Stone Sculpturings in Relief from the Haivaiian Islands. 35 



accredited to the same island, biit it is doubtful how much con- 

 sideration should be given these resemblances. 



The carving in profile and position of the limbs of the petro- 

 glyphs seem to find close analogy to a figure carved on stone and 

 seen at Orongo, Easter Island, by Mr. W. J. Thompson.-' This 

 figure was perhaps another form of the god Meke-meke^ which 

 Mr. Thompson says was the most common figure carved at that part 

 of the island. However, an examination of the numerous tablets 

 illustrated in the plates accompanying Mr. Thomp.son's work will 

 show a character, with variations, closely resembling the former 

 figure, which, from the freqeucy of its occurrence, might be con- 

 sidered as a representation of a human form portrayed in various 

 acts. Among the Maori carvings, birds and lizards are found in 

 profile, but the conventionalized human figure is always presented 

 with full face, even when the body is seen in profile. 



The squatting position of the figures is not uncommon in Poly- 

 nesia, as seen in these islands, remarked by the missionaries at 

 Tahiti,-' by Melville^ at Nukuhiwa, and by Rev. \Vm. Ellis'' at 

 Huaheiue. 



The sculpturing in relief has already been observed on two 

 Hawaiian stone lamps, one of which was recently purchased by 

 this Museum with the Deverill collection (fig. 3), and the other, 

 with a similar figure on one side only, was seen by the writer in 

 1900 on board a small local steamer which was wrecked a few days 

 later. However, these figures have no other resemblance to those 

 at present under discussion. The Bishop :Museum is in possession 

 of two stone fish gods with carvings of fish in relief. One, from 

 the Deverill collection, represents a human head, with the face 

 very well made and the neck shaped like a fish tail, the whole 

 giving the suggestion of a round-bodied fish. At the back of the 

 head a smaller fi.sh two-thirds the length of the whole, has been 

 carved in relief. The length of the idol is 8.5 inches. The second 

 fish god is a thick stone roughly triangular in plan, with top and 

 bottom flat and sides perpendicular. The top has been worked 



'Te Pito te Heiiua, by Paymaster William J. Thompson, U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 Report for 1889, p. 481, fig. 7. 

 'Ibid, fig. 8. 



^Missionary Voyage of the Duff, London, 1799, p. 77. 

 "Typee, New York, 1876, pp. 74 and 257. 



^Polynesian Researches, London, 1830, vol. ii, pp. 209 and 210. 



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