d, 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.

The only probable reason I can assign for their neglect of ornamental
architecture in the construction of their houses, is their being fond of
living much in the open air. Indeed, they seem to consider their houses,
within which they seldom eat, as of little use but to sleep in, and to
retire to in bad weather. And the lower sort of people, who spend a
great part of their time in close attendance upon the chiefs, can have
little use for their own houses, but in the last case.

They make amends for the defects of their houses by their great
attention to, and dexterity, in, naval architecture, if I may be allowed
to give it that name. But I refer to the narrative of my last voyage,
for an account of their canoes, and their manner of building and
navigating them.[180]

[Footnote 180: The reader, by comparing that account with what Cantova
says of the sea-boats of the Caroline Islands, will find, in this
instance, also, the greatest similarity. See _Lettres Edifiantes et
Curieuses_, p. 286.--D.]

The only tools which they use to construct these boats, are hatchets, or
rather thick adzes, of a smooth black stone that abounds at Toofooa;
augres, made of sharks' teeth, fixed on small handles; and rasps of a
rough skin of a fish, fastened on flat pieces of wood, thinner on one
side, which also have handles. The labour and time employed in finishing
their canoes, which a