THE STONE IMAGES OF EASTER ISLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2465, 28 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STONE IMAGES OF EASTER ISLAND.

♦ A strange memento of an unknown race is the gigantic stone image from Easter Island, now on the way to the Smithsonian Institution. This lonely isle of the Pacific is of volcanic origin, and it is buteleven miles long and six miles broad, anrl, from its solitary situation, is seldom visited. The natives, but few in number, aro of the Polynesian race, and were originally exceedingly hostile to the few whites who visited them. But within the past twenty-five years they have embraced Christianity under the influence of French missionareies. The island is owned by a Tahiti linn \\\\c utifee ifr s fertile valleys for γ-ajaiug, The remarkable fpatv\rea w-hfcfc distinguish it from o'thw sectary, a-ra the hugo stone. sta.tu.es, to, th,e niftinbci , of sowr-al hundreds, wtncJn, lie scattered nhant. Thcv were chiselled with rude s\\\)\ from the lava in the craters in volcanoes, and transported, ta sM parts of the island, where they wev-e sot up, but most of them have since been overthrown by earthquake shocks. Some of these statues aye forty feet in height, and some sti}) remain unfinished in their cjuarvlos. Jjothinjr is knowu of thejy Qijgin. The present inhabitants possess neither the skill nor th.o tools tor the work, and have no appliances for transporting such immense masses of stone. The traditions furni.-h no information, as they merely postulate a supernatural oriuiu. Tlie statues aro all grotesque effigies of human buinus, but while they arc low in the sohJo af kU -t < they are evidently the wavK' cf a race centuries in nd.vq>4ea af the present inhiihitivfita. A tlicory has been advanced thut t)(e Buster Island is the remnant of a submerged continent, and that tht> statues were made by people who. worshipped them as idols. Rut this in only a theory, without a partiolo of evidence tosusfain :f. The statue for the Smithsonian Institution is now on board the United Stakes steamer Mohican, which was at last account nt Valparaiso, It weighs between twelve and fiftoeu tons, and it was with great difficulty that it was plaocd on board the

vessel, iie the island has no good harbours and although tlio image had to bo transported overland about eight miles, there was not a tree to furnish tho ma'terial. The Mohiciin finally obtained a fu\v logs at Samoa, with which Ihc work was accomplished. This is tho second monster curio which has been taken away from Easter Jslaud— _a German vessel having secured ono about two years ago. Whou - it finds a permanent place hero our „ puzzled ent.hnologists may be able to clear away the mystery of its origin bv a : carelul study of its design uu d workman- j ship,—Boston Trauscript,