The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1890-12-18
PRESERVED IN STONE.
ONE OF THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES
OF THE SOUTH SEAS.


Easter Island.
The Caroline islands, which are now
recognized as belonging to Spain, though
the Germans tried to annex them few
years ago, form one of the largest archi-
pelagos of the Pacific, covering sea area
OF more than 2, 900 miles, and comprising
over 800 separate fragments of land.
Some of these islets are mere rocks,
many are uninhabited and few are
very populous. Excepting those at the
eastern end Of the chain, and the large
island of zap at the western end, they
have been rarely, some of them never.
visited by white men, unless in the dubi-
GUS form of ''beach combers."
Kusaie, sometimes called Strong isl
and, is about fifty miles in circumfef-
ence, is of basaltic formation, has a
large extent of high ground, and boasts
OF two excellent ha,bors. The people
are reputedly industrious and peaceable
for South Sea lslanders-and they have
king Of their own. They belong, to
all appearance, to the Polynesian race,
but travellers have declared that they
seem capable of higher civilization
than the average Polynesian. 1t is re-
markable that the chiefs communicate
by signs and speech not understood by
the common people.
LITTLE EASTER ISLAND.
Ii we traverse some few thousand
miles of ocean to the very eastern out
skirts of Polynesia we shall find the lit
tie island called Easter island, which is
barely ten miles long by four miles
broad, which has no trees, no running
water, and very little about it to attract
settlers. 1t is of volcanic origin, and
one of the extinct craters is over 900
feet high.
Yet this physically uninteresting isl
and, peopled by Polynesians of the fair
type, such as are found in the Society
islands, is the greatest mystery of the Pa
citic. 1t is covered with remains of some
prehistoric people of whom every record
but that preserved in stone seems to have
vanished.
AT the southwest end of this little ISL
and there are to be found the ruins of
nearly a hundred stone houses, built in
regular lines and facing the sea. The
walls Of these houses are five feet thick
and over five feet high, built of layers of
fiat stones and lined inside with fiat
slabs. Internally the houses measure
about forty feet long by thirteen feet
wide, and they are rooted over with slabs
overlapping like tiles. The inside walls
are painted in three colors-red, black
and white-with figures of birds and
mystic beasts and faces and geometrical
figures. In one of these houses was
found curious stone statue eight feet
high and weighing about four tons,
which is now in the British museum.
The sea cliffs near this ancient Settle
ment are carved into grotesque shapes
not unlike the paintings on the walls, and
the coast is marked with hundreds of
these strange sculptures.
Again, on each headland of the island
there is an enormous stone platform,
built of hewn blocks of great size, fitted
together without cement. They are built
onsloping ground, presenting on the sea-
ward side wall face twenty or thirty
feet high and two or three hundred feet
long, and on the landward side wall
of about three feet in height rising from
level terrace.
EVIDENCES OF WORSHIP.
These platforms have evidently had to
do with the religious practices of the
early settlers, whoever they were; for
upon all of them are large stone pedes-
tails which have supported images, and
on some of them broken images are still
to be seen. On one platform fifteen
images were found, in size ranging from
three to thirty-five feet in height. They
are of human shape, representing the
upper part Of the body only, with arms
and hands close to the sides. The heads
are cut flat to allow of crowns being
placed on them, which crowns seem to
have been made, not of the same mate
rial as the statues, but of red tufa.
This has been traced to an extinct crater
within a few miles of the houses, and on
the brink of this crater large number
of crowns were found, finished and
ready for removal before some strange
fate depeopled the island of these an
Gent worshipers.
The images themselves are made of
gray lava, which is only found at quite
another crater at the other end of the
island At this crater, called Otouli,
there are several finished and partly
finished images, just as they were left
by the workmen. 1t is remarkable that
the present natives have small wooden
images carved out Of a hard, dark wood,
but these images are hideous and differ
altogether from the dignifed statues of
the platforms.
The present inhabitants arc simply
tattooed savages, who are more than
suspected to have taste for cannibal-
ism. They live in long, low houses, in
shape like an upturned canoe, with only
single opening about two feet square,
wholly unlike the massive stone villages
we have described. There may have
been wood ON the island at one time. for
the natives are well provided with clubs
and spears, and they also use double
headed paddle which has not been OBJ
served elsewhere in the Pacific. But, on
the other hand, they may have brought
be- e.,