96 



The Ancient Hawana?t House. 



been a later form of roof, and thence to the end of the age of grass honses on these 

 islands was the more popular one. The rainy Hilo, as it used to be, had houses of 

 this form in very early times, while in the dryer parts of the group a tight roof was 

 not so important a matter. That the whole roof leaked when neglected is shown by 

 the patchwork covering the house given in Fig. 83, from a photograph taken by my 

 friend Charles Furneaux, Esq. 



■fJVi'f'ii" 



FIG. 84. HOUSE IN PUNA, WITH LANAI. 



Turning from this distressful scene of decayed thatch, which was common 

 enough in the last da^-s of the grass age, we may set the thatchers at work to cover 

 our skeleton. The general native word for thatching was al'o whatever the material 

 used; when it was well and smoothlj^ done the term was /o/e : hence the art of thatch- 

 ing a house was called lolelau. There were other words used in different parts of the 

 group, SlS paihale, because it was walling in a house; papain because the tuft of grass 

 being tied to the alio was struck with the left hand to compress it under the cord. 



In the neatest houses there was a lining of banana stalks dried, sugar-cane 



leaves, or, where the leaf was abundant, of hala (Pandanus) leaves; but this was a 



mere appearance of neatness, for it was a capital nidus for the man}- insects that in this 



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