314 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
while the natives in most parts of the islands have to 
fetch it from a much greater distance. In neatness and 
elegance of appearance their houses are not equal to 
those of the Society Islanders, even before they were 
instructed by Europeans, but in point of strength and 
durability they sometimes exceed them. There is also 
less variety in the form of the Sandwich Island dwell¬ 
ings, which are chiefly of two kinds, viz. the hale noho , 
(dwelling house,) or halau, (a long building,) nearly 
open at one end, and, though thatched with different 
materials, they are all framed in nearly the same 
way. 
They begin to build a house by planting in the 
ground a number of posts, six or eight inches in dia¬ 
meter, in a row, about three or four feet apart, which 
are to support one side of the house. When these are 
fixed in a straight line, they erect a parallel row, to 
form the opposite side. In the small houses, these 
posts are not more than three or four feet high, while 
in the larger ones they are twelve or fourteen feet in 
height, and proportionably stout. Those used in the 
chiefs’ houses are round, straight, and smooth, being 
prepared with great care, but in general they are fixed 
in the ground without even having the bark stripped 
off. Grooves are cut in the top of the posts, along 
which small poles are laid horizontally, instead of 
wall-plates, and tied to the posts with the fibrous 
roots of the ie , a tough mountain plant. A high post, 
notched at the top, is next fixed in the middle at each 
end, and supports the ridge-pole, on which the tops of 
the rafters rest, while, at the lower end, they are fixed 
on the wall-plate, each rafter being placed exactly 
above the post which supports the horizontal pole, or 
