52 



The Ancient Hawaiian Honse. 



of photographs, of which there are many more at hand than there are memoranda of 

 material or adlual nses of the pictured dwellings, for almost all explorers of the present 

 time go provided with cameras, and bring back good or at least interesting results, 

 some of which I am still to present here. I will be as brief as possible, for I am 

 impatient to come to my chief subject, the housebuilding of the old Hawaiians, and 



FIG. 45. A VII^LAGE STREET IX NEW GUINEA. 



I have not the privilege of turning over the pages until I come to desired matter, as 

 my readers have. 



First the pile dwellings : many have been the discussions as to the why of this 

 very ancient method of establishing one's house, but it is fair to suppose that not one 

 rule applied to all the races in widely separated parts of the earth, and whether it was 

 prote<?lion from enemies, human or animal, or the more insidious but not less deadly 

 forces arising from a marshy country, or merely convenience for a boating and fishing 

 race, and for the scavenging needs of humanity, we care not now; we have merely to 

 recount the fact and manner of these Pacific pile dwellings (which, as we shall see, are 



not confined to damp or watery regions). 



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