TE PITO TE HENUA OR EASTER ISLAND. 705 



uot great, no doubt the iiiglit dews, wbieli are quite lieavy ou Kapa 

 Nui, aud with which the grass is loaded in the moruiugs, ami)ly sui)ply 

 all their requirements in this respect. 



At the habitations, the rain falling on the roofs of the houses was col- 

 lected in iron tanks, and the water thus obtained was unexceptionable. 

 During the winter season, April to October, when the winds are variable, 

 there is ample rainfall, and fresh water is abundant. 



Having no knowledge of the potter's art, earthen vessels are unknown, 

 although red clay of tine quality is plentiful on the island. Neither 

 does the cocoanut x)alm, so indispensable to the natives throughout 

 Polynesia, grow upou the island, at the present day at least. A variety 

 of gourd flourishes luxuriantly, however, and the fruit of this, properly 

 seasoned, furnishes them with vessels for holding their water. 



The flora of the island is a very meager one. Tradition has it that 

 it was barren until King Hoto Metua, the " Prolific Father," with his 

 Queen and followers, landed and took possession, bringing with them 

 seeds and fruits. 



Except in the immediate vicinity of the houses occupied by Messrs. 

 Salmon aud Brander, the island may be said to be treeless. In the places 

 mentioned a few fig, acacia, paper mulberry, and other trees grew to a 

 fairly good height. In other parts of the island may be seen, in places 

 in considerable numbers, a hard-wood tree, more properly bush or 

 brush, called by the natives toromiro. These must have flourished 

 fairly well at one time, but are now all, or nearly all, dead and decaying 

 by reason of being stripped of their bark by the flocks of sheep which 

 roam at will all over the island. None of the trees are, perhaps, over 

 10 feet in height, nor their trunks more than 2 or 3 inches in diameter. 

 The wood is exceedingly hard and heavy, somewhat resembling our 

 apple, and the natives used, and still use it, to this day in making their 

 house Gods, their Penates. These are rudely carved out of the solid 

 wood, hideous imitations of the nude human form, male or female; 2 to 

 3 feet in length, with preposterous development of chest and preternat- 

 ural collapse of abdomen, as though famine had brooded over the laud 

 aud the patient had perished of inanition ; with attenuated forms, long, 

 slender arms and legs, narrow faces, a goatee, long, prominent cars, 

 etc. In the eyes of these idols the iris is usually represented by a cir- 

 cular button of bone, generally cut from a human skull, while a frag- 

 ment of obsidian, fixed in a round hole in the center of this, aud which 

 glistens in the light, makes a fair imitation of the pupil, both being 

 deftly fitted in the wood of the ball. On the first occasion when the 

 writer saw a skull from which several such buttons of bone had been 

 removed for the purpose mentioned, he was impressed with the idea 

 that the ancient Kapa Nuiis, like the ancient Peruvians in the time of 

 the Incas, were acquainted with the operation of trephining and per- 

 formed it in a much neater manner. Subsequent investigation speedily 

 undeceived him on that point. 

 NAT MUS 97 45 



