The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-08-14

basaltic columns and rooted over. The
outer walls are twenty feet thick at
the base and eight feet at the top, and
some of the stones used in its compost
ton are twenty-five feet in length and
eight feet in circumference.
All the concentrated intelligence Of
all the Caroline Islanders Of to-day
could not devise 4 method for moving
and raising such enormous masses
and all the machinery at the command
of the early Spanish navigators could
not have managed one of them.
SO much for the Carolines and now,
if we traverse some few thousand miles
Of ocean to the very eastern outskirts
Of Polynesia, we shall find something
even more mysterious. 1t is the little
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 at
tract settlers. 1t is of volcanic origin,
and one Of the extinct craterS is over a
thousand feet high.
Yet this physically unintercsting
island, peopled by Polynesians Of the
fair type, such as are found in the So
ciety Islands, is the greatest mystery
of the Pacific. 1t is covered with re-
mains Of some prehistoric people. Of
whom every record but that preserved
in stone seems to have vanished.
At the southwest end Of this little
island there are to be found the ruins
of nearly hundred stone houses, built
in regular lines and facing the sea.
The wall of these houses are FIVE feet
thick and over five feet high, built of
layers Of flat stones and lined inside
with fiat slabs. Internally the houses
measure about forty feet long by thir-
teen 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 q curious
stone statue, eight feet high, and
weighing about fc tons, which is
now in the British useum.
The sea-cli11s near this ancient set
tlement 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.
Tley are built on sloping ground, pre-
senting on the seaward side wall
face twenty or thirty feet high, and
two or three hundred feet long, and on
the landwarl side a wall Of about three
feet in height rising from a levelled
terrace.
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 pedestals which have sup
ported 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
to thirty-tive 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 fiat to allow Of crowns being placed
on them, which CROWNS seem 70 have
been made, not of the same material as
the statue, 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 ancient
worshippers.
The images themselves are made of
grey 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. The head Of one of
these measures twenty feet from the
nape of the neck to the crown. The
faces Of the images have wel!-defined
features, with thin lips, broad noses,
nostrils, and a general dis
dainful expression. 1t is believed, from
the appearance Of the eye-sockets, that
obsidian eyeballs were intended to he
The ears are very carefully
carved, and are prominent.
There are also, in different parts of !
the island, wooden tablets covered with
curious carvings and strange hero
ylyphics, which no one can explain.
1t is remarkable that the present |
natives have small wonden images |
carved out Of 4 hard dark wood huG |
these images are hideous, and Il f1er
from the dignilicd statues of |
the platforms.
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