lo The Ancient Hawaiian House. 



Tongan Houses. — Abel Tasman, the discoverer of the Tongan Group Mhich 

 the next visitor, Cook, called Friendly Islands, gives us no description of the houses 

 on this cluster of comparatively low islands, and we must look to Cook for the needed 

 information. Now the Tongans are peculiarly situated, for while the racial affinities 

 are all with the Tahitians, their commercial dealings were chiefly with the Fijians, a 

 race usually considered a cross between the Polynesian and some darker strain, whether 

 Melanesian or Papuan. Hence it is interesting to find what we can of their dwellings. 

 We must begin with Cook. Speaking of the houses on Namuka he says:' 



Some here differ from those I saw at the other isles ; being inclosed or walled on every side 

 with reeds neatly- put together but not close. The entrance is by a square hole about two and a half 

 feet each way. The form of these houses is an oblong square ; the floor or foundation every way 

 shorter than the eve, which is about four feet from the ground. By this con.struction, the rain that 

 falls on the roof, is carried off from the wall ; which otherwise would decay and rot. 



On his third and last voyage (1784) Cook again saw the Tongan group and he 

 gives us his final impressions. Probably with his seamanship he disapproved of so 

 many bare spars in the interior of the Tongan house, although he admits they are 



judiciously arranged:'' 



It is remarkable that these people, who, in many things, shew much taste and ingenuity, 

 should shew little of either in building their houses ; though the defect is rather in the design, than 

 in the execution. Those of the lower people are poor huts, scarcely sufficient to defend them from 

 the weather, and very small. Those of the better sort are larger and more comfortable ; but not 

 what we might expect. The dimensions of one of a middling size, are about thirty feet long, twenty 

 broad, and twelve high. Their house is, properly speaking, a thatched roof or shed, supported by 

 posts and rafters, disposed in a very judicious manner. The floor is raised with earth smoothed, and 

 covered with strong, thick matting, and kept very clean. The most of them are closed on the weather 

 side (and sometimes more than two thirds round), with strong mats, or with branches of the cocoa- 

 nut tree, plaited or woven with each other. These they fix up edgewise, reaching from the eaves to 

 the ground ; and thus they answer the purpose of a wall. A thick strong mat, about two and one 

 half or three feet broad, bent into the form of a semicircle, and set upon its edge, with the ends 

 touching the side of the house, in shape resembling the fender of a fire hearth, incloses a space for 

 the master and mistress of the family to sleep in. » * * * * The rest of the family sleep upon 

 the floor, wherever they please to lie down, the unmarried men and women apart from each other. 

 Or, if the family be large, there are small huts adjoining, to which the servants retire in the night: 

 so that privacy is as much observed here, as one could expect. They have mats made on purpose 

 for sleeping on ; and the clothes that they wear in the day, serve for their covering in the night. 

 Their whole furniture consists of a bowl or two, in which they make kava; a few gourds ; cocoa-nut 

 shells ; some small wooden stools, whieh serve them for pillows ; and perhaps a large stool for the 

 Chief or Master, of the family to set upon. (P'ig. 8.) 



Cook's description is illustrated indireAly by a drawing representing the cere- 

 moniotis Awa Drinking, which is here reproduced, as it shows well the judicious ar- 

 rangement of the supporting beams of which the great navigator speaks. 



'Cook's Second Voyage. II, p. 21. 

 'Cook's Third Voyage, 1784. I, p. ,^93. 



L194J 



