The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-02-28
H|DEOUS OLD COL OSS|
Carved Out of the Mountain
and Set Up by the Sea
BY A L0NG-V RACE
Sculptured Wonders Of Easter
Island Described.
BY A LONG, ANISHED RACE

New York, Feb. 27-The Journal says
One Of the most mysterious spots on earth
is Easter Island, in the Pacific, covered
with gigantis statues made by a prehie-
toric race, Of whom We can learn nothing.
DR.. George H. Cooke. of the United
states navy, has recently made new ex-
ploration of this unknown land and will
embody his discoveries in a forthcoming
bulletin to be published by the National
Museum at Washington.
Easter Island is now inhabited by one
hundred and fifty savages of a low grade,
who can hardly be the descendant of the
creators Of the great statues. Once the
island had a great population. Today it
has no trees, and it is surmised that the
former civilized inhabitants and the vege-
tation were wiped out by one catastrophe.
coveries is that the soil of Easter Island
One of Or. Cookies most interes ting dis
is filed with skulls
The situation of Easter Island, in the
trackless waste Of the Pacific, is singular
~ lonely, the nearest land being 100 miles
TO the westward. 1t is only thirteen miles
long by seven miles in width and scarcely
a tree grows upon it. Neve @ leless, it had
formerly a very numerous populatio, es-
timated at not less than 10000, and the
puzzle Is TO imagine what became Of these
people, who, Judging from the astonishing
accumulatiOns Of skeletons, must have
held occupancy for a great length Of time
The seem TO have been a race altogether
different from that of the present inhabi-
tants, and among various arts they prac-
tised the sculpture Of gigantic statues of
stone, and the like of which have never
beenfound in any other part Of the world.
The quarries in which these colossi were
hewn from solid rock remain today just
as they were left by the prehistoric ar
lists, whose work seems to have been
brought to a sudden stop by a calamity
that overwhelmed the island and wiped
out nearly everything living on it.
The voyager who might have approach
ed Easter four hundred years ago would
have witnessed a remarkable spectacle.
He would have beheld, placed at intervals
along the shore, great platforms of hewn
stone, and on them rows of stone statues
with their faces toward the sea, as if rep
resentng so many tutelary divinities keep
ing eternal watch upon the ocean in be-
half of the islanders. On one of these
platforms he might have counted fifteen
colossi, from forty to sixty feet in hight
This, indeed, was the platfor known as
Tongarika, the largest and most imposing
of all. 1t was eight feet in height, nine
feet wide and $40 feet long.
Today the platforms remain, but all of
the statues have been thrown down and
lie scattered about. In front of each plat
form is a wide paved space, apparently
designed to afford standing room for a
considerable multitude.
1t was formerly supposed that the sta
tues were gods, worshiped as idols, but it
now appears that they merely represented
chiefs, and other distinguished personages,
being, in fact, portraits in stone. Some of
them arc evidently females, and, which
ever their sex, they commonly wore on
their heads cylinder-shaped crowns Of a
reddish, volcanic tufa, which separately
two to three tons apiece. The figures them
selves, each having the form of the upper
half of a human being, are of grey lava
The whole being of volcanic origin, there
is no lack of this material, which is rather
soft and therefore vel adpated for carv-
ing with the stone tools evidently employ
ed by the prehistoric artists. No fewer
than 500 OF the statues have been found
The platforms on which they originally
stood usually contained chambers filed
with Skeletons the bodies Of the dead con-
signed TO these commVnal sepulchres hav-
ing been wrapped in dried grass and laid
with their heads toward the ocean. In
some instances the platforms are provid-
ed with great oven-Hke receptacles. which
may have been utilized, has been surmised.
for cannibal feasts on a large scale.
There IS no mystery as to the origin
Of the statues. inasmuch as many of them
are found in various stages of connie
ton in the quarrias which served as work
shops for turning them out The largest
Of the volcanic mountains on Easter Is
land Is Rama Roraka. which is 1927 feet
high. and has a crater four-ffths of a mile
in diameter. The edge Of this crater forms
a nearly perfect circle, broken only at a
point on the south side. through which
the lava stream, when the volcano was
active. found it's way to the sea. Inside
the crater the cliffs have been cut into
terraces by the image makers, and here
and there one sees a stone giant half
finished. or in other cases nearly ready to
receive the final touches from the artists
tool O-har statues, again. are merely
Sketched out upon the rocky walls as a
preliminary TO beginning the work Of
sculpture
on the outer slope Of .he crater is an
other and even more extensive workshop
and here more incomplete statues ara
found Just as in Egypt Where. in the
quarries at Syne. the greatest Of all the
ooeiiSks still lies unfinished. SO in this
workshop outside the crater may be seen
The biggest Of the images found on Inc
island, SIN adhering 10 the bedrock and
measuring seventy feet in length.
The last step IN the process Of scur7,rra
was - cut The back Of the statue away
from the rock of which il had been carved
Inside Of the crater there are n.-etv-
tree statues. forty Of which are comp-s-a9