34 



The Ancient Hawaiian House. 



I must refer those who wish to go more fully into the detail of the Maori house, as 

 Mr. Hamilton's work is doubtless accessible in all good libraries. I shall, however, 

 quote from Mr. Hamilton's work where there is need to explain or modify the account, 

 much more brief, given by Rev. Richard Taylor"' which I have decided to quote in full : 



The European traveller who crawls into a native hut for the first time, will see nothing par- 

 ticularly interesting in it ; he will perhaps, only view it as a dark smoky hovel ; but when he be- 



FIG. 26. ENTRANCE OF A MODERN CARVED HOUSE. 



comes acquainted with native customs, and observes the order and arrangement displayed, the careful 

 way it is constructed, and how perfectly the object aimed at is attained, he will not withhold its 

 meed of praise. 



The principal houses are called ivhare puni, or warm houses ; this name maj' be given either 

 from the number of persons generally residing in them, or from their being so built as to exclude the 

 external air; they are usually sunk one or two feet in the earth, and nearly always front the sun ; 

 the sides of one are seldom more than four feet high, being formed of large broad slabs of totara 

 {Podocarpus totara), the most durable timber, having a small circular groove or opening cut into the 

 top to receive the rafters ; these slabs are either adzed, and painted with red ochre, or, if it be a very 

 superior house, each one is grotesquely carved to represent some ancestor of the family, in which 

 case they become a kind of substititute for the nobleman's ancestral picture gallery; between these 

 posts there is generally a space cf two feet, which is filled up with a kind of lattice-work, composed 



^'Te Ika a Maui ; or New Zealand and Its Inhabitants. Second edition. London, 1870, p. 500. 



[218] 



