82 The Ancient Haiuaiian House. 



A good house such as they build for the chiefs, will keep out the wind and rain, and last from 

 seven to ten years. But, in geueral, they do not last more than five years; and those which they 

 are hired to build for foreigners, not more than half that time. In less than twelve months after my 

 own grass house was built, the rain came through the roof from one end to the other, every time 

 there was a heavy shower. 



In some of the islands the natives have recently covered their houses with mud ; this, however, 

 does not appear to render them more durable. 



While idolatry existed, a number of superstitious ceremonies were performed, before they 

 could occupy their houses. Offerings were made to the gods, and presents to the priest, who entered 

 the house, uttered prayers, went through other ceremonies, and slept in it before the owner took 

 possession, in order to prevent evil spirits from resorting to it, and to secure its inmates from the 

 effects of incantation. 



When the house was finished, it was soon furnished. A sleeping mat spread on the ground, 

 and a wooden pillow, a wicker basket or two to keep their tapa or native cloth in, a few calabashes 

 for water and poi, and some wooden dishes, of various size and shape, together with a haka, were 

 all they required. This latter article was sometimes like a stand used by us for hanging hats and 

 coats on. It was often made with care, and carved, but more frequently it was a small arm of a tree, 

 with a number of branches attached to it. These were cut off within a foot of the main stem, which 

 was planted in some convenient part of the house-*^ and upon these natural pegs they used to hang 

 their calabashes, and other vessels containing food. They generally sat on the ground, and took 

 their food near the door of their house. 



The old Hawaiian was a shore-dweller that he might be near his chief animal 

 food, — the fish so abundant about the coral reefs that fringe his island home. Wherever 

 the hard black lava line retired to form a bay, or made a breakwater behind which 

 sand might collect to form a beach there a village cotild be seen. And even where the 

 lava cliffs made canoe landing difficult, as in parts of Puna, Hawaii, there, that he 

 might be in touch with the ocean, he hoisted his canoe up the cliffs by means of rude 

 davits. Today his descendants have flocked to the foreigners' town and the picturesque 

 little bays and tin}' beaches are deserted tmless they happen to be a convenient landing 

 to the nearest stigar plantation, and a few piles of stones and perhaps a clump of coconut 

 trees tell the tale of the former fishermen who made a comfortable living \)y catching 

 fish for his family, or to exchange for other needed things, and to stipply his chief. 



Near the mouth of the valleys that on every island of the group cut into the 

 mountain mass on every side the old Hawaiian planted his kalo in the ponds so in- 

 geniously supplied with water, and farther landward he had his plantations of sweet 

 potato, waoke and olona, but his chosen home was still near the sea that had borne 

 his ancestors in their long journey from Kahiki : in this new land it was still the con- 

 nedling link with the old home which it took him many generations to forget amid 

 the pleasanter circumstances of his new world. We do not find in the ancient songs 

 any glimpse of homesickness, and seldom are these songs tinged with darker shades 



'^These haka or hakakau were often pkiced outside the house on the kahua or pkitform as may be seen in 

 Plate XXVIII. Their common form is shown in Fig. 67. 



[266J 



