514 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



While the Mohican was at Tahiti, the bishop kindly permitted us to 

 examine these tablets and take photographs of them. These tablets 

 were obtained from the missionaries who had been stationed on Easter 

 Island, and they ranged in size from 5h inches in length by 4 inches 

 broad, to 5£ feet in length and 7 inches wide. Diligent search was 

 made for specimens of these tablets during our visit to Easter Island. 

 At first the natives denied having any, but Mr. Salmon knew of the 

 existence of two, and these were finally purchased after a great deal of 

 trouble and at considerable expense. The tablets obtained are in a fair 

 state of preservation. The large one is a piece of drift-wood that from 

 its peculiar shape is supposed to have been used as a portion of a canoe. 

 The other is made of the toromiro wood indigenous to the island. In 

 explanation of the disappearance of these tablets, the natives stated 

 that the missionaries had ordered all that could be found to be burned, 

 with a view to destroying the ancient records, and getting rid of every- 

 thing that would have a tendency to attach them to their heathenism, 

 and prevent tlieir thorough conversion to Christianity. The loss to the 

 science of philology Irv this destruction of valuable relics is too great 

 to be estimated. The native traditions in regard to the incised tablets 

 simply assert that Hotu-Matua, the first king, possessed the knowledge 

 of this written language, and brought with him to the island sixty-seven 

 tablets containing allegories, traditions, genealogical tables, and proverbs 

 relating to the land from which he had migrated. A knowledge of the 

 written characters was confined to the royal family, the chiefs of the 

 six districts into whicli the island was divided, sous of those chiefs, and 

 certain priests or teachers, but the people were assembled at Anekena 

 Bay once each year to hear all of the tablets read. The feast of the 

 tablets was regarded as their most important fete day, and not even war 

 was allowed to interfere with it. 



The combination of circumstances that caused the sudden arrest of 

 image-making, and resulted in the abandonment of all such work On the 

 island, never to be again revived, may have had its effect upon the art 

 of writing. The tablets that have been found in the best stage of pres- 

 ervation would correspond very nearly with the age of the unfinished 

 images in the workshops. The ability to read the characters may have 

 continued until 1861, when the Peruvian slavers captured a large num- 

 ber of the inhabitants, and among those kidnapped, were all of the of- 

 ficials and persons in authority. After this outrage, the traditions, etc., 

 embraced by the tablets, seem to have been repeated on particular occa- 

 sions, but the value of the characters was not understood and was lost to 

 the natives. Aman called UreVaeiko,one of the patriarchs of theislaud, 

 professes to have been under instructions in the art of hieroglyphic read- 

 ing at the time of the Peruvian visit, and claims to understand most of the 

 characters. Negotiations were opened with him for a translation of the 

 two tablets purchased; but he declined to furnish any information, on tue 

 ground that it had beeu forbidden by the priests. Presents of money and 



