The sun., 1919-09-03
MYSTERY TOMBS
DOT THE PACIFIC
Mighty Stone Images of Kings
Scattered About the Small
Islands.
NO HISTORIES REMAIN
Ruins Contain Not a Word,
but Works Indicate q Once
Great People.


about the Pyramids, the Ming Tombs
and those other monuments to peoples
long since gone, but these ancient won
ders we hear SO much about are on the
mainlands of the earth, the characters
on them are decipherable, SO that we
know In a general way why they we're
built and by whom and within short
distances of them are millions OF people
like the ancient builders Of these monu-
ments.
Scattered about on tiny islands
throughout the Pacific Ocean. however,
thousands of miles from anywhere 80
that their silence and isolation are in
tehsified thousandfoid, with their mys-
terry made a supermystery because there
are, no legends and no men able to de-
cipher the inscriptions upon them, are
monuments to peoples who are regarded
as ancients by US. Their location on
these islands, their immensity, which
shows that sometimes thousands of
people lived and worked in the imme-
date vicinity and their survival through
the ages from 4 time when the people
about them were energetic andy highly
civilized to the present day when the
people about them are lazy, ignorant
and sometimes degenerate make them
utterly incomprehensible.
Easter Island ~ seldom mentioned in
print. Recently 1t burst into the days
news because after the battle OF the
Falkland Islands news was sent to the
allied world that It was at Easter Island
that Won Spree's fleet laid In a fresh
supply of meat and some time later the
German raider Prinz Eite1 Friedrich
landed there to put fifty British and
French sailors ashore.
The German shippers certainly enjoyed
splendid isolation during these trips,
for Easter Island Is out In the Pacific
ocean, 1000 miles from Chile, the coun-
try to which II belongs. Inasmuch as
Chilean boats visit the island only once
year, there was very little danger of
any ones being about to bother the visit
ing ships. The nearest of the other ISL
ands are 1000 miles away. Just why
Easter Island should exist at all may
we'll be asked, but 1t is not for it's isola-
ton alone that 1t is one of the world $
| wonders-it is the great number of giant
| stone images scattered about the island
| that attract attention.
One Image 6s Feet High.
These are from twelve feet to twenty
| feet high. and one of exceptional size is
thirty-three feet high. They are all rep
| resentative Of human forms and many of
them wear crowns carved out of red lava
rock. The crowns are about five feet
high There must have been many work
ers to produce them. for they are ranged
pretty we'll all over the island upon great
stone shelves faced with paved terraces.
Evidently they were built in the stone
quaIries, for dozens OF such statues, fin
| ished and unfinished, are found in these
holes. One uncompleted statue is sixty
eight feet high-still down in the quarry.
! who built them? How were they moved
when finished? Why should so isolated
an island have been so densely popu-
lated? These are questions science would
like some one to answer
! About 400 miles southeast of our Sa-
moan Island are the Tonga, or Friendly,
Islands. Here too are ancient relics but
very modern in comparison to the images
I found on Easter Island. These features
of the Tonga Islands are found on the Is
land of Tongatabu at Mua and are called
'langis' by the natives. We call them the
tombs OF the ancient Tongan kings. III
must take lot to hold Tongan royalty
| down. for these structures are of coral
blocks forming a rectangular enclosure
! about 80 by SO feet. The side walls are
! made OF two layers OF these coral blocks
splendidly fitted together. These blocks
o. course vary in size, but one which
stands apart from one of the enclosures
measures twenty-one feet in length, four
feet in width and five feet in height
Certain 1t is that the Tongans of to-day
cannot move such great weights.
Victory Arch of the rongans.
The ancient Tongans must have hac
occasion to erect a victory arch a.
| one time or another, for not far from
these tombs of royalty is found an arci
made OF two gigantic stone upright,
which support another gigantic stone
for cross member carefully mortise6
into place. The Tonsans made certain
that their victory arch would hold to-
gether for the safe passage of theil
Twenty-seventh Division. Some au
thofities claim that this particular arch
was not made by the Tongans at all
but by their predecessors In the Islands
Perhaps 80, but whoever the peopl,
| were who set up this arch they pos
sessed mechanical ability. for the up.
rights are sixteen feet high. twelve feet
wide and five feet thick, and the ston,
across the top is only slightly smaller
| in thickness
! tralia, are the New Hebrides Islands
which some scientists believe were ono,
occupied by the Spanish, for a little way
from st. Filip's Bay evidences Of sucl
occupation have been dug into from
time to time. along with certain Other
ruins, which from the little examina
tion they have had indicate an ever
more remote occupancy.
Up there in Java is the great tempt,
of Borobodoer, temple of the many Bud
has which was unearthed some year,
ago, and Is known to have been bull
in the fifth century, and right neal
II Is the lesser temple of Mendoet
Further north, in the Caroline Islands
are the ruins OF an ancient city who's,
streets were waterways just as those O.
Venice are to-day So when visits ar,
made to these virgin islands and on,
lands it is we'll to remember that Their,
is nothing new, even under the troplca
sun.