396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



sided over the experts in rongorongo^ the repository of ancient tra- 

 ditions, genealogies, etc. They used tablets (Kohau rongorongo) en- 

 graved with signs as an aid to memory. The signs of rongorongo 

 were the object of organized teaching. 



The Pascuans practiced a form of double inhumation. The body 

 was exposed on the ahu until the flesh dried up or turned to dust. 

 The bones were then placed in the burial chambers. Sometimes the 

 skull was preserved separately. There was a general fear of the spirits 

 of the dead. Commemorative feasts were held in front of the tombs, 

 where chickens were exchanged for a ritual purpose. The statues at 

 the foot of Rano Raraku represent the dead. Several of them have 

 tatoo marks which were still used during the historical period. 

 Later, the images of the dead also were placed on the ahus. 



The Pascuans had a large number of gods, the chief of whom was 

 Make Make. The same name appeared in other Polynesian mytholo- 

 gies. It would seem to be connected with the source of that wliicli 

 supplied the material needs of the Pascuans — cultivation and fishing. 

 It was thus connected with the Marquesan Tiki, whose mask it resem- 

 bled in almost every detail. Make Make is the creator of birds. One 

 of the less obscure features of his cult is the indication, by means of 

 birds, of a man ^° who probably represents the god, and who each 

 spring gives place to another. Ritual feasts at which human flesh 

 was eaten were a part of this cult, as well as also initiation ceremonies 

 at puberty. 



The end of the old culture was hastened by the arrival of Euro- 

 peans, who revealed a new world to the Pascuans, a world totally 

 different from their own. From that time onward they lost without 

 any effort both peace and the joy of life. Their restless spirit drove 

 them to undertake the most savage warfare, which decimated them, 

 ruined their culture and overthrew its monuments. Works of art 

 were given up, traditions were lost, so that even the memory of their 

 existence has perished. The whalers and slavers completed the task 

 of destruction already well advanced. After being Christianized the 

 Pascuans became ashamed of most of their past history, and essayed, 

 not without success, to remove all traces of it from memory. 



1" Tangata Manu — bird man. He was the first to get possession of the first egg laid 

 by the bird Manutara (breast) in the island of Motunui (spring equinox). 



