66 NATURAL HISTORY. 



approach to domestic comfort they possess. Their houses are entirely con- 

 structed of its timber ; the posts and sills are of the straight columnar 

 trunk, which are set upright round the whole building about 4 feet apart ; 

 down each side of the post, in the line of the wall, is cut a groove about 

 an inch deep, and into these are filled laths which are split with a 

 knife out of the straight stays which grow round the trunks of these 

 trees. Thus is made a very neat and comfortable dwelling ; the doors and 

 window-shutters are made in like manner of the split laths, and the 

 whole is roofed in with the leaves of the same tree. The thatch is made 

 very ingeniously : the frame of the roof being complete, a great number 

 of laths, a fathom long, are split and across them side by side ; the long 

 leaves are doubled and pinned with thin skewers ; these are laid aoross 

 the rafters one over the other and secured with string ; a roof of this 

 kind looks very neat inside, is impervious to the heaviest rains, and lasts 

 usually from 10 to 12 years. The floors are made of smooth water-worn 

 snow-white coral pebbles from the sea beach, which harbour no insects, and 

 above them are spread mats of this same palm leaf in a double layer, 

 the lower ones of a coarse make, the upper of a finer kind, so 

 delightfully cool and smooth that one may lie upon them with great 

 comfort, absolutely without any clothing between them and the body ; 

 on some islands they are made very handsome, being of a bright straw 

 colour, with a stripe four inches wide along each edge and two others down 

 the middle. This stripe is worked in a variegated pattern in red, yellow 

 and black ; these colours are obtained by dyes made from the juice of 

 certain roots. The floor mats are frequently of great size, sometimes 

 as large as the whole floor, made purposely of corresponding dimensions. 

 On islands where they make them and sell them to trading ships they 

 receive payment at the rate of 2 yards of calico for 2 yards square of fine 

 mat. On islands where the tapp tree does not grow, Pandanns mats are the 

 only bed clothes, as also clothing for the body. They consist of eoft 

 ornamented girdles about 9 inches wide and from 12 to 20 feet long, 

 aprons, pouches and " tiputas ; " these are made very soft and are 

 bleached between salt-water and sunshine until perfectly white ; the patterns 

 which are worked into them are also very handsome. The hats which 

 they make on many isles out of this material are plaited all in one piece, 

 like those which are made in Guayaquil, and are very neat and durable. 

 Some baskets (worked in the same manner as the cigar cases so common 

 in the East Indian islands) they make so very handsome that I have seen 

 one of them sold for five dollars and counted cheap. On Samoa the 

 women wear soft Pandanus mat for petticoats and trains, which sweep the 

 ground behind them as they walk on state occasions ; these mats are 

 generally not handsome, being without ornament except sometimes a little 

 red fringe, and are of a dirty straw colour : nevertheless they are consi- 



