320 houses. [1840 



thither in their canoes, that they cannot reach the island, or 

 if safely arriving there, return again, except through the same 

 special interposition of their deities. Yet it is said, that a 

 party of Tongese once visited this enchanted spot, and were 

 delighted with its beauties, but on attempting to pluck the 

 luscious bread-fruit, it eluded their grasp; and they walked 

 through the trunks of the trees, and the houses, which were 

 built after the Tongese fashion, without encountering any 

 resistance. Trees and dwellings, fruits and flowers, birds 

 and animals — all appeared but as shadows to those who were 

 strangers in this spirit-land. 



(4.) When speaking of the dwellings in the Samoan Group, 

 it was remarked that they had borrowed their style of house- 

 building from the Tongese. The houses of the latter are of 

 an elliptical form, twenty feet long by fifteen wide, and about 

 fifteen feet high under the ridge-pole. The posts are either 

 of cocoa-nut or bread-fruit, and are set in the same manner as 

 has been previously described.* Indeed, the houses are con- 

 structed similarly to those of the Samoans, in every respect, 

 except that the sides are made of wicker-work, composed of 

 the slender stalks of the sugar-cane firmly wattled together. 

 Glazed windows are nowhere seen except in the residences of 

 the missionaries. Mats are hung at the doors, and sometimes 

 they are made use of within, to divide a house into several 

 compartments. The floor is also covered with mats ; coarse 

 ones being commonly used, and the finer ones kept in reserve 

 for extraordinary occasions. In the centre of the house, a 

 small space of ground is left uncovered, where the cooking is 

 performed. Clubs, spears, muskets, fishing gear, an occasional 

 shelf, the ava-bowl, a supply of mats, drinking-vessels made 

 of cocoa-nut shells, earthen jars dried in the sun, a few cook- 

 ing utensils, and a chest or box to contain all the principle val- 

 uables, are the ordinary embellishments and articles of fur- 

 niture found in a Tongese habitation. Besides their more 

 common mats, they have stiller ones about two feet wide, 

 made to stand on the edges, supported by scrolls at cither end ; 



* Ante, p. 209 ct scq. 



