THROUGH HAWAII. 
139 
and green ti leaves, which each party or family erected 
for their own accommodation, around that of their chief; 
and thus formed a small encampment by themselves. 
The latter was a large open building, constructed with 
the same materials, in which the chief and his warriors 
all dwelt together. 
Their camp was near an open space, and they gene¬ 
rally selected the most broken and uneven ground, fre¬ 
quently rugged tracts of lava, as their fields of battle. 
Sometimes they encamped on the banks of a river, or 
deep ravine, which lying between them and their ene¬ 
mies, secured them from sudden attack. But they do 
not appear to have thrown up lines or other artificial 
barriers around their camp; they did not, however, 
neglect to station piquets at all the passes by which 
they were likely to be approached* Each party usually 
had a pari or pa-Jcaua, natural or artificial fortress, 
where they left their wives and children, and to which 
they fled if vanquished in the field. These fortresses 
were either eminences of difficult ascent, and, by walling 
up the avenues leading to them, sometimes rendered 
inaccessible; or they were extensive enclosures, in¬ 
cluding a cave, or spring, or other natural means of 
sustenance or security. The stone walls around the 
forts were composed of large blocks of lava, laid up 
solid, but without cement, sometimes eighteen feet 
high, and nearly twenty feet thick. On the tops of 
these walls the warriors fought with slings and stones, 
or with spears and clubs repelled their assailants. 
When their pari was an eminence, after they had 
closed the avenues, they collected large stones and 
fragments of rock on the edges of the precipices 
overhanging the paths leading to the fortification. 
