Williams on Fijian Housebuilding . 



23 



ability, but ia matters of etlmolog}' very little that was precise was obtainable, or at 

 least obtained, by the explorers of those times. It seems very unfortunate that when 

 old customs and people still existed, there were no trained ethnologists, and when the 

 advance of scientific methods has put many ardent explorers in the wa}^, both people 

 and customs have almost vanished from the earth. My honored friend Dr. Charles 

 Pickering, who was the ethnologist of the expedition, did what he could in the "Races 

 of Man", but anthropological measurements were not thought of, or at least wanting, 

 and generalization took the place of the prying questions and minute observations of 

 the present day. Anthropologists today know more about an individual negro than 

 was known in 1840 about the whole Fijiau race, — naj-, than was known of all the peo- 

 ples of the vast Pacific Ocean. 



FIG. 19. SECTIONS OF FIJIAN HOUSES. 



Until modern methods and instruments shall be employed in an exploration of 



the islands of the Great Ocean we must be content with the brief, imperfect sketches 



the old vo^'agers have given us, illumined here and there b}- the gleams thrown on 



these dark places by some missionary, who understanding his own needs studies the 



people he goes among with the benevolent purpose of saving such souls as they may 



have from eternal destrudlion, and by these studies saves many a chapter from the 



story of their lives which would otherwise have been lost more certaiul3^ To such 



workers in the vinej'ard of the Lord every true scientist gives heart}' acclamation, 



whatever he maj- think of their theological beliefs or teachings. One of the excellent 



missionaries, the Reverend Thomas Williams, has given in his very interesting and 



instru6live book on this group, where he worked many j'ears, the following account of 



housebuilding there:"' — 



The form of the houses iu Fiji is so varied, that a description of a building in one of the wind- 

 ward islands would give a very imperfect idea of those to leeward, those of the former being much 

 the better. In one district a village looks like an assemblage of square wicker baskets ; in another, 

 like so many rustic arbours ; a third seems a collection of oblong hayricks with holes iu the sides, 



'" Fiji aud the Fijians, 2 vols. London, 1858. I, 



P- 79- 

 [207J 



