90 



TJie Ancient Haivaiian House. 



in the supporting posts with a wall. This change would make the complete house of 



which all later ones are modifications. One of the most perfect forms of this t3'pical 



house is shown in Fig. 72, a house built by Kauikeaoule (Kamehameha III) for his 



sister Nahienaena. The windows are of course foreign 



additions,''^ but the porch in front was quite in accordance 



with native stj-le. Other forms of grass houses we shall 



notice later, but if we have shown that the skeleton in all 



is essentially the same, growing to its full development 



b\- degrees, we are ready to return to our material and 



watch the old natives, clad solelv in the ninlo^ put together 



the frame. It is always a fascinating sight to see a house 



take shape, and not less so when the active agents are 



animated bronze statues. 



Tlie best houses were built on a kalina or platform 

 of stone, usually- rounded stone laid dry, but we see in 

 Fig. 65 that the houses of Kalaimoku, the famous prime 

 minister of Liholiho (Kamehameha II), were without 

 this desirable foundation. The two corner posts of the 

 front were first planted whether in the stone kahua or in 

 the ground, and they were fashioned, as Ellis tells us, 

 smoothly for the chiefs and left even with the bark on 

 for the meaner houses, and the top was cut as shown in 

 Fig- 73- Most of the old posts I have examined were 

 not stiic^lv smooth but bore the marks of the stone adze as 

 maj' be seen in the illustration. The large post shown in 

 Figs. 74-75 was as smooth as if water-worn. A deep groove 

 was cut to receive the lolielan or plate: the inside lip of 

 this groove was cut flat and shorter than the outer one, 

 which was fashioned into a point to engage the fork of the 

 rafter which rested on the plate which in turn rested on 

 the flat back of the post. A chin {amuae^ is cut below 



^ ' FIG. 73. THE rOU OF A HOUSE. 



the front peak {ule'*'') to hold the lashing as shown in 



Fig. 73. In one case, however, advantage was taken of a projection to cut holes through 



*'This house was leased to, and inhalnted by, Hon. Gorliam D. Gilnian of Boston from 1851 to 1S61, while he 

 was a merchant in Lahaina, Maui, the ancient capital of the group, and to hiui I am indebted for the interesting 

 view of this fine house. 



"'It was quite in accordance with the spirit of the Hawaiian language to use such terms: ule:=penis, kohe^ 

 vagina : but in Englisli we use the terms male and female screw. 



[274] 



