Ellis' Account. 79 



nui no kela hana no keia hana a ke kane, a for work by men and others for work by women, 



no kela hana keia hana a ka wahine; he halau also a canoe house, a high house and a house in 



kekahi hale, he aleo kekahi hale, he amana form of a cross, 

 kekahi hale. 



19. Pela ka noho ana o ka poe kuonoono a 19. Such a way of living among the wealthy 



pau, oia ka pono a ka poe kahiko o Hawaii nei seemed good to the ancient Hawaiians and they 



i manao he ponoia i ko lakou mauao ana. deemed it respectable. 



I greatly dislike to interrupt the quaint old annalist, but this is all he has to 

 tell us about the hotise itself, and we can return to his story and carry it to the end 

 of the chapter when we come to the interior of the finished hotise; at present we must 

 see what that fine old missionary the Rev. William Ellis wrote aboitt the Hawaiian 

 building as he saw it in his tour around the island of Hawaii at the very beginning 

 of the American missionary efforts on this group/^ 



The houses of the natives whom he had visited today, like most in this part of the island [Hilo 

 district], where the pandanus is abundant, were covered with the leaves of this plant, which, though 

 it requires more labour in thatching, makes the most durable dwellings. The inhabitants of Waia- 

 kea are peculiarly favoured in having woods producing timber, such as they use for building, within 

 three or four miles of their settlement, while the natives in most parts of the islands have to fetch it 

 from a much greater distance. In neatness and elegance of appearance their houses are not equal to 

 those of the Society Islanders, even before they were instructed by Europeans, but in point of strength 

 and durability they sometimes exceed them. There is also less variety in the form of the Sandwich 

 Island dwellings, which are chiefly of two kinds, viz., the hale noho (dwelling house) , or halau (a long 

 building) nearly open at one end, and, though thatched with different materials, they are all framed 

 in nearly the same way. 



They begin to build a house by planting in the ground a number of posts, six or eight inches 

 in diameter, in a row, about three or four feet apart, which are to support one side of the house. When 

 these are fixed in a straight line, they erect a parallel row, to form the opposite side. In the small 

 houses these posts are not more than three or four feet high, while in the larger ones they are twelve 

 or fourteen feet in height, and proportionally stout. Those used in the chief's houses are round, 

 straight, and smooth, being prepared with great care, but in general they are fixed in the ground 

 without even having the bark stripped off. Grooves are cut in the top of the posts, along which 

 small poles are laid horizontally, instead of wall-plates, and tied to the posts with the fibrous roots 

 of the ie, a tough mountain plant. A high post, notched at the top, is next fixed in the middle at 

 each end, and supports the ridge-pole on which the tops of the rafters rest, while, at the lower end, 

 they are fixed on the wall-plate, each rafter being placed exactly above the post which supports the 

 horizontal pole, or wall-plate. When the rafters are fixed, small poles are laid along, where they 

 cross each other above the ridge-pole ; sometimes poles are fastened across like tie-beams, about 

 half way up the roof, and the separate parts of the whole frame are tied together with strong cinet, 

 made of the roots of the ie plant, or fibres of the cocoa-nut husk. The space between the posts at 

 the sides and ends is now closed up with sticks, larger than a common-sized walking-stick, which 

 are tied with cinet in horizontal lines, two or three inches apart, on the outside of the posts, and 

 extending from the ground to the top of the roof. A large house, in this stage of its erection, has a 

 singular appearance. [See Plate XXVII.] 



■■- Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii, or Owhyhee ; with observations on the Natural Historj- of the Sandwich 

 Islands, and remarks on the Manners, Customs, Traditions, History, and Language of their Inhabitants. By William 

 Ellis, Missionary from the Society and Sandwich Islands. (Second edition.) London, 1827. P. 313. 



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