EASTER ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 21504, 31 August 1933, Page 14

EASTER ISLAND

MYSTERY OF PACIFIC TITANIC UNKNOWN GODS A LOST CULTURE The steamer making the voyage from Wellington, New Zealand, when about halfway across the Pacific, passes not far from Easter Island. It is situated in 27deg 10 S. lat., and 109 deg 26 W. long., and tho famous Pitcairn Island lies about 1,100 miles to the west. There is some doubt about whether Captain Davis discovered it in 1687, hut the Dutch admiral Roggeveen landed there in 1722, and gave it the name it still bears in commemoration of the fact that it was on Easter Day he stepped ashore, saya a writer in she Melbourne ‘ Age.’ The native name is Rapa nu i. Deeply interesting accounts of the island are given by Captain Cook, La Perouse, find the Dutch admiral. These reports afford very similar descriptions of the people, their dwellings, and habits, Cook saying that the natives were as expert thieves as any they had mot. They stole La Perouse’s hat, and he felt particularly aggrieved because he had made them presents of sheep, goats, pigs, and other valuable commodities. The estimates of population varied from 700 to 2,000, but Mrs Scoresby Routledge, who _ with her husband visited the island in 1914, says the only part of it which is inhabited contains only 250 natives, all that remains of the population. Her volume, entitled ‘ The Mystery of Easter Island,’ contains full and reliable information on every aspect of tho place and tho people, and her contribution to tho ‘ National Geographical Magazine ’ provides a vivid and unusually impressive piece of work. The place was also honoured with a visit from Pierre Loti in 1872, when a cadet on board the Flore. The native name for tho place, Rapanni, suggested to him tho French word Nuit, and its association with darkness and gloom. IMPRESSIVE LAND. As the Flore drew nearer the island “ beneath the cloud-laden sky its sombre rocks and ruddy craters came in sight.” Mrs Routledge and her 'company gazed “ in almost awed silence at the long grey mass of land, broken into three great curves, and diversified by giant mole hills. Tho whole looked an alarmingly big land in which to find hidden caves.” It is somewhat triangular, purely volcanic, about thirtyfour miles in circumference, and has an area of forty-seven square miles. The highest part has a volcano over 1,700 ft in height, and the summit consists of a cluster of small craters. The island contrasts sharply with the lotus-eating lands one meets in other parts of the Pacific. Its surface is bleak and grass-grown, its rocks are defiant, its ocean turbulent. Although not by any means beautiful, it has a certain attraction “ in marvellous views of rolling country,” and its great silence. The hills are blue-grey, splashed with gold, but the peaks lack softness. Tho natives are fair Polynesians with some Melanesian characteristics. Dr Keith says that they are a remarkably long-headed people, and in that respect more Melanesian than Polynesian. Why have thir numbers dwindled to vanishing point? Labour was needed for the guano fields of Peru and the island was raided. Old men toll pathetic tales of the capture and removal of a thousand of the natives. Some were returned by the French Minister at Lima, but smallpox had broken out amongst these, and only fifteen survived, and unhappily spread the disease with fatal results. In 1888 the Chilean Government took possession of Easter Island, and under its care the population is increasing. Life is not dull amongst them, and their principal joys arc feasting, singing, and dancing. A CURIOUS APPEAL. Tho mystery of this barren island casts a weird spell over visitors. Fringing the coast are about 260 stone platforms or 11 ahu.” They consist of walls built parallel with the sea. and measure 15ft in height, and up to 300 ft in length. Great stone images stood on these at about the centre of the structure, and all of them faced inland. The masonry is well fitted and in rectangular or polygonal blocks. All the statues, estimated at about 500, have been thrown down, and many broken. Their size varies from 3ft to 70ft high. One which measured 66ft was found in the quarry, but had never been moved. The quarry for the statues was at the northeast end of the island, and here they are found in large numbers, and at all stages of completion. The sculptors began and finished their carving before the back was cut clear from the rock. ‘‘ln the best preserved specimens,” says Mrs Routledge, 11 the figures lie on their faces like a row of huge ninepins; some are intact, but many are broken, the cleavage having generally occurred when the falling image has come in contact with the containing wall at the lower level. The heads have not infrequently turned a somersault while falling, and now lie face uppermost.” No native remembers a statue standing on an aim. Legends, largely magical, explain the fall of the images, but it is probable that tribal warfare accounts for part at least of the vandalism. Ropes wore used or small stones were removed from under the bedplates. Others may have been deliberately dug out. When were tho images hewn and mooted ? No mortal knows. Priests and others who may havo known the secret were carried away to Peru, and their knowledge died with them. There are peculiar designs on the back of some stone statues and on small wooden figures, and there are writings engraved on wooden tablets, but none of them can bo translated. Many of them aro pictographs, representing men, birds, fish, etc., and may have served as symbols to aid the memory. Probably the exact interpretation will never bo known. FIVE CENTURIES AGO. It is estimated that tho Polynesian wave reached Easter Island about 1400 k.D., and the newcomers are thought by some authorities to have introduced the erection of stone monuments. The volcanic ash provided a very good substitute for wood, and the manufacture of the images lasted till the eighteenth century. Admiral Roggeveen mentions some ceremonies which lie regarded as indicating the worship of the statues. Tho compressed volcanic ash was worked by chisels made of harder stone. No one has yet discovered how images weighing fifty tons were transported and set up. The native tradition is that they were dragged into position with ropes, and round stones were placed underneath to serve as rollers. After being hauled up the incline, they were up-ended by taking away the supporting material from under their bases. When the authorities at the British Museum were asked what work remained to be done, the answer was " Easter Island.” Thereupon Mr and Mrs Scoresby Routledge built a little vessel, called her “ Mana,” .which

means ‘‘ good luck,” and found their way to the Pacific through the Straits of Magellan. They came to Easter Island, and left it impressed by its loneliness, its legends, statues, and impenetrable mystery. Its very script is untranslatable. The volcano is dead, and brooding silence is over the island. The carvers of the Titans are gone. What remains is the island itself, dumb as the images it made and worshipped, and challenging confident science to lift the veil, and tell us all we long to know. Great is the known, but greater faiths unknown.