Hawaiian Grass Houses
As with the various occupations that had to do with the gathering of their food and the making of their raiment, so the building of the house which sheltered them…
From: Unknown To: 1915 C.E.
Location: Hawaii
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The Hawaiian House,” from Natural History of Hawaii by William Bryan, 1915.
The houses of the common people were little more than single-room straw-thatched hovels, supported upon a crude frame-work of poles, the structure in many instances being scarcely sufficient to shelter the family. On the other hand, the houses of the better class, notably the chiefs and the nobility, were much superior. Being well built and neatly kept, they were not so devoid of simple comfort as their absolute lack of architectural beauty might suggest.
While their houses varied much in size and shape they were uniformly dark and poorly ventilated, being invariably without windows or doors, save the small hole left, usually on one side, through which the occupant might pass in and out in a crouching posture.
Complete Domestic Establishment
As with the various occupations that had to do with the gathering of their food and the making of their raiment, so the building of the house which sheltered them was attended by many important religious observances, the omission of any of which might result in the most serious consequences. Every stage, from the gathering of the timbers and grass in the mountains, to the last act of trimming the grass from over and around the door before it was ready for final occupancy, furnished an occasion for the intervention of the priests and the imposition of special tabus that must be satisfied before the house could be used as a dwelling.
As has been suggested elsewhere, a complete domestic establishment was made up of several conveniently grouped single-room houses that were given over to special purposes. The well-to-do Hawaiian boasted of at least six such single-room houses. The house for the family idols and the men's eating house were both always tabu to women. The women's eating house, a common sleeping house, a house for the beating of the tapa, and lastly, a separate house for the use of the women during various tabu periods made up the group.
Occasionally the better houses were on a raised stone foundation, and a fence made about the group to separate them from their neighbors and to mark the limits of the sphere of domestic influence. To the foregoing might be added a house for canoes, a storehouse, and others for special purposes as might be required.
Building of a House
The building of a grass house of the better type was an important task and one that called for much skill and experience. The timbers of which it was constructed were selected with great care, different woods being preferably used for certain purposes. When trimmed of the outer bark, notched and fashioned into shape by crude stone tools they were placed into the positions which they were intended to occupy in the framework of the structure and then firmly bound together with braided ropes of ukiuki grass.
The corner posts were first to be put in place, each being securely set in the ground. The side posts were next planted in line and the plate pole lashed to the top. The tall poles at the end of the house were next put up and the ridge pole put into place. The rafters were then added and the upper ridge pole lashed firmly above the main ridge pole. Small straight poles were finally lashed horizontally, a few inches apart, on the outside of the completed framework.
This done the thatch was added and a rude sliding door made and fitted in place. The outside was trimmed, and over all a large net placed to hold the grass in shape while it dried. Pili grass, lauhala leaves, sugar-cane and ki leaves were used as a thatch according to circumstances. When completed a group of Hawaiian houses resembled nothing as much, in general appearance, as a number of neat hay stacks.
While as a general rule each man was expected to be able to perform all the various forms of labor necessary to the building of a house, making a canoe or carving his dishes, there were those who by choice did certain things in exchange for the work of others. That is to say, should a chief order a house built, certain men would cut the timbers, others gather the pili grass, others hue the timbers, while still others made the binding cords or prepared the holes for the corner posts. The thatchers would then perform their work, so that by piece work, all working together, a house could be completed in two or three days. If well made it would last a dozen years,—when it would require re-thatching
House Furnishings
The furnishings and utensils in even the best houses were meager in the extreme. The raised portion of the floor, covered with mats that formed the beds by night and lounge by day, and the space on the stones in the center of the floor, that served as a fireplace when required during rainy weather, were the most noticeable evidences of comfort. The braided mats and ornamented tapas were the most conspicuous among their possessions, but the bowls and dishes for the serving and storage of food were, perhaps, the most important household necessities.
These few objects formed characteristic features of the Hawaiian home. The most valuable of their household utensils, without doubt, was the calabash. It was fashioned from wood or made from the shell of the gourd, for though clay was known to the Hawaiian people they made no use of it and knew nothing whatever of the potter's art.
In the carving of these wooden bowls or umekes they exhibited much skill, using only the simple stone implements of their culture and such primitive devices as they knew in fashioning them. Some wonderful bowls were produced from the woods of the native kou, kamani and the koa trees.
After the log had been soaked for a long period it was roughly shaped without and was hollowed out within by hacking and burning until the desired form was secured. By this method the wooden sides were reduced to a fraction of an inch in thickness. The receptacle was then smoothed by rubbing first with coral, then rough lava, and lastly with pumice.
The real polishing was done by rubbing with charcoal, bamboo leaves and at last with breadfruit leaves and tapa. Often a lid, made and polished in the same way, was added, and usually a koko or net of convenient form for carrying or handling them was provided. It may be truthfully said that the splendid vessels made in this way, some of them thirty inches in diameter, were among the most remarkable objects wrought by the ancient Hawaiians.
Bryan, William. Natural History of Hawaii. Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1915.
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