THE ANCIENT HAWAIIAN HOUSE. 



Hoiisclmildiug of llie old Haivaiians: n'itli a description of the arthlcs used 

 in hoiisekceping. By William T. Brigham, Sc. D. (Columbia), Director of the 

 Bernice Pan a hi Bishop Museum. 



IN pursuatice of my intention to describe, so far as known to nie, the life, manners 

 and customs of the ancient Hawaiians, I have described the feather ornaments, 

 stone implements, and mat and basket work, and now come to the dwellings of the 

 earl}' inhabitants of the Hawaiian Group: and in considering this exceeding import- 

 ant matter of aboriginal life I propose to glance briefly at the primitive habitations of 

 some of the other Polj-nesian groups and of their neighbors of the Papuan and mixed 

 races. While this course will take us from Rapanui in the East of the Pacific Ocean 

 to New Guinea in the West, I will limit my descriptions ( where thej' are not limited by 

 ni}' ignorance of the subject ) and illustrations as much as possible to the material which 

 seems in some degree to illuminate the main subject of Hawaiian housebuilding. 



To the emptv dwelling I have found it convenient to add the usual furniture 

 and utensils which are a necessary part of housekeeping, and although "pots and 

 kettles" are absent, Pol3'nesians having neither metal nor earthen Mare, we shall find 

 the better class of Hawaiians were provided with many articles of necessity, even of 

 luxur}- and elegance, although it will be seen that the common people, the viakaainai/a, 

 had little furniture for comfort, and only the merest necessities for housekeeping. 



Illustrations have been drawn from the earl}^ voj-ages and, where fashions have 

 not changed b}- the coming of white settlers, from mj- large colledliou of photographs 

 of existing dwellings from nearlv ever}- part of the Pacific that the photographer 

 has invaded. 



Primitivp: archite(R:ure may be studied in the Pacific region (where the indige- 

 nous archite6lure has always remained primitive), from the habitations of the troglo- 

 dytes, where man's hand has hardly modified the natural cavities of the rock formation, 

 through the exceeding simple bark lean-to of the Australian, the cyclopean structures 

 of the Metalanim in the Carolines, the imbedded stone cells of Rapanui, the columned 

 halls of Tinian in the Mariaues, the trilithon of Tonga, the elaborately carved whare 



Memoirs B. P. B. Museum, Vol. II, No. 3.— i. L^"5 J 



