4 Director's Afinual Report. 



exploration of the hciau of which the remains in a more or less 

 ruinous state are scattered over the group. While they were built 

 in the littoral, then the most populous portion of the islands, 

 changed conditions have often left these ruins in almost deserted 

 regions where they are often concealed and protedled by a dense 

 overgrowth of brush, or with the onset of modern "improvements" 

 the stones of these once sacred piles have been ground in rock- 

 crushers to make material for roads, or they have not less passed 

 out of existence as historical relics by their use as foundation 

 stones for mills, or walls for cattle pens. 



Tradition has gathered around these sites of a once all-power- 

 ful cult, but the natives who could have given us history instead 

 of tradition have gone, and the ruined and iieglecfted condition of 

 the old temples renders their identification and survey very diffi- 

 cult, and in many cases only a considerable knowledge of the 

 ancient liturgy and priestly customs enables us to unravel the con- 

 fusion existing from ruin or from additions or adaptations for 

 more modern uses. Hence the expense of such an investigation 

 is considerable and beyond the means of most scientists. 



To the grant of the Carnegie Institution the Trustees of this 

 Museum have generously added permission to use Museum re- 

 sources in the way of surveying and exploring, and Mr. John F. 

 G. Stokes, Curator of Polynesian Ethnology, after some examina- 

 tion and measurement of heiau on this island, proceeded to Hawaii 

 with full camping outfit, and for several months has in the most 

 thorough manner identified sites, where ruins no longer exist, 

 measured and mapped all existing ruins, and connected these with 

 the trigonometrical stations of the island. A fuller report of his 

 work will be given later when the heiau of the other islands shall 

 have been explored, but the completion of the circuit of the largest 

 island of the group is a definite achievement that has added greatly 

 to the list of these ancient temples; but what is of more importance 

 has revealed a wonderful variety in plan, and great labor and some 



