70 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES* 
and if they find it crumble and become pulverized^ they 
cover it over with cocoa-nut leaves^ and use it as occa¬ 
sion requires. 
The coral rock makes excellent lime^ not perhaps 
so strong as that made from rock-limestone^ but fine^ 
beautifully white^ and durable. It may be obtained in 
any quantity^ but the labour of procuring the fuel 
necessary for preparing it on the present plan^ is ex¬ 
ceedingly irksome. Could they be induced to erect 
kilns, and burn it after the European manner, it might 
be furnished with great facility, and the fact of their 
being able to prepare with little trouble, lime from the 
coral rock, would encourage them in building comfort¬ 
able houses. 
Our friends in Raiatea were perhaps more urgent 
than ourselves, in their recommendation of improved 
dwellings. On our first visit to Raiatea, in January 
1819, the servants of Tamatoa, the king of that island, 
were plastering a house for his residence : it was nearly 
finished; the outside was completed, and they were 
at work within. A day or two after our return to Hua- 
hine, we were delighted to see one in the district of 
Fare actually finished. It was smaller than Tamatoa^s, 
and differently shaped, his being oval, and this being 
nearly square, with high gable-ends. It belonged to 
an ingenious and industrious young man, whose name 
was Navenavehia, and who, although an inferior chief 
in Huahine, had accompanied Mahine to Eimeo, where 
he had resided in the family of Mr. George Bicknell, 
by whom he had been taught in some degree the use 
of tools, and the art of burning lime. It is not easy, 
nor is it material, to determine which of these two 
houses was finished first. They were certainly both 
