a festival of the Christian church, observed in memory of our Saviour's resurrection.

The Greeks call it paga, the Latins paacha, a Hebrew word signifying passage, applied to the Jewish feast of the passover. It is called Easter in English, from the goddess Eostre, worshipped by the Saxons with peculiar ceremonies in the month of April.

The Asiatic churches kept their Easter upon the very same day the Jews observed their passover, and others on the first Sunday after the first full moon in the new year. This controversy was determined in the council of Nice; when it was ordained that Easter should be kept upon one and the same day, which should always be a Sunday, in all Christian churches in the world. For the method of finding Easter by calculation, see CHRONOLOGY.

EASTER Island, an island in the South Sea, lying in N. Lat. 27. 5. W. Long. 109. 46. It is thought to have been first discovered in 1686 by one Davis an Englishman, who called it Davis's Land. It was next visited by Commodore Roggewein, a Dutchman, in 1722; who gave it the name of Easter Island, and published many fabulous accounts concerning the country and its inhabitants. It was also visited by a Spanish ship in 1770, the captain of which gave it the name of St Carlos. The only authentic accounts of this island, however, which have yet appeared, are those published by Captain Cook and Mr Forster, who visited it in the month of March 1774. According to these accounts, the island is about 10 or 12 leagues in circumference, and of a triangular figure; its greatest length from north-west to south-east is about four leagues, and its greatest breadth two. The hills are so high, that they may be seen at the distance of 15 or 16 leagues. The north and east points of the island are of a considerable height; between them, on the south-east side, the shore forms an open bay, in which Captain Cook thinks the Dutch anchored in 1722. He himself anchored on the west side of the island, three miles north- ward from the south point. This, he says, is a good road with easterly winds; but a dangerous one when the wind blows from the contrary quarter, as the other on the south-east side must be with easterly winds: so that there is no good accommodation to be had for shipping round the whole island.

The island itself is extremely barren; and bears evident marks not only of a volcanic origin, but of having been not very long ago entirely ruined by an eruption. As they approached the south point, Mr Forster informs us, that they observed the shore to rise perpendicularly. It consisted of broken rocks, whose cavernous appearance, and black or ferruginous colour, seemed to indicate that they had been thrown up by subterraneous fire. Two detached rocks lie about a quarter of a mile off this point: one of them is singular on account of its shape, and represents a huge column or obelisk; and both these rocks were inhabited by multitudes of sea fowls. On landing and walking into the country, they found the ground covered with rocks and stones of all sizes, which appeared to have been exposed to a great fire, where they seemed to have acquired a black colour and porous texture. Two or three shrivelled species of grasses grew among these stones, and in some measure softened the desolate appearance of the country. The farther they advanced, the more ruinous the face of the country seemed to be. The roads were intolerably rugged, and filled with heaps of volcanic stones, among which the Europeans could not make their way but with the greatest difficulty; but the natives leaped from one stone to another with surprising agility and ease. As they went northward along the island, they found the ground still of the same nature; till at last they met with a rock of large black melted lava, which seemed to contain some iron, and on which was neither foil nor grass, nor any mark of vegetation. Notwithstanding this general barrenness, however, there are several large tracts covered with cultivated foil, which produces potatoes of a gold yellow colour as sweet as carrots, plantains, and sugar canes. The soil is a dry hard clay: and the inhabitants use the grass which grows between the stones in other parts of the island as a manure, and for preserving their vegetables when young from the heat of the sun.

The most remarkable curiosity belonging to this island is a number of colossal statues; of which, however, very few remain entire. These statues are placed only on the sea coast. On the east side of the island were seen the ruins of three platforms of stone work, on each of which had stood four of these large statues; but they were all fallen down from two of them, and one from the third: they were broken or defaced by the fall. Mr Wales measured one that had fallen, which was 15 feet in length, and fix broad over the shoulders; each statue had on its head a large cylindrical stone of a red colour, wrought perfectly round. Other were found that measured near 27 feet, and upwards of eight feet over the shoulders; and a still larger one was seen standing, the shade of which was sufficient to shelter all the party, consisting of near 30 persons, from the rays of the sun. The workmanship is rude, but not bad, nor are the features of the face ill formed; the ears are long, according to the distention practised in the country, and the bodies have hardly any thing of a human figure about them. How these islanders, wholly unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stupendous figures, and afterwards place the large cylindrical stones upon their heads, is truly wonderful! The most probable conjecture seems to be, that the stone is fictitious; and that each figure was gradually erected, by forming a temporary platform round it, and raising it as the work advanced: but they are at any rate very strong proofs of the ingenuity and perseverance of the islanders in the age when they were built, as well as that the ancestors of the present race had seen better days than their descendants enjoy. The water of this island is in general brackish, there being only one well that is perfectly fresh, which is at the east end of the island: and whenever the natives repair to it to slake their thirst, they wash themselves all over; and if there is a large company, the first leaps into the middle of the hole, drinks, and washes himself without ceremony; after which another takes his place, and so on in succession. This custom was much disbelieved by their new friends, who stood greatly in need of this valuable article, and did not wish to have it contaminated by such ablations.

The people are of a middle size. In general they are rather thin; go entirely naked; and have punctures on their bodies, a custom common to all the inhabitants of the South Sea islands. Their greatest singularity is the size of their ears, the lobe of which is stretched out so that it almost rests on their shoulder; and is pierced with a very large hole, capable of admitting four or five fingers with ease. The chief ornaments for their ears are the white down of feathers, and rings which they wear in the inside of the hole, made of the sugar cane, which is very elastic, and for this purpose is rolled up like a watch spring. Some were seen clothed in the same cloth used in the island of Otaheite, tinged of a bright orange colour with turmeric; and these our voyagers supposed to be chiefs. Their colour is a chestnut brown; their hair black, curling, and remarkably strong; and that on the head as well as the face is cut short. The women are small, and slender limbed: they have punctures on the face, resembling the patches sometimes used by European ladies; they paint their face all over with a reddish brown ruddle, and above this they lay a fine orange colour extracted from turmeric root; the whole is then variegated with streaks of white shell lime. But the most surprising circumstance of all with regard to these people, is the apparent scarcity of women among them. The nicest calculation that could be made, never brought the number of inhabitants in this island to above 700, and of these the females bore no proportion in number to the males. Either they have but few females, or else their women were restrained from appearing during the stay of the ship; notwithstanding, the men showed no signs of a jealous disposition, or the women any scruples of appearing in public: in fact, they seemed to be neither revered nor chaste; and the large pointed cap which they wore gave them the appearance of professed wantons. But as all the women who were seen were liberal of their favours, it is more than probable that all the married and modest ones had concealed themselves from their impetuous visitants in some ineradicable parts of the island; and what further strengthens this supposition is, that heaps of stones were seen piled up into little hillocks, which had one steep perpendicular side, where a hole went under ground. The space within, says Mr Forster, could be but small; and yet it is probable that these cavities served, together with their miserable huts, to give shelter to the people at night; and they may communicate with natural caverns, which are very common in the lava currents of volcanic countries. The few women that appeared were the most lascivious of their sex perhaps that have been ever noticed in any country; shame seemed to be entirely unknown to them.