24 



TIic Ancient Hawaiian House. 



while iu a fourth these ricks are conical. By one tribe just enough framework is built to receive the 

 covering for the walls and roofs, the inside of the house being an open space. Another tribe intro- 

 duces long centre posts, posts half as long to receive the wall-plates, and others still shorter, as quar- 

 terings to strengthen the walls; to these are added tie-beams, to resist the outward pressure of the 

 high-pitched rafters, and along the side is a substantial galler}-, on which property is stored. The 

 walls or fences of a house are from four to ten feet high ; and, in some cases, are hidden on the out- 

 side b}- the thatch being extended to the ground, so as to make the transverse section of the building 

 an equilateral triangle. [3, Fig. 19.] The walls range in thickness from a single reed to three feet. 

 Those at Lau (windward) have the advantage in appearance ; those at Ra (leeward) are the warm- 

 est. At Lau the walls of Chief's houses are three reeds thick, the outer and inner rows of reeds 

 being arranged perpendicularl)-, and the middle horizontally, so as to regulate the neat siunet-work 



FIG. 20. SINNET WORK ON WALLS, FIJI. 



with which they are ornamented. At Ra, a covering of grass or leaves is used, and the fastenings 

 are vines cut from the woods ; but at Lau sinnet is used for this purpose, and patterns wrought with 

 it upon the reeds in several different colours. A man, master of difficult patterns, is highly valued, 

 and his work certainly produces a beautiful and often artistic effect."* Sometimes the reeds within 

 the grass walls^are reticulated skilfully with black lines. The door-posts are so finished as to 

 become literally reeded pillars; but some use the naturally carved stem of the palm-fern instead. 

 Fire-places are sunk a foot below the floor, nearly in the centre of the building, and are surrounded 

 b}' a curb of hard wood. In a large house, the hearth is twelve feet square, and over it is a frame 

 supporting one or two floors, whereon pots and fuel are placed, [i. Fig. 19.] Sometimes an eleva- 

 tion at one end of the dwelling ser\'es as a divan and sleeping place. 



Slight houses are run up in a short time. When at Lakemba, I passed a number of men who 

 had just planted the posts of a house twenty feet long. I was away, engaged with a Tougan Chief, 

 for about an hour and a half, and on my return was amazed to see the house finished, except the 

 completing of the ridge. An ordinary house can be built in a fortnight; the largest require two or 

 three months. A visitor, .speaking of Tauoa's"^ house, says, "It surpasses in magnitude and grand- 

 eur anything I have seen in these seas. It is one hundred and thirty feet long, forty-two feet wide, 



"This work should be compared with the similar work of the Maori shown below. 



"A remarkable Chief of Mbau, father of Thakombau the cannibal king of Mbau and later of all Fiji, who was 

 converted to Christianity largely by the counsel and example of George Toubou, King of Tonga. 



[208] 



