A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 762 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 762 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15.

The kappe is commonly regularly planted, and in pretty large spots; but the mawhaha is interspersed amongst other things, as the jeejee and yams are; the last of which I have frequently seen in the insterspaces of the plantain trees at their common distance.  Sugar-cane is commonly in small spots, crowded closely together; and the mulberry, of which the cloth is made, though without order, has sufficient room allowed for it, and is kept very clean.  The only other plant, that they cultivate for their manufactures, is the pandanus, which is generally planted in a row, close together, at the sides of the other fields; and they consider it as a thing so distinct in this state, that they have a different name for it, which shews, that they are very sensible of the great changes brought about by cultivation.

It is remarkable, that these people, who, in many things shew much taste and ingenuity, should shew little of either in building their houses, though the defect is rather in the design than in the execution.  Those of the lower people are poor huts, scarcely sufficient to defend them from the weather, and very small.  Those of the better sort are larger and more comfortable, but not what one might expect.  The dimensions of one of a middling size, are about thirty feet long, twenty broad, and twelve high.  Their house is, properly speaking, a thatched roof or shed, supported by posts and rafters, disposed in a very judicious manner.  The floor is raised with earth smoothed, and covered with strong thick matting, and kept very clean.  The most of them are closed on the weather-side, (and some more than two-thirds round), with strong mats, or with branches of the cocoa-nut tree plaited or woven into each other.  These they fix up edgewise, reaching from the eaves to the ground, and thus they answer the purpose of a wall.  A thick strong mat, about two and one-half or three feet broad, bent into the form of a semicircle, and set up on its edge, with the ends touching the side of the house, in shape resembling the fender of a fire-hearth, incloses a space for the master and mistress of the family to sleep in.  The lady, indeed, spends most of her time during the day within it.  The rest of the family sleep upon the floor, wherever they please to lie down; the unmarried men and women apart from each other.  Or, if the family be large, there are small huts adjoining, to which the servants retire in the night; so that privacy is as much observed here as one could expect.  They have mats made on purpose for sleeping on; and the clothes that they wear in the day, serve for their covering in the night.  Their whole furniture consists of a bowl or two, in which they make kava; a few gourds, cocoa-nut shells, some small wooden stools which serve them for pillows; and, perhaps, a large stool for the chief or master of the family to sit upon.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.