POLVNESfAN RESEARCHES. 
385 
wood is remarkably light, its growth is rapid, and though 
the old parts of the tree are exceedingly tough, the 
young branches or poles, used for rafters and other pur¬ 
poses, are soft and brittle, resembling the texture and 
strength of branches of the English willow. The foot 
of the rafter is partially sharpened, and about eighteen 
inches from the end a deep notch is cut, which receives 
the bevelled edge of the ra-pe^ or wall-plate, while the 
upper extremity rests upon the ridge. The rafters are 
generally ranged along on one side, thi’ee feet apart, with 
parallel rafters on the opposite side, which cross each 
other at the top of the ridge, where they are firmly tied 
together with cinet, or the strong fibres of the ieie, a 
remarkably tough mountain plant. A pole is then fixed 
along, above the junction of the opposite rafters, and the 
whole tied down to pegs fastened in the piece of timber 
forming the ridge. The large wood used in building 
is of a fine yellow colour, the rafters are beautifully 
white; and as the house is often left some days in frame, 
its appearance is at once novel and agreeable. 
The buildings are thatched with rcm far (the leaves 
of the pandanus,) which are prepared with great care. 
When first gathered from the trees, they are soaked 
three or four days in the sea, or a stream of water. 
The sound leaves are then selected, and each leaf, after 
having been stretched singly on a stiff stick fixed in 
the ground, is coiled up with the concave side outwards. 
In this state they remain till they are perfectly flat, 
when each leaf is doubled about one-third of the way 
from the stalk, over a strong reed or cane six feet 
long, and the folded leaf laced together with the stiff 
stalks of the cocoa-nut leaflets. The thatch, thus pre¬ 
pared, is taken to the building, and a number of lines 
3 D 
