The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expeditionRoutledge, Katherine
History
The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expedition
Routledge, Katherine
Easter Island; Oceania -- Description and travel; Voyages and travels
In addition to motors there are local “coaches” drawn by horses, after
the manner of covered wagonettes; they will no doubt be gradually
superseded by the motors, but still command considerable custom. Both
types of vehicles are delightfully vague in the hours which they keep,
being just as likely to start too soon as too late, thus presupposing an
indefinite amount of time for the passengers to spend at the
starting-place.
Our first expedition was by the inland or middle road, which winds up by
the bleak hillside till it reaches a beautiful and attractive country.
To those unaccustomed to such latitudes, it comes as a surprise to see
fertility increasing instead of diminishing with elevation, due to the
more constant rain among the hills. Monte and Santa Brigida may be said
to be residential neighbourhoods and have comfortable hotels and
boarding-houses. There are two principal sights to be visited from
there. One is the village of Atalaya, which consists of a zone of cave
dwellings, almost encircling the summit of a dome-shaped hill. The
eminence falls away on two sides to a deep ravine, over which it
commands magnificent views, and is connected with the adjacent hills by
a narrow coll. The rock is of consolidated volcanic tuff, in which the
dwellings are excavated. The fronts of the houses abut on the pathway,
which is about four feet wide, and are unequally placed, following the
contour of the ground. Each dwelling consists of two apartments, both
about twelve feet square, with rounded angles and a domed roof, the
surface of the walls shows the chisel marks. The front apartment is used
as a bed-sittingroom, the back one as a store; and in some cases a
lean-to outhouse has been built of blocks of the same material, in which
cooking is done and the goats kept. Doors and window-sashes are inserted
into the solid stone. Both dwellings and surroundings are beautifully
clean and neat; the first one exhibited we imagined to be a “show”
apartment, till others proved equally neat and orderly. Flowers were
planted in crannies of the rock and around the doors and windows, being
carefully tended and watered. The industry of the village is making pots
by hand without a wheel, the sand being obtained in one direction and
the clay in another: the shapes coincide in several instances with those
taken from native burial-grounds and now to be seen in the museum at Las
Palmas. The occasion of our visit was unfortunately a _fiesta_, and
regular work was not going on: an old lady, however, made us a model pot
in a few minutes; it was fashioned out of one piece of clay, with the
addition of a little extra material if necessary: the pottery is
unglazed. Various specimens of the art were obtained by the Expedition
and are now in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account