savings
Banks."

"But do not the Parliament men know