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Popular Science Montldy 



somewhat out of proportion to their 

 restricted areas. It is well known that the 

 inhabitants of the island were at one time 

 ferocious cannibals, and mention has been 

 made by various navigators of fierce tribal 

 wars, the opposing factions having ap- 

 parently tried to annihilate or devour 

 each other. The result has been that the 

 island is practically depopulated and the 

 statues or idols have all been thrown down. 

 Not one now stands in its original position. 

 Several of the smaller figures have been 

 transported to museums. The lower por- 

 tion of the image in the photograph is hewn 

 out of gray basaltic rock but the crown is a 

 striking red volcanic tufa. The features do 

 not suggest either the Indian or the 

 African; so the race to which the sculptors 

 belonged is as hard to determine as the 

 meaning of their work. 



The lower portion of the image is of gray 

 rock, but the crown is of red volcanic tufa 



The Mystery of the Stone Giants 

 in the Pacific 



THE mystery of the stone giants of 

 Easter Island — a lonely mountain in 

 the Pacific — will, perhaps, never be solved. 

 Some of the giants were between thirty-five 

 and forty feet in height. They originally 

 stood on huge 

 platforms along 

 the coast, in 

 rows, looking out 

 to sea. Thus 

 they are describ- 

 ed by various 

 navigators who 

 first noticed 

 them about a 

 century ago, 

 though what 

 they represent, 

 whether savage 

 gods or departed 

 kings, nobody 

 knows. The theory is advanced by some 

 scientists that the present Easter Island is 

 but the remaining apex of a much greater 

 body of land that has sunk beneath the 

 waters. This, of course, is merely specula- 

 tion. The great statues, however, seem 



The holes are from a few inches to about two feet in 

 depth and many of them still contain the pestles 



An Indian "Corn Mill"— Their 

 Nearest Approach to a Factory 



IN spite of the fact that one is irresistibly 

 inclined to sympathize with the Ameri- 

 can Indian and to consider him a some- 

 what abused and deceived creature, a 

 thoughtful person must admit that the lack 

 of progressiveness on the part of the Indian 

 was responsible for his loss of place. 



The accompanying photograph shows a 

 busy mill, where the Mono Indians ground 

 their corn into meal with stone pestles, in 

 the same manner as their ancestors did for 

 countless generations. Holes were dug out 

 in the clay and baked dry and hard. Then 



the acorns or 

 grains of corn 

 were shelled and 

 ground to pow- 

 . der by the wom- 

 en with the 

 heavy stone pes- 

 tles. A number 

 of holes in a spe- 

 cially favorable 

 spot, such as is 

 illustrated, is the 

 nearest the Indi- 

 ans came to com- 

 munity work. 

 Even here, each 

 woman ground her own private supply. 

 There was no specializing in the work nor 

 commercial exchange either of labor or" of 

 commodities. 



This mill is located in the foothills of the 

 Sierras, over-looking the San Joaquin Valley. 



