1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 19-5 



whole household, and is not divided by any partition. 

 The master of the house and his wife sleep in the 

 middle, next to them the married people, next to 

 them the unmarried women, and next to them, at a 

 little distance, the unmarried men : the servants, or 

 Toiitous, as they are called, sleep in the open air, 

 except it rains, and in that case they come just 

 within the shade. 



There are, however, houses of another kind be- 

 longing to the chiefs, in which there is some de- 

 gree of privacy. These are much smaller, and so 

 constructed as to be carried about in their canoes 

 from place to place, and set up occasionally like a 

 tent : they are enclosed on the sides with cocoa-nut 

 leaves, but not so close as to exclude the air, and the 

 chief and his wife sleep in them alone. 



There are houses also of a much larger size, not 

 built either for the accommodation of a single chief, 

 or a single family; but as common receptacles for all 

 the people of a district. Some of them are two 

 hundred feet long, thirty broad, and, under the ridge, 

 twentv feet hi<rh : these are built and maintained at 

 the common expence of the district, for the accom- 

 modation of which they are intended ; and have on 

 one side of them a large area, inclosed with low pal- 

 lisadoes. 



These houses, like those of separate families, have 

 no walls. Privacy, indeed, is little wanted among 

 people who have not even the idea of indecency, 

 and who gratify every appetite and passion before 

 witnesses, with no more sense of impropriety than 

 we feel when we satisfy our hunger at a social board 

 with our family or friends. Those who have no idea 

 oi' indecency with respect to actions, can have none 

 with respect to words ; it is, therefore, scarcely ne- 

 cessary to observe, that, in the conversation of these 

 people, that which is the principal source of their 

 pleasure is always the principal topic ; and that 



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