Let us first examine the tablets found at Easter island. This island is 2,600 miles from Valparaiso; 1,400 miles from Pitcairn island and 2,750 miles from Tahiti. It belongs to the Government of Chile. Easter island, the remotest part of Chilean territory has been linked with the main land by means of a powerful wireless station, and the authorities on the island have already communicated with Antogafasta and other stations. In the past, Easter island, which is leased to a Scottish firm for cattle raising, has relied on the yearly visit of a steamer chartered by the firm for its contact with the outside world. It is also occasionally visited by Chilean warships. The Chilean Government has recently renewed the lease of the island to the British firm.

    On this island there are large stone statues^__30 to 40 feet high; it is a puzzle to solve how they were erected^__these blocks weighing tons; how they were moved often 15 miles and then set up on stone platforms. It appears that Easter island was once a continent. A large population was necessary to account for the manufacture and transportation of gigantic statues. No earthquake seems to have visited the island. Even the purpose of these statues is not known. It is generally supposed that they were commemorative of chiefs or kings and erected after their death. ^__Hotua Matua, the pioneer, introduced in this island all the food plants and clothing and timber plants, dogs and pigs, etc.; the animals were introduced three times, and they were eaten away thrice. ^__The Pioneer had brought with him about 67 tablets by which he exerted great influence on the people of Easter island. It was a collection of hymns and songs and genealogies and traditions which he brought with him. The tablets consist of lines of hieroglyphic-like outline figures arranged in rows. To save the precious incisions from rubbing, the wooden tablet was slightly grooved and the letters were engraved in these grooves, the ridges between the grooves thus preventing contact with the face of the script.

    It was perhaps the emphasis on sexuality in these tablets that made the basis of the Easter island belief in their virtue as aids to conception. There are other religious cues of the characters; the great god Makemake is very often repeated; it is made of bird, mammal, sometime human and fish; it