682
��Popular Science Montldy
���somewhat out of proportion to their restricted areas. It is well known that the inhabitants of the island were at one time ferocious cannibals, and mention has been made by various navigators of fierce tribal wars, the opposing factions having ap- parently tried to annihilate or devour each other. The result has been that the island is practically depopulated and the statues or idols have all been thrown down. Not one now stands in its original position. Several of the smaller figures have been transported to museums. The lower por- tion of the image in the photograph is hewn out of gray basaltic rock but the crown is a striking red volcanic tufa. The features do not suggest either the Indian or the African; so the race to which the sculptors belonged is as hard to determine as the meaning of their work.
��The lower portion of the image is of gray rock, but the crown is of red volcanic tufa
The Mystery of the Stone Giants in the Pacific
THE mystery of the stone giants of Easter Island — a lonely mountain in the Pacific — will, perhaps, never be solved. Some of the giants were between thirty-five and forty feet in height. They originally stood on huge platforms along the coast, in rows, looking out to sea. Thus they are describ- ed by various navigators who first noticed them about a century ago, though what they represent, whether savage gods or departed kings, nobody knows. The theory is advanced by some scientists that the present Easter Island is but the remaining apex of a much greater body of land that has sunk beneath the waters. This, of course, is merely specula- tion. The great statues, however, seem
���The holes are from a few inches to about two feet in depth and many of them still contain the pestles
��An Indian "Corn Mill"— Their Nearest Approach to a Factory
IN spite of the fact that one is irresistibly inclined to sympathize with the Ameri- can Indian and to consider him a some- what abused and deceived creature, a thoughtful person must admit that the lack of progressiveness on the part of the Indian was responsible for his loss of place.
The accompanying photograph shows a busy mill, where the Mono Indians ground their corn into meal with stone pestles, in the same manner as their ancestors did for countless generations. Holes were dug out in the clay and baked dry and hard. Then
the acorns or grains of corn were shelled and ground to pow- . der by the wom- en with the heavy stone pes- tles. A number of holes in a spe- cially favorable spot, such as is illustrated, is the nearest the Indi- ans came to com- munity work. Even here, each woman ground her own private supply. There was no specializing in the work nor commercial exchange either of labor or" of commodities.
This mill is located in the foothills of the Sierras, over-looking the San Joaquin Valley.
�� �
