Linton — Tlic Marquesas Islands 279 



tudinal poles, usually single bamboos, which ran the full length of the inside of 

 the roof. The two outermost poles were placed eight inches to a foot above 

 the stringer and below the ridgepole; the third pole was placed midway between 

 them. They were attached to all the rafters by lashings of sennit or bark string. 

 Both the front and rear roofs projected six inches to a foot beyond the end walls. 



One house in Hiva Oa (PI. xl. C) had a narrow porch supported by an 

 additional row of posts, topped by a stringer. These posts were planted in the 

 paepae about two feet in front of the house wall. The rafters of this porch were 

 inclined at a lower angle than those of the roof. This feature was not observed 

 elsewhere and was probably due to European influence. 



The rear roof extended from the ridgepole to the ground. It was usually 

 supported by eight main rafters, but these were not hewn so far as observed. 

 They were simply peeled hibiscus poles of slightly larger diameter than those used 

 for the remainder of the roof. In some houses all the rafters of the rear roof 

 were identical in size and material. Between the main rafters were smaller poles 

 placed two or three inches apart; at the peak they crossed the similar poles of the 

 front roof forming a crotch. These smaller poles were secured in position on the 

 rear roof by three cross poles of bamboo, the highest being opposite the top 

 crosspiece of the front roof, the lowest about eighteen inches above the floor, and 

 the third midway between them. All the rafters were lashed to these cross poles. 



All the early descriptions of Marquesan houses mention the rear roof as per- 

 pendicular or descending at a very steep angle, and the old pictures show this fea- 

 ture, also a front roof inclined at less than forty- five degrees. Actual measure- 

 ments prove that the old authors have exaggerated both these features. The 

 pitch of the rear roofs ranges from eighty degrees in some of the houses of Nuku 

 Hiva to as low as sixty-five degrees in an old dwelling on Hiva Oa. The pitch of 

 the front roof seems to have been rarely, if ever, less than fifty degrees, with 

 about sixty-five degrees as normal. In one old house in the valley of Hana Hehe, 

 Hiva Oa, the pitch of the front and rear roofs is about sixty-five degrees for each. 



The roofs of all Marquesan houses were thatched, and a variety of material 

 was employed. In recent buildings coconut mats appear to be the most common, 

 but two or even three sorts of thatch were not infrequently used on the same 

 structure. The thatching mats, which were eight to twelve feet long and one foot 

 to eighteen inches wide, were made by splitting a coconvit frond down the midrib and 

 interweaving the leaflets of either half to form a long narrow mat of checker- 

 work pattern. Mats of this sort are still in common use in most parts of Poly- 

 nesia. The mats were placed on the roof either singly or in pairs, with the mid- 

 rib edge up and were tied to every third or fourth rafter with loops or sennit 

 or sewed on with bark string. A large wooden needle was used for sewing. The 



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