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Easter Island: Early Witnesses

William Thomson


454

   The native priest and a few of his connections reside at Hanga Roa, only those in the employ of Mr. Salmon live at Vaihu, and the only settlement on the island that way be termed a village is the one at Mataveri. The primitive buts formerly used by the natives (Fig. 1) have

800x517 GIF, 27.7k
FIG. 1.
NATIVE HOUSES BUILT OF BULRUSHES.

been abandoned for more comfortable dwellings constructed under the direction of a Danish carpenter out of material obtained from the wreckage of several vessels loaded with Oregon lumber. These buildings are of a style of architecture commonly met with in small cheap barns and stables, but to the simple-minded islanders they supply all the comforts that could be desired.
   These houses are usually about 25 feet long and 15 feet wide with undressed weather-boards and roofed with the same material. Hinged doors open in the center and admit light and ventilation, though a few of the more pretentious buildings are furnished with small glazed windows. The floors are of bare earth strewn with a litter of dried grass, filthy and vermin-infested from long use. Mats made of bulrushes are spread out for sleeping; several rough bedsteads and chests were seen, but the majority of the houses are destitute of furniture or ornament. Several families occupy the same dwelling; men, women, and children lie down together like dogs in a kennel, and with about the same ideas of what constitutes the comforts of life.

FLORA.

   The native traditions agree in the statement that the discoverers of the island found it destitute of trees and all vegetation except grasses and a creeping vine bearing a dehiscent fruit to which the name Moki-oo-ne

454


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