296 cook's second voyage maiich, 



building a mount round them as above-mentioned. 

 But, let them have been made and set up, by this or 

 any other method, they must have been a work of 

 immense time, and sufficiently show the ingenuity 

 and perseverance of the islanders in the age in which 

 they were built ; for the present inhabitants have 

 most certainly had no hand in them, as they do not 

 even repair the foundations of those which are going 

 to decay. They give different names to them, such 

 as Gotomoara, Marapate, Kanaro, Gowaytoo-goo, 

 Matta Matta, &c. &c. to which they sometimes prefix 

 the w r ord Moi, and sometimes annex Areekee. The 

 latter signifies chief, and the former, burying, or 

 sleeping-place, as well as we could understand. 



Besides the monuments of antiquity, which were 

 pretty numerous, and no where but on or near the 

 sea-coast, there were many little heaps of stones, 

 piled up in different places, along the coast. Two 

 or three of the uppermost stones in each pile were 

 generally white ; perhaps always so, when the pile is 

 complete. It will hardly be doubted that these piles 

 of stone had a meaning. Probably they might mark 

 the place where people had been buried, and serve 

 instead of the large statues. 



The working-tools of these people are but very 

 mean, and, like those of all the other islanders, we 

 have visited in this ocean, made of stone, bone, 

 shells, &c. They set but little value on iron or iron 

 tools, which is the more extraordinary as they know 

 their use ; but the reason may be their having but 

 little occasion for them. 



