26o 



NA TURE 



[July 14, 1892 



Some of the natives still claim a descent from the image-makers, 

 and refer to their ancestors with as much pride as to the royal 

 family. 



" The work of carving the image into shape, and detaching it 

 from the rock of which it was a part, did not consume a great 

 deal of time, but the chief difficulty was, in the absence of 

 mechanical contrivances, to launch it safely down the slope of 

 the mountain and transport it to a distant point. It was lovvered 

 to the plain by a system of chocks and wedges, and the rest was 

 a dead drag accomplished by main strength. A roa Jway was 

 constructed, over which the images were dragged by means of 

 ropes made of indigenous hemp, and sea-weed and grass mad-^ 

 excellent lubricants. Tbe platforms were all built with sloping 

 terraces in the rear, and up this incline a temporary road-way 

 was constructed of a suitable height, upon which the statue could 

 be rolled until the base was over its proper resting-place. The 

 earth was then dug away to allow the image to settle down into 

 position, the ropes being used to steady it in the meantime." 



Interesting a- these monuments are, they are less remarkable 

 than the incised tablets which show that the Easter Islanders had 

 worked out for themselves a kind of writing. The following 

 account of the tablets is given by Mr. Thomson. Their existence 

 "was not known until the missionaries settled upon the island, 

 Numerous specimens were found in the possession of the natives. 

 but no especial attention appears to have been directed towards 

 them. Several persons, belonging to vessels that were wrecked 

 at Easter Island, report having seen such tablets, but the natives 

 could not be induced to part with them. The three hundred 

 islanders who emigrated to Tahiti had in their possession a num- 

 ber of tablets ; they created some attention on account of the re- 

 markable skill with which the figures were executed, but they 

 were highly prized by the owners, and no effort was made to 

 secure them because their real value was not discovered. The 

 Chilian corvette 0' Higgins visited Easter Island in January 

 1870, and Captain Gana secured three tablets, two of which are 

 on deposit in the National Museum at Santiago de Chili, and the 

 third was sent to Krance, but does not appear to have reached 

 its destination. Paper impressions and casts were taken from 

 the Chilian tablets for the various Museums of Europe. Those 

 sent to the English Ethnological Society created some interest 

 after a time, but others sent to Berlin were regarded as stamps 

 for marking native cloth {Mittheilimgen, July 1871). Seven of 

 these tablets are now in the possession of Tepano Jansser, 

 Bishop of Axieri, all in excellent state of preservation. 



" Whilethe^/£'/«V««wasat 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 5| 

 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 disap- 

 pearance 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 everything that 

 would have a tendency to attach them to their heathenism, and 

 prevent their thorough conversion to Christianity. The loss to 

 the science of philology by 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 knovvled^je 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 which the island was divided, sons 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 

 fite day, and not even war was allowed to interfere with it. 



,'* Tne 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 preservation would correspond 

 very nearly with the age of the unfinished images in the work- 

 shops. The ability to read the characters may have continued 

 until 1864, when the Peruvian slavers captured a large number 

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

 officials and persons in authority. After this outrage, the tradi- 

 tions, &c., embraced by the tablet^, seem to have been repeated 

 on particular occasions, but the value of the characters was not 

 understood, and was lost to the natives. 



** A casual glance at the Easter Island tablets is sufficient to 

 note the fact that they differ materially from other kyriologic 

 writings. The pictorial symbols are engraved in regular lines on 

 depressed channels, separated by slight ridges intended to pro- 

 tect the hieroglyphics from injury by 'rubbing. In some cases 

 the characters are smaller, and the tablets contain a greater 

 number of lines, but in all cases the hieroglyphics are incised, and 

 cover both sides as well as the bevelled edges and hollows of the 

 board upon which they are engraved. The symbols on each 

 line are alternately reversed ; those on the first stand upright, 

 and those on the next line are upside down, and so m by 

 regular alternation. 



" This unique plan makes it necessary for thereader to turn the 

 tablet and change its position at the end of every line ; by this 

 means the characters will be found to f )Ilow in regular proces- 

 sion. The reading should commence at the lower left-hand 

 corner, on the particular side that will bring the figures erect, 

 and followed as the characters face in the procession, turning the 

 tablet at the end of each line, as indicated. Arriving at the top 

 of the first face, the reading is continued over the edge to the 

 nearest line, at the top of the other side, and the descent con- 

 tinues in the same manner until the end is reached. The Bou- 

 strophedon method is supposed to have been adopted in order 

 to avoid the possibility of missing a line of hieroglyphic^." 



A man called Ure Vaeiko, one of the patriarchs of the island, 

 professed to have been under instructions in the art of hiero- 

 glyphic reading at the time of the Peruvian visit, and claimed to 

 understand most of the characters. The photographs of the 

 tablets owned by the Bishop were submitted to this old man, 

 who related with fluency and without hesitation the legend which 

 he declared to be appropriate to each. "The story of all the 

 tablets of which we had knowledge," says Mr. Thomson, "was 

 finally obtained, the words of the native being written down by 

 Mr. Salmon as they were uttered, and afterwards translated into 

 English." 



Ure Vaeiko's tales, with the translations, are printed in Mr. 

 Thomson's paper ; and, as they are manifestly not the reciter's 

 own invention, they have a certain interest for students of an- 

 thropology. But whether they represent the meaning of the in- 

 scriptions on the mysterious tablets is another question. It is 

 noteworthy that, although Ure Vaeiko's fluent interpretation of 

 the tablets was not interrupted, " it became evident that he was 

 not actually reading the characters." "It was noticed that the 

 shifting of the position did not accord with the number of the 

 symbols on the lines, and afterwards, when the photograph of 

 another tablet was substituted, the same story was continued 

 without the change being discovered." These facts raise a doubt 

 as to the trustworthiness of his pretensions to knowledge. How- 

 ever, Mr. Thomson does not seem to have yet presented a full 

 account of the work accomplished in connection with this curious 

 problem. "Results of an extremely interesting nature," he 

 says, "are barely outlined at present, and not in shape to be 

 presented herewith. It is not considered expedient to attempt 

 an explanation of the symbols until the subject can be treated 

 exhaustively. " 



It remains for us only to say that the paper is richly illustrated, 

 and accompanied by a map of Easter Island. 



EMBRYOGENY OF GNETUM. 



'X'HE remarkable observations of Treub on the mode of fer- 

 •^ tilization in the Casuarinacca,'^ have been followed by some 

 almost equally interesting, by Herr Karsten, on the formation 

 of the embryo in Gnetum. The following is a summary of 

 the more important points, as described in the Botanische 

 Zeitung. 



The inner integument of (he ovule develops into a long tube 

 leading to the apex of the nucellus, and projecting far beyond 



'See Nature, vo'. xIv. p. 548. 



XO. I 185, VOL. 46] 



