PACIFIC ISLANDS UNDER JAPANESE MANDATE 



609 



ered by vegetation. The waves still beat 

 against its massive sea-wall, while hun- 

 dreds of little shell rings, vised for money 

 and necklaces, can be found even today. 



One incident chronicled by all the 

 scientists, like the fragment of bone from 

 which the archeologist reconstructs a 

 dinosaur, is that a metal spear-head was 

 once found in the ruins ; and another, less 

 generally known, comes from Capt. John 

 J. Mahlmann, of Yokohama, that, 40 

 years ago, he copied two Chinese ideo- 

 graphs carved on one of the big stones. 

 However, the whereabouts of the spear- 

 head is unknown and the letter, which the 

 English captain sent to Shanghai, was 

 lost, and he never could locate the stone 

 again. 



Some say modern buccaneers built the 

 city of stone without the natives knowing- 

 it ; others trace it to the copper age, and 

 the present Japanese claim it was the 

 work of their ancestors, who built the 

 uncemented fort in Osaka. 



A similar deserted city stands in the 

 hills on the mainland of Ponape, back of 

 the port of Ronkiti, on the southwest 

 corner of the island. Near this is the 

 home of Henry Nanpei, a remarkable 

 native chief, who has traveled extensively 

 in Europe and America and is the bul- 

 wark of the Christian work on the island. 

 He probably could tell more about the 

 ruins than any other man ; but the scien- 

 tists have confined their researches to 

 Nanmatal, which is more easily accessible. 



Kubary first searched Nanmatal for 

 Godefroy's museum, and when Governor 

 Berg was in the islands he shipped so 

 many specimens to the Leipzig Museum 

 that the government sent an expedition 

 to clear away the jungle and study the 

 city and the slightly different ruins on 

 the island of Kusaie. 



The latter adjoin the settlement, and as 

 soon as the expedition left, the natives, 

 directed by an unawed American planter, 

 supplemented the visitors' labors by using 

 a good portion of the uncovered walls for 

 building a breakwater and pier, greatly to 

 the wrath of the Leipzig students of an- 

 cient history when they heard about it, 

 a year later. 



After his last visit to the Nanmatal 

 ruins, Governor Berg died suddenly, 

 justifying the native superstition that the 

 gods punish intruders. 



The present governor has a big white 

 book in which visitors, either after ex- 

 ploring Nanmatal or discussing it in the 

 cool of his residence, are requested to 

 write their opinion of its origin. 



The sight of the massive walls, silent 

 and impressive, still surrounded by the 

 narrow, straight canals and overgrown 

 with jungle, is worth the blistered back, 

 wet feet, and skinned shins necessary to 

 reach the ruins. However, as each stu- 

 dent has a different verdict, the present 

 method, more reassuring for governors 

 and less strenuous for visitors, may be 

 equally conclusive. 



NIGHT ON PONAPi: 



The broad road from the headquarters 

 residence to the village below was a sil- 

 vered path between black walls of trees. 

 Only the stars were in the sky that night, 

 and nowhere are they as bright as in the 

 tropics. 



Through the still air from a native set- 

 tlement along the bay came the occa- 

 sional thump of a drum and the echoes 

 of laughter. The big parade ground was 

 silent and deserted, the old Spanish wall 

 and the new Japanese school - house 

 ghostly in the starlight. No spooning 

 couples were in the village park. 



The local police turn in early in Ponape. 

 The governor says he has arrested only 

 twenty-two men, all for stealing. One 

 took a bottle of sake from the Japanese 

 store and the others eloped to short dis- 

 tances with their friends' wives. As the 

 authorities discourage primitive methods 

 of vengeance, local nome-wreckers are 

 put in jail. 



The house where I was going was dark, 

 but alive with the deep breathing of 

 many sleepers. It was a pretentious 

 dwelling, long and low, like a field bar- 

 racks, with a narrow porch along the 

 side, on which opened the rooms for dif- 

 ferent families. A "Hello !" brought an 

 answering shout, and I stepped through 

 an open door into darkness. Somebody 

 appeared with a lantern. 



My host and his family had been sleep- 

 ing according to the custom of the tropics. 

 The wife slipped on a skirt, and he with 

 two stretches was fully clothed in shirt 

 and trousers. He took the lantern and 

 we went into the residential social hall, 



