Houses in Fiji. 



21 



had a pretty effect. There are two doorwaj-s, oue on each side; these are oiil}- about three feet in 

 height, and are closed by hanging mats. ****** On one side of the house, as is usual 

 among the Feejeeans, the cooking place is excavated, a foot deep and about eight feet square ; this 

 was furnished with three large earthen pots of native manufacture. 



Of a nihil re ( sacred or memorial house) tliey say : 



The mound on which it is built is an artificial one, ten feet high : The mbure is about twelve 

 feet square, and its sides or walls only four feet high ; while its high pitched roof rises to the height 



FIG. 17. FIJI.VN HOUSE OF MODERN TIMES. 



of about thirty feet. The walls and roof of the mbure are constructed of canes about the size of a 

 finger, and each oue is wound round with sennit as thick as a cod line, made from the cocoa-nut 

 husk. At a little distance, the whole house looked as though it was built of braided cord. 



Again, on page 343, this general description is given: 



Their houses differ from those of the other groups, although they are constructed of similar 

 materials. The frame and sills are made of the cocoa-nut and tree fern , the)' have two doorways, 

 on opposite sides, from three to four feet high, and four feet wide ; the posts are set in the ground 

 and are placed about three feet apart ; the rafters of the palm tree are set upon a plate resting on the 

 post ; these have a very steep pitch, and support a cocoa-nut log, that forms the peak of the roof; the 

 ends of the peak extend beyond the thatching at each end, and are covered with shells {Ovulutn 

 ovum). The thatching is peculiar being thickest at the eaves. To make the roof they begin at the 



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