14 



The Ancient Haivaiian House. 



worthy authority on Samoan houses as ou other matters relating to that group half a 

 centur}' ago when the change from ancient to modern was not so perceptible. The 

 Rev. Geo. Turner has recorded" for us the following account of the Samoan houses: 



Imagine a gigantic beehive, thirtj' feet in diameter, a hundred in circumference, and raised from 

 the ground about four feet by a number of short posts, at intervals of four feet from each other all 

 round, and you have a good idea of the appearance of a Samoan house. '= The spaces between these 

 posts, which may be called open doors or windows, all round the house, are shut in at night [or dur- 

 ing stormy weather] by roughly plaited cocoa-nut leaf blinds. During the day the blinds are pulled 



KIG. ID. SAMOAN HOUSK. 



up, and all the interior exposed to a free current of air. The floor is raised six or eight inches with 

 rough stones ; then an upper layer of smooth pebbles : then some cocoa-nut-leaf mats, and then a layer 

 of finer matting. Houses of important chiefs are erected on a raised platform of stone three feet 

 high. In the centre of the house there are two, and sometimes three, posts or pillars, twenty feet 

 long, sunk three feet into the ground, and extending to and supporting the ridge pole. These are 

 the main props of the building. The space betweeu the rafters is filled with what they call ribs. 

 viz., the wood of the bread-fruit tree, split up into small pieces, and joined together so as to form a 

 long rod the thickness of the finger, running from the ridge pole down to the eaves. All are kept in 

 their places, an inch and a half apart, by cross pieces, made fast with cinnet. The whole of this upper 

 cagelike work looks compact and tidy, and at the first glance is admired by strangers as being alike 

 novel, ingenious and neat. The wood of the bread-fruit tree, of which the greater part of the best 

 houses are built, is durable, and, if preserved from wet, will last fifty years. 



" Nineteen Years in Polynesia : Missionary Life, Travels, and Researches in the Islands of the Pacific. Lon- 

 don, 1861, p. 256. 



'-It should be noted that the ground plan is elliptical, not circular, as might be inferred from this description. 



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