Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-08

valleys nor streams nor DeltS OF lliH-
Der, for the extinct volcanoes rise
more than 1000 feet sheer from bare
plain.
The gigantic stone busts, nearly 60l
in number, for which the island is ia
nous. have ali fallen from their stone
platforms Forty are still lying, fin
lShed or unfinished inside the extinct
crater of Ranaroral<a. where they We're
quarried, and as many more at the
foot Of The slope, or scattered over the
grassy plains. where they were left
when the work of transporting them tn
the platforms was suddenly arrested
forever The statues are cut from a
coarse gray trachytic lava, which
could be worked with obsidian chiSels,
for, whenever a lump harder than The
chseI was encountered, il was left
standing on the body of the statue like
a Wart Each bust was crowned with
truncated cone of red tufa, very
liGht and easy to transport and was
placed with it's back to the sea.
The appearance, OF the busts may be
judged by the specimen which stands
under the portico of the BRITISH muse
um; It is a pi9my beside one that has
fallen from the platform called OVahe
"a slant % feet high and 30 tons in
weight. II was natural to doubt
whether a people without metal tools.
without houses except matched tun-
nels shaped like an inverted canoe.
could have executed such work, and it
WAS lan@ suggested that they Were the
relics of an extinct race. an offshot
Of the ancient Peruvians. Now, how
ever il seems certain that, had Rog
@cwien in H. or even Cook in if3
explored the crater of kanaforaka,
They would have found the sculptor
clam busted about their work. Natives
were still living in 1856 who rcmem-
bcred the image making OF thet. yoi.tn.
and could SAY which of the chiefs each
OF tie fallen images was intended to
commemorate The husts were con-
ventional CniPiCs OF chiefs buried in
the platforms beneath them and re-
cciVed no more vcneration than tomb
stones do in England. From a passage
in the log Of The Spaniard Gonzales.
who visited the island in LID. it APP
pears that, while the stone image was
being cut, a colossal figure of wicker
work. stuffed with hay ana covered
with bark cloth was erected on the
pa lIi III lbI tn l'hl ''i9N VI - -
ceremonies.
One need not 60 very far for par
anci in other Poly nesian islands At
the time of Berchey's visit 10 Pitcairn
which tie Bounty mutineers had found
unnhabi-cd in 1899, there stood on a
terrace of the northern cliff Il plat
form containing bones, together with
stone statue: probably il IS there
still Melville records that when wan
derina in the bush in the Marauesas
islands, he came By chance upon a
statnc moss grown with age and fall
len from its platform: it had been car
we'd ont of Il tree trunk. Stone e6i@ies
arc To be found in islands in the Aus
trll group.
We have therefore. the entire rclig
ious apparatus of the Easter islanders
in islands only 500 miles distant what
is more natural than that Il people.
accust omed Ia honor their dead with
wood efligies. being cast away in an
island destitute of timber. should
carve the eifigy out Of the material
which they were already using for the
CONSTRUCTION of their platform tombs-
a task lightened by the profasion Of
sharp obsidian lying ready 10 their
hando
The erotesque little figures. carved
from nimcsa wood. with eyes of obsi
dian, are familiar objects in every
chronological museum, where they are
gene rally Ia oeled domestic idols" We
know from Melville that the Types
In the Marguesas islands used similar
figures as 0racles, the priest question
ing the idol in a whisper, and inter-
1reting its reply much as little girls
carry on conversations with their dolls,
1t is To he feared that Mr.. Rout-
ledge will not make any new discoV'
cry throwing light upon the inscribed
tablets. which escaped the observation
of the early Noyagers altogether.
Fifteen of these tablets are preserved
in places accessible to students, most
of them of mimosa wood, but few Of
odd pieces of driftwood. The charac-
ters were engraved with an obsidian
point and. as each line was COM
pleted, the tablet was reversed so
that every other line is upside down.
In one instanee-that of gorset now
in the British museum single me
of characters is engraved If the
ncised figures really represent writ
ing, as they appear TO do, they are the
only instance of the development of
the art by an isolated island people,
Many attempts have been made. with
the assistance of elderly natives who
professed a knowledge Of it, to find
the key and yet we are still in doubt
whether the script was a genuine sys-
TEN of writing or not. Bishop JAMS
sen Of Tahiti. whose manuscript was
edited and published by NJ de Harlez
of Louvain, compiled comprehen-
sive vocabulary but he and his editor
agreed in the conclusion that there
was no sense or significance in the in
scriptions. During his investigations,
however an important fact came 10
light: while waiting to begin his
reading a native actually traced some
of the characters on paper, and this.
together with the fact that one of the
inscriptions was found to he cut ON
piece of European oar shows that
the art of writing was preserved untll
recent times. Moreover the fac-simile
of the signatures of native chiefs TO
the deed of cession obtained by tn"
Spaniards in 100, lately published by