344 FEEJEE GROUP. 
from three to four feet high, and four feet wide; the posts are set in 
the ground, and are placed about three feet apart; the rafters of the 
palm tree are set upon a plate, resting on the post; these have a very 
steep pitch, and support a cocoa-nut log, that forms the peak of the 
roof; the ends of the peak extend beyond the thatching at each end, 
and are covered with shells (Cypreea ovula). The thatching is peculiar, 
being thickest at the eaves; to make the roof they begin at the peak, 
whence they thatch down with the wild sugar-cane, under which they 
place fern-leaves. These gradually increase in quantity until they 
reach to the eaves, which are about two or three feet thick, project 
some distance over the sides, and are cut off square. 
VAN a ie 
MODE OF BUILDING HOUSES. 
The sides are closed in with small cane, in square wicker-work, and 
not in diamond-shape, as those of Tonga. Mats are hung before the 
doors. The mbures are built after the same manner, but the roofs are 
more peaked; they are generally fifteen or twenty feet square, and 
about thirty feet high, and have an exceedingly awkward appearance 
in our eyes. The common houses are oblong, from twenty to thirty 
feet in length, and fifteen feet high. Some of the best class of buildings, 
belonging to the chiefs, are exceedingly well and ingeniously built. If 
a person wishes to build a house, he carries a present of a whale’s 
tooth to the king or chief, and tells him his wish, the size, &c. The 
king or chief orders the men who are generally employed for such 
purposes, to prepare the timber, and get all things ready. The direc- 
tion of the work is given to some one as the chief superintendent, and 
from one to five hundred men are employed, as may be deemed 
necessary. The house is finished in ten or fifteen days, and will last 
about five years without repairs to its thatching. They are, however, 
generally considered as tenantable for twenty years, or upwards. All 
the houses have fire-places a little on one side of the centre; these are 
nothing more than an ash-pit, with a few large stones to build the fire 
