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The Ancient Hawaiian House. 



these may be more fully described in the chapter on Hawaiian methods of disposing 

 of the dead.'' 



The earh' houses, confining that word to superterrene stru<5lures, were doubtless 

 rude tabernacles of branches inhale kavia/a) that reappear in the temporary struflures 

 of camping parties of the present day in the Hawaiian wilds. Unluckily palm leaves 

 were not abundanf° as in the East Indies and the Western Pacific, and most other 

 leaves in drying cease to shelter. Native banana served as temporar}^ shingles and 

 the tough leaves of the ki ( Cordyline terminalis) when properly applied were some- 

 what more durable. It is not difficult to imagine these poor d-wellings of the early 

 inhabitants, although neither record nor pidfure remains, but the house into which 

 they developed in the increasing leisure and desire for comfort, we have more knowl- 

 edge of, and will attempt to describe, although in the advance of foreign invasion even 

 these have nearly passed, and the few that remain are looked upon as curiosities. Forty 

 years ago Honolulu was well dotted with these thatched houses, as has already been 

 mentioned, but when we look to the onl}^ native annalist, whose work dates some thirty 

 years farther back, we shall perhaps be surprised at the little he knows about Hawaiian 

 house building, or at least deems worth}' of mention. There have been made several 

 translations of the Chronicle of David Malo,'*' but it is best to give here the original 

 with a literal translation of his description of the house: — 



MoKUNA XXXIII. — No NA Hale, me na 



MEA AI me KA HOOMANA. 



1 . O ka hale kekahi mea nui e pono ai ko 

 ke kanaka noho ana ma keia ola ana a me ka 

 wahine, me na keiki, me na makamaka, me na 

 mea e ae e hookipa ai. 



2. He mea maikai ka hale, he mehaua, he 

 mea pale aku i ka ua, a me ke anu, a me ka la, 

 a me ka wela. Ua noho nui no uae kehahi poe 

 lapuwale ma na hale pono ole me ka manao he 

 hale pono ia. 



3. O ke ana ka hale o kekahi poe, o ka lua 

 ko kahi poe, o ka loupali ko kahi poe, he puha 

 laau ko kahi poe, he hale kamala ko kahi poe. 



Chapter XXXIII. — Concerning Houses, 



THEIR FURNISHING AND DEDICATION. 



1. The house was an important and good 

 thing for a man's residence and health with his 

 wife and children, his friends and those who en- 

 joyed his hospitalitj'. 



2. A good thing was the house for warmth 

 and a shelter from rain and cold, daylight and 

 heat. Man}' were the foolish people who lived 

 in wretched houses but thought them good 

 enough. 



3. A cave was the house of some folk, a pit 

 of others, a sheltering cliff, a hollow tree of some, 

 of others a shanty. Some attached themselves 



"A plan of such a cave has, however, been given on page 166 of the present volume in illustration of the 

 hiding place of a choice lot of old Hawaiian carvings. 



'"There were only three species of palm, the Coconut, brought probably by the early immigrants and never 

 very abundant, and two species of the Loulu {Pritchatdia gaudichaudii and P. tiiartii), the latter fan palms and not 

 so suited for constructive purposes as the pinnate fronds of the coconut. It has been suggested that the coconuts 

 might have drifted here, but the currents that bring pine logs from the northwest coast of America surely would 

 not bring coconuts. 



■"The latest, by Dr. N. B. Emerson, was printed by the Trustees of this Museum in 1903. 



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