68 



The Ancient Haivaiian House. 



* * In the villages of Treasury and the Shortlands, the houses are arranged in a long 

 straggling row; and although close to the beach they are for the most part concealed by the trees 

 from the view of those on board the ships in the anchorage. In the materials used, in their style, 

 and in their general size, thsse houses resemble those of St. Christoval and the adjacent smaller 

 islands. A thatch made of the leaves of the sago-palm or of the pandanus, covers the gable-roof and 

 the framework of the walls. The usual dimensions of a dwelling-house are : length 25 to 30 feet, 

 breadth 12 to 15 feet, height 10 to 12 feet. * * The residence of Mule, the Treasury chief, was one 

 of the largest native edifices that I saw in the Solomon group. It is a gable-roofed building, meas- 

 uring about 80 feet in length, 50 feet in breadth, and 25 to 30 feet in height. The front of the house 

 which is at one of the ends of the building, has a singular appearance from the central part or body 



FIG. hi. 



PILE DWELLINGS IN FAURO ISLAND. 



of the building, being advanced several feet beyond the sides, a style which is imitated in .some of the 

 smaller houses of the village. Its interior is very imperfectly lighted by small apertures in the walls. * * 

 In the two principal villages of Faro, or Fauro, which are named Toma and Sinasoro, a num- 

 ber of the houses are built on piles and raised from 5 to 8 feet above the ground, as shown in the 

 accompanjing plate [Fig. 62]. But this custom is by no means universal in the same village, and 

 depends, as far as I could learn, on the personal fancy of the owner. Both these villages are situated 

 on low level tracts bordering the sea ; but their sites are free from moist and swampy ground, to the 

 existence of which one might have attributed this practice. The houses built on the ground are 

 about 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 12 or 13 feet high ; whilst those raised on piles are considerably 

 smaller, measuring 22 by 15 feet in length and breadth, the building itself being supported on a 

 framework of stout poles lashed on the tops of the piles by broad strips of rattan. These pile dwell- 

 ings are reached by rudely constructed steps made after the style of our own ladders. The roofs of 

 the houses ia these villages have a higher pitch than I have observed in houses of the other islands 

 of the Straits. Their eaves project considerably beyond the walls and the roof is often prolonged at 



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