548 IMPORTANT WORKS ERECTED BY SAVAGES. 



the use of rnetals ; and the fortifications of New Zealand, as 

 well as the large morais of the South Sea Islands, are argu- 

 ments in favour of the theory which ascribes some of our 

 camps, our great tumuli, and other Druidical remains, to the 

 later part of the Stone Age. The great morai of Oberea, in 

 Tahiti, has been already described (p. 484). Again, the cele- 

 brated statues of Easter Island are really colossal. One of 

 them, which has fallen down, measures twenty-seven feet 

 long, and others appear to be even larger. The houses of the 

 Ladrone Islanders, also, are very remarkable. The larger 

 ones were supported on strong pyramids of stone. These 

 were, according to Freycinet,* in one piece, made of chalk, 

 sand, or large stones, imbedded in a kind of cement. They 

 were found in large numbers ; in one case they formed a stone 

 row four hundred yards long. They were first described by 

 Anson, who saw many which were thirteen feet in height ; 

 while one of those seen by Freycinet measured as much as 

 twenty feet. They were square at the base, and rested on the 

 ground. On each pillar was a hemisphere, with the flat side 

 upwards. The South Sea Islanders afford, indeed, wonderful 

 instances of what can be accomplished with stone implements. 

 Their houses are large and often well built, and their canoes 

 have excited the wonder of all who have seen them. 



Although, then, the use of stone as the principal material of 

 implements and weapons may be regarded as characterizing 

 an early stage in the development of civilization, still it is 

 evident that this stage is itself susceptible of much subdivi- 

 sion. The Mincopie or the Australian, for instance, is not to 

 be compared for an instant with the semi-civilized native of 

 the Society Islands. So also in the ancient Stone Age of 

 Europe we find evidences of great difference. The savage 

 inhabitants of the South French caves had, according to MM. 



o 



Christy and Lartet, no domestic animals, and no knowledge of 



Vol. ii. p. 318. 



