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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



a stone: hat for one of the images 



These coverings are cylindrical in form, the bottom being slightly hollowed out into an 

 oval depression in order to fit on the head of the image. The brim projected over the eyes 

 of the figure — a fashion common in native head-dresses. The material of these hats is red 

 volcanic tufa, found in a small crater of a volcano near Cooks Bay. The finished hats are 

 from 4 to 10 feet in height, with additions of 6 inches to 2 feet for the knobs. They measure 

 from 5^2 to 8 feet across (see the hat on the image illustrated on page 628). 



There is said to be no fever in the 

 islands. We had two or three attacks, 

 but it may have been "original sin." 

 Once we had a plague of little white 

 moths, and occasionally, for a short 

 while, visitations of a small flying beetle, 

 whose instinct seemed to be to crawl into 

 everything, making it safer to stuff one's 

 ears with cotton wool. On these occa- 

 sions dinner had to be cooked early, 

 owing to Bailey's pathetic complaint, 

 that, with a lamp burning in the kitchen, 

 business was rendered impossible from 

 the crowds which committed suicide in 

 the soup. 



Easter Island bears no resemblance to 

 the ideal lotus-eating lands of the Pacific. 

 Rather, with its bleak, grass-grown sur- 

 face, its wild rocks and restless ocean, it 

 recalls some of the Scilly Isles or the 

 coast of Cornwall. It is not a beautiful 

 country, nor even a striking one, but it 

 has a fascination of its own. All portions 

 of it are accessible ; from every part are 



seen marvelous views of rolling country; 

 everywhere is the wind of heaven ; 

 around and about all are boundless sea 

 and sky, infinite space and a great silence. 

 The dweller there is ever listening for" 

 he knows not what, feeling unconsciously 

 that he is in the antechamber to some- 

 thing yet more vast which is just beyond 

 his ken. 



PREHISTORIC REMAINS OE EASTER ISLAND 



In many places it is possible, in the 

 light of great monuments, to reconstruct 

 the past. In Easter Island the past is the 

 present ; it is impossible to escape from it. 

 The inhabitants of today are less real than 

 the men who have gone ; the shadows of 

 the departed builders still possess the land. 



Voluntarily or involuntarily, the so- 

 journer must hold communion with those 

 old workers ; for the whole air vibrates 

 with a vast purpose and energy which has 

 been and is no more. What was it? 

 Why was it? 



