512 



A VOYAGE TO 



«778. meat with their teeth, and gnawed the bones hke fo many 



Oaober. 



dogs. 



As thcfe people ufe no paint, they are not fo dirty in their 

 pcrfons as the favages who thus bcfmear themfelves ; but 

 they arc full as loufy and filthy in their houfes. Their me- 

 thod of building is as follows : They dig, in the ground, 

 an oblong fquare pit, the length of which feldom exceeds 

 fifty feet, and the breadth twenty; but in general the di- 

 menfions are fmallcr. Over this excavation they form the 

 roof of wood which the fea throws afliorc. This roof is co- 

 vered firll vsrith grafs, and then with earth ; fo that the out- 

 ward appearance is like a dunghill. In the middle of the 

 roof, toward each end, is left a fquare opening, by which 

 the light is admitted; one of thefe openings being for this 

 purpofe only, and the other being alfo ufed to go in and out 

 by, with the help of a ladder, or rather a pofl, with fteps cut 

 in it *. In fome houfes there is another entrance below -, 

 but this is not common. Round the fides and ends of the 

 huts, the families (for feveral are lodged together) have their 

 feparate apartments, where they fleep, and fit at work ; not 

 upon benches, but in a kind of a concave trench, which is 

 dug all round the infide of the houfe, and covered with mats ; 

 fo that this part is kept tolerably decent. But the middle of 

 the houfe, which is common to all the families, is far other- 

 wife. For, although it be covered with dry grafs, it is a re- 

 ceptacle for dirt of every kind, and the place for the 

 urine trough -, the (Icnch of which is not mended by 



» Mr. Coxc's dcfcription ot' the habitations of the natives of Oonala/hka, and the 

 other Fox Ifiand?, in general, agrees with Captain Cook's. See Ruffian DifcoveritSy 

 p. 149. Sec Mo Hijhhe des Aiffieiiiits Pcupli-i foumh a la Dominatieti des RitJJis, par 

 M. Jx-vekjue, 'J'um. 1. p. 40,41. 



raw 



