358 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
inclinations. The size of the building was regu¬ 
lated by the number in the family, the rank or the 
means of its proprietor, and the shape by his fancy. 
It was oblong or square, with high gable, or circu¬ 
lar ends covered with thatch, so that the building 
resembled an oval more than any other shape. 
The situations selected were either parts of their 
own ground, or such places as accorded with their 
taste and habits. Those who were frequently upon 
the w T aters, and enjoyed the gentle sea-breezes, or 
wished to excel their neighbours, built a massy pier 
or causeway in the sea, and, raising it four or five 
feet above high-water mark, covered it with smooth 
flat stones, and then erected their houses upon the 
spot they had thus recovered from the sea, by which 
it was on three sides surrounded. The labour re¬ 
quired for effecting this, prevented any but chiefs 
from building in such situations. Others, actually 
building upon the sand, erected their dwelling 
upon the upper edge of the beach, within four or 
five yards of the rising tide. 
The public road, from six to twelve feet wide, 
which led through the district, extending in a line 
parallel with the coast, presented all its curvatures. 
Some of the natives built their houses facing the 
sea; others, turning their fronts towards the moun¬ 
tain, reared them within five or six feet of the 
road ; while several, of a more retiring disposition, 
built in the centre of their plantations, or under 
the embowering shade of a grove of bread-fruit 
trees, enclosing them within the fence that sur¬ 
rounded their dwelling. Some of the leading 
chiefs, in order to enjoy a more extensive prospect, 
and to breathe a purer atmosphere, left the humi¬ 
dity and shade of the lowland and the valley, and 
built their houses on the sides of the verdant hills 
