A SOUTH SEA ISLAND HOUSE.—The South Sea Island Village included among its inhabitants natives of various islands in the Polynesian Archipelago, though so superior to all the rest were the Samoans that they soon attracted most attention, and the place was as often alluded to as the Samoan Village as otherwise. The houses were of Samoan construction, and the largest of them was a building of repute, having once stood for ten years in the village of King Mataafa, and coming here as his personal contribution to the curiosities of the Fair. It was a work of ingenuity and considerable art, its timbers hewed from the wood of the bread fruit tree, and its thatching made from the leaves of the wild sugar cane, the substances in themselves forming striking exhibits of nature’s prodigality toward the support of man in Samoa. Fully ten thousand pieces of wood were used in the construction of this single dwelling. The other houses followed the same general plan of construction, but were made of cheaper and more common material. The skill of the Samoan in thatching and in mat-weaving is illustrated in the picture.

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