Page:Savage Island.djvu/33

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NATIVE ARCHITECTURE
17

lofty as he pleases. The ridge pole of the Fijian rests upon two uprights, buried for two-sevenths of their length in the ground if the house is to withstand hurricanes; and, since it is impossible to find straight vesi trunks more than fifty-four feet long, the ridge pole can never be more than forty-two feet above the ground. And since the sense of proportion would be wounded by a house being too long for its height, there is no public building in Fiji more than sixty-six feet long—the length of the great bure at Bau and the court house at Natuatuathoko (Fort Carnarvon). The system of supports for the Tongan roof-tree is best shown by a sectional diagram.

Alofi Architecture
Alofi Architecture

By elongating the side and centre supports, such a building may be seventy or eighty feet high and of a proportionate length and breadth. If