ich rests on the two uprights, is reported to measure
twenty-four feet in length, by four or five feet in depth, and two feet
in thickness. Each of the uprights is estimated by Sir Basil Thomson to
weigh not less than fifty tons. The tops of both are deeply mortised to
receive the cross-stone, the ends of which are sunk into them instead of
being laid flat on the top. The cross-stone lies east and west, so that
the opening between the uprights faces north and south. On the upper
surface of the cross-stone, and at about the middle of it, is a cup-like
hollow, very carefully cut, about the size of a coco-nut shell. A large
bowl of the same material is said to have formerly stood on the
cross-stone, but the statement is not made by an eyewitness and is
probably mistaken.[180]

[180] For the authorities, see the preceding note. The
measurements, to some extent discrepant, are given by Dr.
Charles Forbes, Mr. Philip Hervey, and the passengers of s.s.
_Wairarapa_, as reported by Sir Basil Thomson _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. 82 _sq._), who had
unfortunately mislaid his own notes containing the measurements.
The statement that the monument was surmounted by a large bowl
is made by Mr. Brenchley, in whose sketch of the structure the
bowl figures. But Mr. Brenchley did not himself see the
monument, and nobody else appears to have seen the bowl. I
suspect that the report of the bowl may have originated in a
hasty reading of Mr. Hervey's statement that "on the centre of
it [the cross-stone] a small cava bowl is scooped out," though
in Mr. Brenchley's account the bowl has seemingly increased in
size. Similarly in his report the height of the uprights has
grown to about thirty feet, which appears to be just double of
their real size. Perhaps Mr. Brenchley's erroneous allegation as
to the material of the monument similarly originated in a
misunderstanding of Mr. Hervey's statement that "the material is
the coral rock, or coral rag which are formed of stone brought
from Wallis's Island."

The name which the natives give to this megalithic monument is
_Haamonga_ or _Ho ha Mo-nga Maui_, which is said to mean "Maui's
burden." The name is explained by a story that the god or hero Maui
brought the massive stones in a gigantic canoe from Uea (Wallis Island),
where the great holes in the rock from which he quarried them may still
be s