46 



The Ancient Hawaiian House. 



The apartment above was rather a loft or garret, which was high and contained apparently all the 

 valuables and goods of the occupant. The floor was made of small pieces of paudauus boards laid 

 on slender beams of cocoanut wood. * * * * The lower apartment is used for sleeping, while 

 the upper entirely for storing their goods and chattels. The wall-plates rest on four beams of cocoa- 

 nut wood, which are supported by four posts at each corner. These posts are round and perfectly 

 smooth so that the rats can- 

 not climb them. The rafters 

 and cross-pieces are mere 

 poles only an inch or two 

 thick ; the thatch is of pan- 

 dauus-leaf doubled over a 

 slender stick and tied down 

 with sennit, (p. 56.) 



Here we have the first 

 attic in the Pacific archi- 

 tedliire; indeed the first 

 suggestion of a second 

 story. The upper beams 

 used as shelves for vari- 

 ous articles, in the 

 Samoan, Tongan and 

 Marquesan houses have 

 now developed into a gar- 

 ret. From the island of 

 Maiana we have in the 

 Bishop Museum a care- 

 fully constru(5led model 

 of a house (see Fig. 40) 

 given by the Reverend 

 William Lono, formerly 

 a missionary of the Ha- 

 waiian Board to the Gilbert Islands, now the pastor of the Kaitmakapili Church in 

 Honolulu. In this we have a still farther developement. Like the houses of Tape- 

 teuea it is supported on four smooth corner posts, probably for the same reason, but 

 the first floor contains a room of ample height, with an opening in the floor of such 

 extent as to place the remaining floor in the class of gallery. The entrance is through 

 this aperture by a rude ladder,^" which is removable, and there is no opening on the 

 sides of the house on this story. The height of the first floor above the ground is quite 

 sufficient to keep pigs and other intruding animals out. The floor aperture admits light, 



^°Rev. Hiram Bingham D.D., who was for years a missionary in the Gilbert Islands, assures me that they 

 seldom ured ladders to get into the comparatively low floor. 



[230] 



FIG. 40. MODEI, OF A MAIANA HOUSE. 



