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characteristics. The head is long, the eyes close under the heavy brows, the nose long, low-bridged, and expanded at the nostrils, the upper lip short and the lips pouting. The aspect is slightly upwards, and the expression is firm and profoundly solemn. Careful investigation failed to detect the slightest evidence that the sockets had ever been fitted with artificial eyes, made of bone and obsidian, such as are placed in the wooden images.
   The head was in all cases cut flat on top to accommodate the red tufa crowns with which they were ornamented, but the images standing on the outside of the crater had flatter heads and bodies than those found around the coast. The images represent the human body only from the head to the hips, where it is cut squarely off to afford a good polygon of support when standing. The artists seem to have exhausted their talents in executing the features, very little work being done below the shoulders, and the arms being merely cut in low relief. The ears are only rectangular projections, but the lobes are represented longer in the older statues than in those of more recent date.
   The images were designed as effigies of distinguished persons and intended as monuments to perpetuate their memory. They were never regarded as idols, and were not venerated or worshiped in any manner The natives had their tutelary genii, gods, and goddesses, but they were represented by small wooden or stone idols, which bore no relation to the images that ornamented the burial platforms. The image-makers were a privileged class, and the profession descended from father to son. Some of the natives still claim a descent from the image-makers, and refer to their ancestors with as much pride as to the royal family. One of our guides never missed an opportunity of stating that one of his forefathers was Unrautahui, the distinguished image-maker.
   The work of carving the image into shape and detaching it from the rock of which it was a part, did not consume a great deal of time, but the chief difficulty was, in the absence of mechanical contrivances, to launch it safely down the slope of the mountain and transport it to a distant point. It was lowered to the plain by a system of chocks and wedges, and the rest was a dead drag accomplished by main strength. A roadway was constructed, over which the images were dragged by means of ropes made of indigenous hemp, and sea-weed and grass made excellent lubricants. The platforms were all built with sloping terraces in the rear, and up this incline a temporary road-way was constructed of a suitable height, upon which the statue could be rolled until the base was over its proper resting-place. The earth was then dug away to allow the image to settle down into position, the ropes being used to steady it in the mean time. It was a work of great magnitude, but we can clearly see how it was accomplished with a large force of able-bodied men.
   The crowns, or head ornaments, were made of red vesicular tufa, quarried in the Teraai Hills, where many finished specimens are still standing.

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