Chapter Twenty-one - Page 2

striking than
the immense size of the blocks composing them. Some of the
stones, of an oblong shape, are from ten to fifteen feet in
length, and five or six feet thick. Their sides are quite
smooth, but though square, and of pretty regular formation, they
bear no mark of the chisel. They are laid together without
cement, and here and there show gaps between. The topmost
terrace and the lower one are somewhat peculiar in their
construction. They have both a quadrangular depression in the
centre, leaving the rest of the terrace elevated several feet
above it. In the intervals of the stones immense trees have
taken root, and their broad boughs stretching far over, and
interlacing together, support a canopy almost impenetrable to the
sun. Overgrowing the greater part of them, and climbing from one
to another, is a wilderness of vines, in whose sinewy embrace
many of the stones lie half-hidden, while in some places a thick
growth of bushes entirely covers them. There is a wild pathway
which obliquely crosses two of these terraces; and so profound is
the shade, so dense the vegetation, that a stranger to the place
might pass along it without being aware of their existence.

These structures bear every indication of a very high antiquity
and Kory-Kory, who was my authority in all matters of scientific
research, gave me to understand that they were coeval with the
creation of the world; that the great gods themselves were the
builders; and that they would endure until time shall be no more.

Kory-Kory's prompt explanation and his attributing the work to a
divine origin, at once convinced me that neither he nor the rest
of his country-men knew anything about them.

As I gazed upon this monument, doubtless the work of an extinct
and forgotten race, thus buried in the green nook of an island at
the ends of the earth, the existence of which was yesterday
unknown, a stronger feeling of awe came over me than if I had
stood musing at the mighty base of the Pyramid of Cheops. There
are no inscriptions, no sculpture, no clue, by which to
conjecture its history; nothing but the dumb stones. How many
generations of the majestic trees which overshadow them have
grown and flourished and decayed since first they were erected!

These remains naturally suggest many interesting reflections.
They establish the great age of the island, an opinion which the
builders of theories concerning, the creation of the various
groups in the South Seas are not always inclined to admit. For
my own part, I think it just as probable that human beings were
living in the valleys of the Marquesas three thousand years ago
as that they were inhabiting the land of Egypt. The origin of
the island of Nukuheva cannot be