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SAMOA : NAVIGATORS ISLANDS 



These pillars support the ridge-pole of the building, and are 

 made from the trunk of the bread-fruit tree. 



Their great circular roofs are so constructed that they can be 

 lifted bodily from the supports and removed anywhere. No 

 metal of any sort is used in the construction of these houses, 

 all fastenings being made with a thin cord plaited from a 

 cocoanut fiber. The arrangement of the houses has no regard 

 to order, each man putting his house on his little plot of ground 

 according to his fancy. Due regard, however, is paid to the shade 



SA3I0AN NATIVE HOUSE 



of neighboring trees, the direction of prevailing winds, height of 

 ground, etc. A house contains but a single room, and this 

 apartment is by turns the common sitting-room, dining-room, 

 and bed-room. Four or five mats make the bed, while the 

 pillow is a piece of bamboo three or four inches in diameter, 

 three or four feet long, and raised from the ground on short legs. 

 The fireplace is a circular hole several feet in diameter by six 

 or eight inches deep, and the fuel commonly employed is dried 

 cocoanut shells, which give neither smell nor smoke. Cooking, 



