58 ON THE OEiaiN AND MiaBATIONS OP THE POLYNESIAN NATION. 



one of tlie houses which he entered in one of these cities. 

 " The house seemed to have undergone little change from the 

 time its old master had left it ; and yet the thick nitrous crust 

 on the floor showed that it had been deserted for long ages. 

 The walls were perfect, nearly 5 feet thick, built of large 

 blocks of hewn stones, witliout lime or cement of any hind. The 

 roof was formed of large slabs of the same black basalt, lying as 

 regularly, and jointed as closely, as if the workmen had only 

 just completed them. They measured 12 feet in length, 

 18 inches in breadth, and 6 inches in thickness."* Pre- 

 cisely similar is the account which the American, Herman 

 Melville, gives of the colossal remains in the Marquesas Islands. 

 " A series of vast terraces of stone rises step by step for a con- 

 siderable distance up the hill side. These terraces cannot be less 

 than 100 yards in length and 20 in width. Their magni- 

 tude, however, is less striking than the immense size of the 

 blocks composing them. Some of the stones, of an oblong 

 sh'ape, are from 10 to 15 feet in length, and 5 or 6 feet thick. 

 Their sides are quite smooth; but though square, and of pretty 

 regular formation, they bear no mark of the chisel. They are 

 laid together loithout ceonent.'"f And in the account of the 

 remarkable colossal remains in Easter Island, the same very 

 singular circumstance is observable. " These monuments consist 

 in a number of terraces or platforms built with stone, cut and 

 fixed with great exactness and skill, forming, though destihde of 

 cement, a strong durable pile. On these terraces are fixed colossal 

 figures or busts. They appear to be monuments erected in 

 memory of ancient kings or chiefs."} Although many of the 

 South Sea Islands consist of vast masses of coral, and are sur- 

 rounded with coral reefs, the natives never had in any instance 

 learned the art of burning the coral into lime ; and when taught 

 the process by the missionaries, they testified alike their astonish- 

 ment and delight. The colossal terraces, I may add, are exactly 

 similar to those described and figured by Stephens in his account 

 of the ruined Indo-American cities of Copan, Palenque, and 

 Uxmal. I quite agree, however, with Mr. Stephens in regarding 

 these cities as of a comparatively modern date, and as having 

 been inhabited in all likelihood down to the era of the Spanish 

 conquest ; first, because there are wooden lintels still remaining 

 in some of the ruinous buildings ; and, secondly, because the 

 walls are cemented with mortar, and covered "wdth stucco. For 

 in the more ancient buildings of that continent, as on the shores 

 of the Lake Titicaca, in Peru, there is no cement used. Spanish 

 writers describe the remains of ^n ancient Peruvian temple, con- 



* The Giant Cities of Baslian ; London, 1867, page 26. 



t Typee, page 173. 



X Ellis's Polynesian Researches, iii., 326. 



