OPENING OF THE CHAPEL. 359 
chequered appearance. The ornament on the 
rafter terminated in a graceful fringe or bunch 
of tassels. 
The pulpit, situated at a short distance from the 
northern end, was hexagonal, and supported by 
six pillars of the beautiful wood of the pua, which 
resembles, in its grain and colour, the finest satin- 
wood. The panels were of rich yellow bread¬ 
fruit, and the frame of mero, a fine-grained, dark, 
chesnut-coloured wood. The stairs, reading-desk, 
and communion table, were all of deep umber- 
coloured bread-fruit; and the whole, as a specimen 
of workmanship, was such as the native carpenters 
were not ashamed of. The floor was boarded with 
thick sawn planks, or split trees; and, although it 
exhibited great variety of timber and skill, was by 
no means contemptible. 
According to ancient usage in the erection of 
public buildings, the work had been divided among 
the different chiefs of the islands; these had ap¬ 
portioned their respective allotments among their 
peasantry or dependants, and thus each party had 
distinct portions of the wall, the roof, and the floor. 
The numbers employed rendered these allotments 
but small, seldom more than three or six feet in 
length, devolving on one or two families. This, 
when finished, they considered their own part of 
the chapel; and near the part of the wall they had 
built, and the side of the roof they had thatched, 
they usually fitted up their sittings. The prin¬ 
cipal chiefs, however, fixed their seats near the 
pulpit. 
Uniformity was as deficient in the sittings of the 
chapel, as in the houses of the town, each family 
fitting up their own according to their inclination 
or ability. For a considerable extent around the 
