The Maori House. 



31 



also lined with the bark of trees, so that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat . 

 The roof is sloping, like those of our barus, and the door is at one end, just high enough to admit a 

 man, creeping upon his hands and knees : near the door is a square hole, which serves the double 

 offire of window and chimney, for the fire-place is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two 

 sides : in some conspicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, covered with carvin g 

 after their manner; this they value as we do a picture, and in their estimation it is not an inferior 

 ornament ; the side walls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls at each end, so as to form 

 a kind of porch, in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the 

 f^jor which was allotted for the fire-place, is enclosed in a hollow square, by partitions either of wood 



VIG. 23. MAOKI HOUSE. 



or Stone, and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor along the inside of the walls, is thickly 

 covered with straw and upon this the family sleep. Some of the better sort, whose families are 

 large, have three or four houses enclosed within a court yard, the walls of which are constructed of 

 poles and hay and are about ten or twelve feet high. 



When we were on shore in the district called Tolaga, we saw the ruins, or rather the frame 

 of a house, for it had never been finished, much superior in size to any that we saw elsewhere ; it was. 

 thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, and twelve high ; the sides of it were adorned with 

 many carved planks, of a workmanship much superior to any other that we had met with in the 

 country ; but for what purpose it was built, or why it was deserted, we could never learn. 



Thi.s carved liotise, we sliall see presently, was one of the buildings that make 

 the IMaori architeAure noteworthy, but in the meantime we may note what Cook him- 

 self sa3'S in his Journal (p. 223) which has only recently (in 1893) been published 

 exactly as the great navigator wrote it : 



[215] 



