POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
67 
slept at one end of the house, without the least partition 
between them and the other inmates of their dwelling. 
Instead of a single mat, three or four, or even ten, were 
sometimes spread one upon the other, to give elevation 
and softness ; and this, with the finer texture of the 
mats, was the only difference between the bed of the 
chief, and that on which the meanest of his dependents 
slept. Instead of being spread on the floor, the mats 
were sometimes spread on a low bedstead, raised nine 
or twelve inches above the floor. The sides and bottom 
of this bedstead were made with the boards of the bread¬ 
fruit-tree. Next to the chief, the members of his own 
family spread their mats on the floor, and then the 
friends and attendants—the females nearest the chief, 
the men towards the opposite end of the building. 
I have sometimes entered the large houses in Huahine, 
soon after our arrival there, and have seen, I think, forty, 
fifty, or sixty sleeping places of this kind, in one house, 
consisting of a mat spread on the ground, a wooden 
pillow or bolster, in the shape of a low stool, next the 
side or wall; and a large thick piece of cloth, like a 
counterpane or shawl, which thej^ call aku taoto, sleep¬ 
ing-cloth, and which is their only covering, lying in the 
middle of each mat. There was no division or skreen 
between the sleeping places, but the whole ranged along 
in parallel lines from one end of the house to the other. 
What the state of morals must necessarily be among 
such a community, it is unnecessary to shew | yet such 
were the modes of life that prevailed among many, even 
after they had renounced idolatry. Such we found 
society in Huahine, and such our friends in Raiatea 
found it there. One of the reasons which they gave 
why so manyslept in a house, was, their constant appre- 
