THE HAWAIIAN PP^OPLE. 59 



\vork. This done the thatch was added and a rude sliding door made and fitted 

 in place. The outside was trimmed, and over all a large net placed to hold the 

 grass in shape while it dried. Pili grass, lauhala leaves, sugar-cane and ki 

 leaves were used as a thatch according to circumstances. When completed a 

 group of Hawaiian hoiises resembled nothing as much, in general appearance, 

 as a numlier of neat hay stacks. 



While as a general rule each man was expected to be able to perform all 

 the various forms of labor necessary to the building of a house, making a canoe 

 or carving his dishes, there were those who by choice did certain things in ex- 

 change for the work of others. That is to say, should a chief order a house built, 

 certain men would cut the timbers, others gather the pili grass, others hue the 

 timbers, while still others made the binding cords or prepared the holes for the 

 corner posts. The thatchers would then perform their work, so that by piece 

 work, all working together, a house could be completed in two or three days. 

 If well made it would last a dozen years, — when it would require re-thatching 



House Furnishings. 



The furnishings and utensils in even the best houses were meager in the 

 extreme. The raised portion of the floor, covered with mats that formed the 

 beds by night and lounge by day, and the space on the stones in the center of 

 the floor, that served as a fireplace when required during rainy weather, were 

 the most noticeable evidences of comfort. The braided mats and ornamented 

 tapas were the most conspicuous among their possessions, but the bowls and 

 dishes for the serving and storage of food were, perhaps, the most important 

 household necessities. These few objects formed characteristic features of the 

 Hawaiian home. The most valuable of their household utensils, without doubt, 

 was the calabash. It was fashioned from wood or made from the shell of 

 the gourd, for though clay was known to the Hawaiian people they made no use 

 of it and knew nothing whatever of the potter's art. 



In the carving of these wooden bowls or uniekes they exhibited much skill, 

 using only the simple stone implements of their cultui'e and such primitive 

 devices as they knew in fashioning them. Some wonderful bowls were pro- 

 duced from the woods of the native kou, kamani and the koa trees. After the 

 log had been soaked for a long period it was roughly shaped without and was 

 hollowed out within by hacking and burning until the desired form was secured. 

 By this method the wooden sides were reduced to a fraction of an inch in thick- 

 ness. The receptacle was then smoothed by rubbing first with coral, then rough 

 lava, and lastly with pumice. The real polishing was done by rubbing with 

 charcoal, bamboo leaves and at last with breadfruit leaves and tapa. Often a 

 lid, made and polished in the same way, was added, and usually a koko or net 

 of convenient form for carrying or handling them was pro\aded. It may be 

 truthfully said that the splendid vessels made in this way, some of them thirty 

 inches in diameter, were among the most remarkable ob.jects wrought by the 

 ancient Hawaiians. 



