THROUGH HAWAII. 
315 
wall-plate. When the rafters are fixed, small poles 
are laid along, where they cross each other above the 
ridge-pole; sometimes poles are fastened across like 
tie-beams, about half way up the roof, and the separate 
parts of the whole frame are tied together with strong 
cinet, made of the roots of the i'e plant, or fibres of 
cocoa-nut husk. The space between the posts at the 
sides and ends is now closed up with sticks, larger 
than a common-sized walking-stick, which are tied 
with cinet in horizontal lines, two or three inches 
apart, on the outside of the posts, and extending 
from the ground to the top of the roof. A large 
house, in this stage of its erectiou, has a singular 
appearance. 
If the sides and roof are of plantain leafstalks, and 
the leaves of the pandanus, or of ti leaves, each leaf is 
woven around the horizontal sticks, which gives it a 
neat appearance, resembling a kind of coarse matting- 
on the inside, while the ends of the leaves hang down 
without. But if they are covered with grass, which is 
most commonly the case, it is bound up in small 
bundles, and these are tied to the small sticks along 
the side of the wall of the house, with cinet or cord. 
They always begin at the bottom, and tie on the grass 
with the roots upward, and inclined towards the inside, 
and continue one row above another from the ground 
to the top of the roof. The roof and sides are always 
of the same material, except where the latter are of 
plantain or ti leaves. The corners and ridge are some¬ 
times covered with fern-leaves, with which they can 
secure these parts better than with grass, &c. The 
shell is now finished, and generally, except in the low¬ 
ness of the sides and steepness of the roof, looks much 
