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Easter Island: Early Witnesses
William Thomson
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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
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