Houses of Solomon Islanders. 



67 



is removed 2J3 to 3 feet above the ground, so that one has literall)- to dive into the interior, which 

 from the absence of any other openings, is kept very dark. vSuch are the dimensions and mode of 

 structure of an ordinary dwelling house in the eastern islands. The chiefs, however, have larger 

 buildings, which in some instances * * * rival in size and in style the tambu-houses themselves. 

 Many houses have a staging in front, which is on a level with the lower edge of the aperture that 

 serves as the entrance. On this staging, protected by the projecting roof, the inmates are wont to 

 sit and lie about during the day; and the men occasionally pass the night there. In the houses of the 

 chiefs and principal men, there are generally spaces partitioned off for sleeping and containing a raised 



FIG. 61. SOLOMON ISLANDS HOUSE. 



stage for the mats ; but in the dwelling-house of an ordinary man no such partitions usually occur. 

 Single men sleep on the ground on a mat, which may be nothing more than the leaves of two branches 

 of the cocoa-nut palm rudely plaited together. Each man lays his mat by the side of a little smoul- 

 dering wood-fire, which he endeavors to keep up during the night, and for this purpose he gets up 

 at all hours to fan it into a flame. 



Of furniture there is but little except the large cooking-bowls, the mats, and a circle of cook- 

 ing stones forming a rude hearth in the centre of the floor. I have seen in temporary sheds or 

 "lean-tos", erected by fishing parties on the southern island of the "Three Sisters", fire-places 

 formed of a circle two or three feet across of medium sized Tridacna shells, the enclosed space being 

 strewn with small stones. 



* * I am not aware how long a native house will last. The white residents, however, tell 

 me that houses built for their own use, which are more substantial than the ordinary native dwel- 

 lings, will stand some five or six years ; and tlmt, notwithstanding the heavy rainfall of this region, 

 the thatch remains admirably waterproof. 



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