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Easter Island: Early Witnesses

George Cooke


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likely to precipitate them into the depths below. A path of planks has been laid to the edge of one of the openings, the more readily to enable the natives to obtain the water, which, as may well be inferred, is brackish and unpleasant to the taste and thoroughly impregnated with animal and vegetable matter, vast masses of the latter being in a constant state of decay.
   The climate can scarcely be otherwise than salubrious and healthful. The southeast trades from October to April blow fresh at the beginning and end of the season. During our stay in December they were moderately strong, and the weather continued exceedingly pleasant. For the remainder of the year the winds are uncertain, westerly prevailing perhaps; the weather is changeable, and there is abundance of rain. Electric storms are unknown.
   A psychrometrical record taken both on board ship, and to a very limited extent ashore, accompanies this report; as also a copy of the meteorological record from the ship's log during our stay at the island. In the latter the figures in the column "wet bulb" are not entirely reliable, by reason of the inadequate nature of the cotton siphon, which consists merely of a few strands of ordinary lamp wick and does not cover the bulb. With the exception of the two craters of Rana Kao and Rana Roraka, the bottoms of which form lakes, as already stated, and which are isolated and far from the habitations, there is no decaying vegetable matter to be found worthy of note, and the island may therefore be said to be free from malaria and the diseases of paludal origin. During the rainy season an occasional case of remittent appears, but it is of mild type; medication is not resorted to, and recovery takes place when dry weather sets in. So healthful is the climate, so simple are the habits of the people, and so isolated are they from contact with the outer world, and consequently, the numberless malign influences which there hold sway, that diseases of any kind are very rare among the Rapa Nuiis, and they seem to be exempt from the ordinary ills of humanity. There are no "medicine men" among them, and they have no pharmacopoeia worthy the mention.
   During inclement weather a trifling "cough" - occasionally a case of pneumonia - a mild attack of rheumatism, may appear, and mention is also made of cerebral neuralgia. During our visit there was not, to the best of our knowledge, a case of acute disease on the island.
   It is stated that from May to October occasional cases of asthma show themselves, which the natives attribute to eating deep-water fish which have fed on a certain marine plant, the name of which the writer was unable to ascertain. This may be taken as delusion; and it may be mentioned in this place that a well-marked case of asthma, in the person of one of the Mohican's firemen, was notably worse and suffered severely during the entire period of our stay at the island.
   A disease of the soles of the feet, which the natives called kino consisting, according to their statements, as understood, of fissures and

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