EASTER ISLAND—MBETRAUX 445 
mulberry, which the natives grew in special stone-enclosed plots. Per- 
haps the wood necessary for making sledges on which the statues might 
have been hauled was lumber that floated ashore. This is frequently 
mentioned in ancient tales. If native timber or driftwood was available 
in the old days, the difficulties of transportation would not have been 
overwhelming. We know that other Polynesians transported objects 
quite as heavy as the Easter Island images. For instance in the 
Marquesas, slabs weighing as much as 10 tons were hauled along the 
slopes of the mountains. The famous doorway, or trilithon, of Tonga, 
which is one of the marvels of the world, has a lintel weighing 30 tons. 
But when the Easter Islanders of today are asked about the means by 
which the statues were transported, they only say: “King Tuu-ko-ihu, 
the great magician, used to move them with the words of his mouth.” 
Other questions have arisen about the Easter Island carvings. How, 
for instance, did the people get the manpower for such large enter- 
prises, which would have been impossible, it seems, if the population 
were as Small as it istoday? The answer is that before the Europeans 
arrived, the island had ten times as many inhabitants as it now has—4 
or 5 thousand would be a conservative estimate. We know this from 
data given by its first European visitors and the early missionaries. 
Again, are these statues as old as has been said? Certain writers have 
dated them as far back as 1000 B. C. There are even some who think 
that they might have been in existence 10,000 yearsago. But the weight 
of general evidence is against these views. Although their material is 
a relatively soft stone, they still retain sharp outlines, and the ham- 
mer marks are still noticeable on them. As the winds blow with re- 
lentless force over the island, and rains are both frequent and violent, 
if the carving had been done thousands of years ago, it could not be 
in such good condition as it is today. Tradition seems to indicate that 
the Polynesian ancestors of the present inhabitants came to the island 
and settled it in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A. D. All things 
considered, I do not think the statues can be more than five or six 
centuries old. But no definite date can be set for them. 
The figures of stone that stood so high above the shores of Easter 
Island, and in such striking formation that it is no wonder they amazed 
the old navigators, have attracted more attention than the other myste- 
rious objects to which I have already referred—the wooden tablets 
with rows of strange signs incised on them. But these curious pieces 
of wood have also given rise to much speculation. They were bought 
from the natives by the missionaries in the early days of their work, 
and ever since they have been thought to contain a real script which, 
if it could be read, would prove a key to the island’s mysteries. 
The first white man to discover the tablets was Monseigneur Jaussen, 
French Bishop of Tahiti, in 1866. As he was looking at a piece of 
