EQUATOEIAL POLYNESIA. 



475 



pletely detached from the primitive rock. The surrounding district is strewn with 

 obsidian implements, scrapers, and knives, doubtless the instruments employed by 

 this extinct race of sculptors. In Easter Island are also seen avenues with regular 

 flag pavements and walls embellished with little obelisks, besides tablets of toro- 

 miro, a species of hard-grained acacia, on which are carefully inscribed in regular 

 lines objects of various kinds, such as fishes, turtles, snakes, plants, shells, men and 

 their weapons. Most of these " speaking " tablets, or hieroglyphics, are preserved 

 in the museum of Santiago, Chili, but they do not appear to have yet been inter- 

 preted, although a chief, who died about 1850, was said to understand and even 



Fig. 208.— Easter Island. 

 Scale 1 : 300,000. 



I09°i5- 



to 25 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



25 to 1.000 

 Fathoms. 



1,00(1 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



6 Miles. 



write these characters. Other monuments occur in Fanning, Rapa, and elsewhere, 

 and in Tonga-Tabu is seen a sort of triumphal arch. 



The Polynesians properly so called, to whom the collective terms Mahori and 

 Savaiori have also been applied, and who call themselves Kanaka, that is, " Men," 

 have a light brown or coppery complexion, and rather exceed the tallest Europeans 

 in stature. In Tonga and Samoa nearly all the men are athletes of fine proportions, 

 with black and slightly wavy hair, fairly regular features and proud glance. They 

 are a laughter-loving light-hearted people, fond of music, song, and the dance, and 

 where not visited by wars and the contagion of European " culture," the happiest 

 and most harmless of mortals. When Dumont d'TJr ville questioned the Tukopians 

 as to the doctrine of a future life with rewards for the good and punishment for 

 the wicked, they replied : " Amongst us there are no wicked people." 



