466 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



dwelling-houses have no further furniture. The posts are some- 

 times curved and painted, and occasionally a human skull is 

 fastened to a post, or placed under the thatch. Everything 

 about the houses is rough, and there is no neatness as in Fijian 

 buildings. 



About the houses in the villages, bright-red Dracmnas are 

 commonly planted as ornaments, representing the flower-garden 

 in its most primitive stage. The temples are houses exactly 

 like the dwelling-houses, but larger — about 20 feet long, 15 

 broad and 20 in height. Some have carved door-posts of wood, 

 the respective carvings representing a male and female figure. 

 The doors are closed by a kind of hurdle. 



The canoes are more of the Polynesian than the Papuan form, 

 i.e., they have their bows and sterns low, and simply pointed, 

 and not turned up and built so as to form figure-heads, as at 

 New Guinea and the Aru Islands. The canoes' hulls are formed 

 each of a hollowed trunk of a tree, with a single plank built on 

 above it, and a gunwale-piece as a finish. The hollowed-out 

 portion has slightly and equally rounded sides, and is not flat on 

 one side and rounded on the other, as in the Carolines. The 

 mast is stepped in the bottom of the canoe, just in front of the 

 horizontal outrigger platform. A pole of about similar length, 

 with a natural fork at the top, is stepped against the foremost 

 end of the cross-bar of the horizontal outrigger, and it and the 

 mast being inclined towards one another, the mast is fitted into 

 the fork at the top of the pole, and roused down with a rope- 

 stay so as to remain firm in that position. The bow and stern 

 are ornamented with a simple carved ridge or two, and with 

 Ovulum ovum shells, a single row of a dozen or so being fastened 

 on either side. A horizontal outrigger extends from the middle 

 of the canoe on one side, and is connected with a long canoe- 

 shaped float, and opposite to it is an inclined shelf or deck 

 supported on two or three stout projecting beams. A platform 

 is formed with planks on the horizontal outrigger, and on the 

 outer part of this a large store of spears and the mast and sails 

 are kept. On the inner part the natives sit when not paddling, 

 and stow on it some of their gear* food and articles for barter, 

 but most of these are kept on the inclined platform, where also 



