The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-20

certainly two centuries old. if at least anv
!,hhu ug could oe based upon the size Of
sne Trees which had grown in il. Yef. old
~ y undoubtedly was 1t was modem. and
=? rough rubbie work bore no comparison
m MIN me finished work Of the really antique
In Exeter island the marsex have at
Macted the attention OF all voyagers. Upon
Iakaniya In the Marquesas are similar
eInes OF even greater extent. The top
nioss ana the lowest terraces each hayeAa
Yuadrangular depression in the center.
sun several feet below the general surface.
Aaksoa, IN the Hawaiian islands is a
snAIae OF large and carefully dressed stone,
platform OF forty yards in length by
h tw;sn'y IN width. standing fourteen feet
nign, nat and neatly paved on ton.
On Maiden island, nearly under the
e9uator, there are large stone areas neatly
paved, and in some instances these plat
. nIl are raised as much as three feet
aoove the ground, supported by blocks of
coral A slight hint of the antiquity of
suese almost inperishable works may be
gatnered from the fact that one such raised
pavement has recently been uncovered
hnoer several feet of guano. Pitcairn's
stand, uninhabited at the time the Bounty
h ~ took possession. was found to
pe covered with these terraces and plat
forms OF very high antiquity.
departing from the usual type of a care
ny Quilt cairn q close approach is made to
the peculiar style of the Druidic monu-
ment in two solitary yet conspicuous in
stances. The first Is at Huahine, in the
society Islands, where superstition attaches
reverence and awe TO q large slab of I'M
newn stone resting on the points of three
nuge Doulders. In Tongatabu, of the
FRIENDLY islands. there stands at Moa.
some twelve miles from NukuaIofa. the
principal town, monster triiis hon COM
posed OF TWO rec angular blocks OF gray
voicanic stone, standing twenty feet out OF
the SOIL ana no one knows how deep below
u, about twelve feet thick and ten broad.
with weii-squared faces and neatly dressed
edges. The tops of these two stones are
mortised SO as TO receive q part of third
as carefully hewn monolith of much the
same dimensions. Until within the last
score OF years there rested on the center of
THIS stone huge bowl cut In the same ma
teriai. The art which could dress this
rock and raise the great masses into place
- strange enough, but stranger YET is he
Iact that the material is nowhere found in
Tonga or the neighboring islands, in fact
nowhere nearer than Uvea or Wallis island,
several hundred miles away.
Close 10 this imposing monument is the
ruin OF what must have been an enormous
pyramid. Not Tar away in the island of
Lefuka, of the same group, is found huge
stone standing out of the earth ahoui
twenty feet in q sianting direction. This
bears the mark of human work and SEEMS
TO belong IN the same Category with the
famous Kaaba, or sacred stone of Mecca,
which Is known to have been sacred ages
before Mohammed incorporated it in his
religious system. Not many rods away
from this stone shaft is found memorial,
the only one of its kind in Polynesia,
which makes slight approach to the
work OF the mound-builders in this coun-
try - ~ II
In shape. 1t is the frustum of a cone, about
forty feet in height; its summit is quite
Tat and almost perfect circle of some
tfIy feet in diameter. What its age may
be 1t is impossible to determine, but enor-
nous trees of an undoubtedly venerable
antiquity have grown up through it.
Finally on Easter island is found the
greatest effort OF this ancient peop.e in the
statues. They large stones surmounted
by bust and head, the lower portion from
the shoulders down being rudelv dressed
into shape, with no attempt TO represent
either body or limbs. These statues are of
trachyte. which is found in the extinct
island, with at least thirty statues in ali
stages of completion remaining on it.
Some of the statues are erected at least
eight miles from this quarry. They stand
from fifteen to thirty feet high, with q
breadth across the shoulders of from six to
eight feet. Upon the head of each is a
cylinder of red tufa measuring some fifty
ches in height and sixty inches in
diameter. Such cylinder hat. resembling
that of civilization Invested of its brinl, Is
still worn by the New Caledonians. The
,untenance upon these statues is strongly
marked, expression stern, eyebails deeply
sunken and gaze directed upward. The
ears are not carved out, but simply indi-
Gated by large, square masses depending
almost to the shoulders.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. is known of
the race that labored in these quarries.
There is not tradition on which to weave
the finest web to connect them with the
present. Analogy gives no clew, because
it gives too many, each one as good as the
next. and no means of giving weight to one
above another. An extinct people heaped
up mounds along the valley of the Missis-
sippi; the mound is found In the islands.
The ancient Aymaras OF Peru carved huge
statues and left them standing in the
Andean valleys; statues almost the very
counterpart stand on Easter island. The
ancient Sab@ns of Africa and Arabia stuck
long stones in the ground to worship them;
rocky shaft still is found in Tonga. In
Southeastern Asia are huge terraces of
MASSEY rock; the island world is filed with
just such monuments. England and Nor
mandy show huge blocks supported on
stone uprights; so does the realm in which
these ancient workers he~ed stone. All
solutions are probable. all are improbable;
the dpad are dead to all time.