VISIT TO THE COURT OF THE HOVAS. 135 
slant of the roof being quite fifty feet. It is one 
hundred feet long and about sixty-five feet broad, 
and is in three tiers or stories. This enormous 
house was built by fanampoana , or enforced gra¬ 
tuitous service, and many lives were lost in the 
operations necessary to bring the huge timbers of 
which it is composed from the distant forests, 
and up the hillsides to the site. The ground 
floor is divided into two immense rooms. The 
ceilings and walls are painted and adorned with 
curious designs of a Moorish or Persian pattern, 
and the lower parts of the walls are covered with 
gaudy wall-papers of French manufacture, repre¬ 
senting hunting and battle scenes. The floors 
are beautifully inlaid with varieties of the hard 
woods of the island, and the only furniture is the 
Queen’s throne, a small table for the crown royal, 
and side-tables bearing silver vases of native 
workmanship. There is a garden behind the 
building for the private use of members of the 
royal family. At the south-east of the great 
court is the Trano Vdla or “ silver house,” so 
called from the fact of silver nails only being 
used in parts of the fabric. This building is also 
of great size, but is dwarfed by its gigantic 
neighbour to the west. It is in this palace that 
audiences are granted by the prime minister 
upon matters of state, and it was here that we 
had a conversation with his Excellency upon the 
