Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 1]
Description of a New Zealand House
Their houses are the most inartificially made of any thing among them being scarcely equal except in size to an English Dog Kennel. They are seldom more than eighteen or twenty feet long eight or ten broad and five or six high from the Pole that runs from one end to the other and forms the Ridge to the ground the framing is of Wood generally slender Sticks and both Walls and Roof consist of dry Grass and Hay which it must be confessed is very tightly put together; and some are also lined with the Bark of Trees so that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat. The Roof is sloping like those of our Barns and the Door is at one end just high enough to admit a man creeping upon his hands and knees: near the Door is a Square Hole which serves the double office of Window and Chimney for the fire place is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two sides; in some conspicuous part and generally near the door a Plank is fixed covered with carving after their manner this they value as we do a picture and in their estimation it is not an inferior ornament; the side walls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls at each end, so as to form a kind of porch in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the floor which is allotted for the fire place is enclosed in a hollow square of partitions either of wood or stone and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor along the inside of the walls is thickly covered with straw and upon this the family sleep.
Dh MSQ 158