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Easter Island: Early Witnesses
William Thomson
497
PLATFORMS AND IMAGES.
In order to form an estimate of the magnitude of
the work performed by the image-makers, every one
on the island was carefully counted, and the list
shows a total of five hundred and fifty-five
images
(Plates
XXV and
XXVI). Of this number
forty are standing inside of the crater and nearly
as many more on the outside of Rana Roraka
(Plate XXVII),
at the foot of the slope where they were
placed as finished and ready for removal to the
different platforms for which they were designed;
some finished statues lie scattered over the
plains
(Plate XXVIII) as though they were being
dragged toward a particular locality but were
suddenly abandoned. The large majority of the
images, however, are lying near the platforms all
around the coast, all more or less mutilated and
some reduced to a mere shapeless fragment. Not one
stands in its original position upon a platform.
The largest image is in one of the workshops in an
unfinished state and measures 70 feet in length;
the smallest was found in one of the caves and is
a little short of 3 feet in length. One of the
largest images that has been in position lies near
the platform which it ornamented, near Ovahe; it
is 32 feet long and weighs 50 tons.
Images representing females were found. One at
Anakena is called "Viri-viri Moai-a-Taka" and
is apparently as perfect as the day it was
finished; another, on the plain west of Rana
Roraka is called "Moai Putu," and is in a fair
state of preservation. The natives have names for
every one of the images. The designation of
images and platforms as obtained from the guides
during the exploration was afterwards checked
off in company with other individuals without
confusion in the record. The coarse gray
trachytic lava of which the images were made, is
found only in the vicinity of Rana Roraka and was
selected because the conglomerate character of the
material made it easily worked with the rude stone
implements that constituted the only tools
possessed by the natives. The disintegration of
the material when exposed to the action of the
elements is about equivalent to that of sandstone
under similar conditions, and admits of an
estimate in regard to the probable age. The
traditions in regard to the images are numerous,
but relate principally to impossible occurrences,
such as being endowed with power to walk about in
the darkness, assisting certain clans by subtle
means in contests, and delivering oracular
judgments. The legends state that a son of King
Mahuta Ariiki, named Tro Kaiho, designed the
first image, but it is difficult to arrive at an
estimation of the period. The journals of the
early navigators throw but little light upon the
subject. The workshops must have been in
operation at the time of Captain Cook's visit,
but unfortunately his exploration of the island
was not directed towards the crater of Rana
Roraka.
Although the images range in size from
the colossus of 70 feet down
to the pygmy of 3 feet, they are clearly all of
the same type and general
497