170 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



and we had before us a thirty-mile "ride" over the roughest 

 terrain imaginable, headed for the famous sculptors' workshop at 

 Rano Raraku. 



What a cavalcade ! Our Captain rode proudly in advance on 

 Mr. Edmund's handsome steed, with genuine saddle and stirrups. 

 Behind him stumbled a motley array of bedraggled followers. 

 A Coxey's Army on horseback. Many of the men had apparently 

 forgotten how to shift gears. Some would lurch forward into 

 full gallop, others stall at the first step. In one minute the party 

 had deployed all over the landscape, but not in obedience to the 

 Captain's command. 



First one horse, then another, was a runaway. The bold vol- 

 unteer who hastened to aid a colleague found himself out of con- 

 trol in a moment, and before long the dignified explorers were 

 weaving wild circles over the cruel lava-fields, to the amusement 

 of the native guides. Captain Ault laughed uproariously at the 

 exhibition. He had been born and raised on a Kansas farm, and 

 had an unfair advantage over the rest, some of whom had never 

 mounted a nag before. 



These horses deserve the study of a psychologist. Should there 

 be a few feet of sod beside a rock-pile, they invariably chose to 

 clatter over the rough, and would shy away from the grass as 

 though it were poison ivy. And, after all, we went where the 

 horse chose to go. With the help of the guides we steered an 

 easterly course, but with much tacking and wearing. 



Clambering out of the village over a low ridge between two 

 volcanoes, we proceeded toward the southeast coast, where we 

 found mile after mile of megalithic burial platforms, with their 

 grotesque statues tumbled over in ruins. The ground was very 

 uneven, and strewn with lava-boulders. What grass there was 

 occurred in hard tufts; so that one was more comfortable on board 

 the horses than on foot. Scattered over the plains are small 

 stone enclosures in which yams or sugar-cane or taro are growing. 

 Besides making a clearing for cultivation, these stone circles keep 

 the sheep and cattle from destroying the crops. 



The first stop was made at Vaihu, a cattle-watering hole on 

 the beach. There was formerly a considerable settlement here 



