near the quarries have no crowns. Mrs. Routledge tells me that she thinks these may have been representations of the bird-men, that is of living persons, and if this be so, the absence of hats would be in harmony with the view put forward in this paper that the crowns are signs of the function of the images as representations of the dead.
The only clue I can give to the motive for the statues of the roads is a suggestion made by Moerenhout.[1] This writer believes that the statues of Easter and Pitcairn Islands and of Lavaïvaï represent the minor gods called tii in Tahiti. In this island images of the tii mark the limits of earth and sea and are believed to prevent their reciprocal encroachment. The situation of the statues of the ahu of Easter Island with their backs to the sea may possibly fit with this idea. It suggests that the tii of Tahiti may be the representatives of such statues as those of Easter Island and that the statues of this island were believed to prevent the encroachment of the sea upon that part of the island which had been chosen for the burial of the dead. It is possible that some similar idea may have formed the motive for the presence of the hatless statues of other parts of the island. Moerenhout tells us that it was the nature of the images of Lavaïvaï which enabled him to detect the relation between the colossal statues and the tii, but he does not reveal the special feature of the statues of Lavaïvaï which led to this recognition. It would be interesting to know whether the images of this island were or were not surmounted by crowns.
- ↑ Voyages aux îles du grand océan. Paris, 1837, vol. i. p. 461.
