Passos - Easter Island : island of enigmas

BOOKS BY
John Dos Passos

HISTORICAL NARRATIVES

THE GROUND WE STAND ON

THE HEAD AND HEART OF THOMAS JEFFERSON

THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION

MR. WILSONS WAR

THE SHACKLES OF POWER

THE PORTUGAL STORY

EASTER ISLAND

RAPPORTAGE

JOURNEYS BETWEEN WARS

THE STATE OF THE NATION

TOUR OF DUTY

BRAZIL ON THE MOVE

CONTEMPORARY CHRONICLES

CHOSEN COUNTRY

THREE SOLDIERS

MANHATTAN TRANSFER

THE 42nd PARALLEL

NINETEEN NINETEEN

THE BIG MONEY

THE MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN

NUMBER ONE

THE GRAND DESIGN

THE GREAT DAYS

MIDCENTURY

PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
a division of Random House, Inc.

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright 1971 by Elizabeth H. Dos Passos and H. Marston Smith, Executors of the Estate of John R. Dos Passos, Jr., deceased.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
For information, address Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

Acknowledgment is made to Editions Calmann-Lvy for permission to use a translation by John Dos Passos of Une Viste Ille de Pques from Reflets sous la sombre route by Pierre Loti, Co. 1899

DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as:
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-111160

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1971 by Doubleday

eISBN: 978-0-307-78705-7

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Eighteenth-century Easter Island man with totora reed float

Eighteenth-century Easter Island woman

Easter Island girl wearing one of the straw hats that the Frenchmen of La Prouses expedition found so becoming

The Easter Island statues in 1774: From an original oil painting by William Hodges, official draughtsman on Captain Cooks second voyage

Watercolor by Pierre Loti: Easter Island group in the mid-nineteenth century

Modern islanders chopping the tuff of a monoliths base with basalt picks in the course of reconstruction work

Modern and ancient engineering methods. A crane is added to the cradle the Easter Islanders used to move their monoliths

The latest way of restoring the topknots to the fallen statues. We still dont know exactly how they got them up there originally

The great figure at Tahai set back on its pedestal

The fallen statue at Tahai restored with its topknot. The group photograph is of interest because the man in white monastic gown (left front) is Father Sebastian

The restored moai dominates the shore

Stonework of the earliest type

Orongo: sculptured rocks and the bird islands beyond

Orongo: Mask of Makemake, praying birdmen and the crater lake of Rano Kao beyond

Rano Kao and the bird islands

Orongo

Underground dwelling at Orongo

Rano Kao crater

Ahu Hekii topknots

The quarry where they carved the topknots

All over the island the rocks have been engraved with various patterns

In ancient times totora reed was used for boat building and until the middle nineteenth century for roofing the canoe-shaped communal dwellings

Kava kava figure. These small carved wooden images, said to commemorate the state of desperate starvation in which the first settlers reached the island, were family penates and good luck fetishes. They are still being turned out very acceptably for the tourist trade

Ancient head. It suggests a portrait of Picasso

Wood carvings: kava kava figures

Wood carvings: kava kava figures

The seven monoliths of Akivi set back on their bases by Dr. William Mulloy in 1960

Crater lake at Rano Rarakuthe rushes are totora reed

They lie in a row just as they were pulled down in the stormy years after 1680

The crouched basalt figure against the lava wall of Rano Raraku

Confabulation of great heads: Rano Raraku

Moai engraved on chest with a ship which might be built of totora reed

Head of statue, Rano Raraku

The basalt figure again

Crouched basalt figure: one of the most powerful of ancient sculptures

Apologies to Charles de Gaulle

Thoughtful poses

What happened to the sculptors who dropped their basalt picks and never came back?

House foundation at Anakena

Burial place under a fallen statue

After a century of effort the talking wood is still undeciphered

Outdoor school: now the Pascuenses have a handsome new schoolhouse

Hangaroa house

Inaugurating the new school

Woodcarver at work

The arrival of Father Sebastians body

The burial services for Father Sebastian

Why Easter Island? people ask.

The explanation is simple.

When I was a small boy forlornly attending an English preparatory school in the early years of this century, some kind person took me to the British Museum. There I saw a statue. This was a huge rough darkgray statue with a long sad darkgray face. As I remember it stood under some sort of arcade. I stopped in my tracks and stared at it through the sooty London drizzle. The statue stared back out of deepsunken eyes. What was it trying to say? To this day I can remember the feeling it gave me of savage brooding melancholy. When, some time later, I looked up the word enigma in a dictionary, a sort of afterimage of the Easter Island statue swam between me and the printed page. I was a great reader of Captain Cooks