 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 imputed to the coral insect; for indefatigable as that
wonderful creature is, it would be hardly muscular enough to pile rocks one upon
the other more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea. That the
land may have been thrown up by a submarine volcano is as possible as anything
else. No one can make an affidavit to the contrary, and therefore I will say
nothing against the supposition: indeed, were geologists to assert that the
whole continent of America had in like manner been formed by the simultaneous
explosion of a train of Etnas, laid under the water all the way from the North
Pole to the parallel of Cape Horn, I am the last man in the world to contradict
them.
    I have already mentioned that the dwellings of the islanders were almost
invariably built upon massive stone foundations, which they call pi-pis. The
dimensions of these, however, as well as of the stones composing them, are
comparatively small: but there are other and larger erections of a similar
description comprising the morais, or burying-grounds, and festival-places, in
nearly all the valleys of the island. Some of these piles are so extensive, and
so great a degree of labour and skill must have been requisite in constructing
them, that I can scarcely believe they were built by the ancestors of the
present inhabitants. If indeed they were, the race has sadly deteriorated in
their knowledge of the mechanic arts. To say nothing of their habitual
indolence, by what contrivance within the reach of so simple a people could such
enormous masses have been moved or fixed in their places? and how could they
with their rude implements have chiselled and hammered them into shape?
    All of these larger pi-pis - like that of the hoolah-hoolah ground in the
Typee valley - bore incontestable marks of great age; and I am disposed to
believe that their erection may be ascribed to the same race of men who were the
builders of the still more ancient remains I have just described.
    According to Kory-Kory's account, the pi-pi, upon which stands the
hoolah-hoolah ground, was built a great many moons ago, under the direction of
Monoo, a great chief and warrior, and, as it would appear, master-mason among
the Typees. It was erected for the express purpose to which it is at present
devoted, in the incredibly short period of one sun; and
