ON THE ORIGIN AND MIGEATIONS OF THE POLYNESIAN NATION. 59 



sisting of an enclosed space, open at the top, of which the walls 

 are about 12 feet in height, and consist of stones of an 

 immense size, some of them being 30 feet long, 18 broad, 

 and 6 feet thick. These stones are not cemented with 

 mortar; neither have they been squared to join closely to each 

 other, like hewn stones in a European building, although the 

 stones of ancient Peruvian buildings are sometimes found hewn 

 into regular forms ; but cavities have been wrought with the 

 utmost exactness, and with incredible labour, in one stone to 

 receive the natural or accidental protuberances of another. 



Tumuli, constructed, in some instances, of immense stones, 

 and in others, as on the banks of the Ohio, of mounds of earth, 

 are also found among the remains of ancient civilisation, both in 

 the South Sea Islands and in America. I have already mentioned 

 the tomb of Toobo Tooi, in the island of Tonga, constructed of 

 immense stones that must have been rafted across the sea from 

 some other island, as Tonga is a mere mass of coral, and per- 

 fectly flat. 



E-emains of ancient and regular fortifications have also been 

 discovered in both continents of America ; and the circumstance 

 has repeatedly awakened much curiosity respecting the origin, 

 the history, and the fate of the nation that has left behind it 

 these memorials of its ancient civilisation. But regular fortifica- 

 tions of a similar kind are still met with in all parts of the South 

 Sea Islands. In some islands they are constructed of walls of 

 loose stones piled on each other on the tops of hills, as in New 

 Zealand ; in others, as in Ascension Island, in the Northern 

 Pacific, of a wall of 30 feet high, enclosing a harbour, and 

 formed of large blocks of dressed stone, built up with great 

 architectural skill, but without cement of any kind ; in others 

 they are formed of strong palisades, like the Burman Stockades, 

 as in the level island of Tonga ; and in others still they consist 

 of some artificial addition to a place of great natural strength, 

 as in the district of Atehuru, in Tahiti. In short, the South Sea 

 Islanders have evidently been in a sufficiently advanced state of 

 civilisation to enable them to construct fortifications, and to 

 adapt these fortifications, in regard to the materials employed in 

 their construction, to the nature of the country in which they 

 were required. This part of our subject is so very interesting 

 that I shall willingly avail myself of the following passage from 

 Mr. Ellis :— 



" The fortress at Maeva, in Huahine," one of the Society 

 Islands, " bordering on a lake of the same name, is probably the 

 best artificial fortification in the islands. Being a square of 

 about half a mile on each side, it encloses many acres of ground 

 well stocked with breadfruit, containing several springs, and 

 having within its precincts the principal temple of their tutelar 



