The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-19
stone Llnnks
Or the South Seas
Expedition Washington
O the nien
That Construct the
That Constructed the Idols.

statues were gods, worshiped as idols,
but it now appears that they merely
represented chiefs and other distin-
guished perSonageS, being, in fact, por>
traits in stone, some of them evidently
females. Whichever their sex, they
commonly wore on their heads cylin>
der-shaped crowns of a reddish vol
canic tufa, which separately weighed
two or three tons apiece. The figures
themselves, each having the form of
the upper half of human being, are
of gray lava. The whole island being
of volcanic origin, there is no lack of
this material, which is rather soft and
therefore well adapted for carving with,
the stone tool evidently employed by
the prehistoric artists. No fewer than
555 of the statues have been found. The
platforms on which they originally
stood usually contain chambers filled
with skeletons, the bodies of the dead
consigned to these sepulchers having
been wrapped in dried grass and laid
with their heads toward the ocean. In
some instances the platforms are pro-
vided with great ovenlike receptacles,
which may have been utilized, as has
been surmised, for cahnibal feasts on a
large scale.
There is no mystery as to the origin
of the statues, inasmuch Is many Of
them are found in various stages of
completion in the quarries which served
as workshops for turning them out. The
largest of the volcanic mountains on
Easter Island is Rama Roraka, which
is 1927 feet high and has crater four
f1fths Of a mile in diameter The edge
of this crater forms a nearly perfect
circle, broken only at point on the
south side. through which the lava
stream, when the volcano was active,
found It's way to the sea. Inside or the
crater the cliffs have been cut into ter
races by the image-makers, and here
and there one sees a stone giant nall
finished, or nearly ready to receive the
final touches from the artists tool.
Other statues again are merely
sketched out upon the rocky walls, as
a preliminary to beginning the work of
sculpture.
On the outer slope of the crater is
another and even more extensive work.
shop, and here other incomplete statues
are found. Just as in Egypt, where, in
the quarries at Syens, the greatest OF
all the obelisks still lies unfinished, so
in this workshop outside the crater may
be seen the biggest of the images found
on the island, still adhering to the bed
rock and measuring seventy feet in
length. The last step in the process of
sculpture was to cut the back OF the
statue away from the rock out of which
it had been carved. Inside of the crater
which are completed and ready to be
conveyed to their platforms on the
coast. Necessarily the labor involved
in the process of transportation must
have been enormous, inasmuch as the
images, weighing from twelve to forty
tons each, had to be carried great dis
tances over a very irregular country.
1t is believed that they were, lowered
down the mountain by blocks and
wedges, and then dragged the rest of
the way by hundreds of men over roads
made for the purpose, which were
covered with seaweed. Being rolled on
an inclined plane to the top of plat
form they were set up. In the work.
shop outside the crater and at the foot
of the mountain are one hundred and
fifty-five statues.
1t is obvious that the number of
workmen employed III these quarries
must have been very great. That some
tremendous catastrophe put sudden