isiansky,
_op. cit._ p. 84; Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 159; Langsdorff,
_op. cit._ i. 109-111; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 39 _sq._; C. S.
Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 209-211, 212, 267 _sq._; Bennett, _op.
cit._ i. 302 _sq._; Melville, _Typee_, pp. 81-83;
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 274-276;
Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 122-129; Radiguet, _op. cit._ pp.
36-38; Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 44 _sq._; Clavel,
_op. cit._ pp. 15 _sq._; Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 200-208.

The platforms on which the houses are built consist often of large
blocks of stone neatly and regularly laid without mortar or cement, in a
style which would do no discredit to European masons.[31] Sometimes the
stones are described as enormous blocks of rock,[32] some of which would
require ten or twelve men to carry or roll them.[33] Water-worn
boulders, washed down from the mountains in the bed of torrents, were
especially chosen for the purpose.[34]

[31] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 109 _sq._

[32] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 129.

[33] Langsdorff, _l.c._

[34] Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 15.

Sometimes, though far less commonly, Marquesan houses were raised above
the ground on posts from eight or ten to sixteen feet high. Such houses
were lightly built of wood and thatched; the floor was an open work of
split bamboos. Sometimes these raised dwellings resembled the ordinary
Marquesan house in structure; at other times they were quadrangular,
with perpendicular walls and an ordinary roof. They were approached by
ladders and resembled the habitations in use among the Malay tribes of
the Indian Archipelago. No dwellings of this type have been noticed in
Nukahiva, the principal island of the archipelago; but they have been
seen and described in Tauata (Santa Christina) and Hivaoa
(Dominica).[35]

[35] F. D. Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 303 _sq._; Baessler, _op.
cit._ pp. 207 _sq._

The Marquesans built canoes of various sizes, the smaller for fishing,
the larger for war. These latter might be from forty to fifty feet long.
They were fitted with outriggers. The prow had an ornamental projection
rudely carved to represent the head of an animal. Sometimes the prows of
war canoes were decorated with the skulls of slaughtered enemies. But in
general the Marquesans appear to have been inferior to the other South
Sea islanders in the arts of canoe-building and navigation.[36] This
inferiority m