THE MAORIS PLACE IN HISTORY. 283 
The poorer sort, they said, who could not afford silver, had 
them of tutaneg, which they call ferotchfuty.” 
The natives of Easter Island, when discovered by 
Europeans, enlarged their ears by means of an elastic rg, 
and the Dyaks of Central Borneo still drag their ears down 
to their shoulders with heavy ornaments of tin and other 
materials. Amongst the rude tribes of the Amazon valley 
Mr. A. R. Wallace noticed enormous ears artificially produced, 
and we learn from Prescott that the Peruvian Inca and _ his 
nobles were styled Orejones by the Spanish conquerors on 
account of their great pendent ears weighted with gold 
ornaments. Referring to this curious badge of chivalry, a 
contemporary writer remarks, “The larger the hole the 
greater the gentleman.” This curious custom links together 
the builders of the mysterious monuments, the modern 
inhabitants of Oceania, the natives of the Amazon valley, 
and the highly civilized Peruvians. 
No systematic exploration of the ancient Polynesian 
structures has yet been undertaken. We are therefore much 
in the position of a jury allowed to see, but unable to 
question, the most important witness in the case before them, 
but from the resemblance to Asiatic monuments of the 
bronze age and to ancient Peruvian remains we seem 
justified in concluding that they mark how a knowledge of 
metallurgy found its way from the Old World to the New. 
It is extremely improbable, or we might say impossible, that 
the art of compounding bronze was independently discovered 
on both sides of the Pacific. A comparison of the cultivated 
plants and domestic animals of Peru and Mexico with those 
of Polynesia shows clearly that between the great island 
region and the continent there was no intercourse for a long 
period previous to the sixteenth century. This was the 
period of isolation and decay, into which alone traditions and 
genealogies can give us obscure glimpses. If we have 
correctly attributed the decay of Polynesian civilization to 
the invasion of the Eastern Archipelago, it must have 
commenced since the first century A.D.; but probably the 
period of decay did not extend back nearly so far. Though 
Mahomedanism had reached the Philippines at the com- 
mencement of the sixteenth century, Brahminism and 
Buddhism did not extend so far eastward. Until a proper 
archeological survey of the region has been effected, it is 
impossible even to place in chronological order many of the 
most important events in the history of Oceania, such as the 
