The framework was of the durable totara-wood, the lining of reeds, the outside of dried rushes.

At the end turned to the sunshine was a kind of verandah, on to which opened the solitary door and window, both low and small.

The floor was usually sunk below ground, and Maori builders knew of no such thing as a chimney.

Though neither cooking nor eating was done in their dwelling-houses, and offal of all kinds was carefully kept at a decent distance, the atmosphere in their dim, stifling interiors was as a rule unendurable by White noses and lungs.

Even their largest tribal or meeting halls had but the one door and window; the Maori mind seemed as incapable of adding thereto, as of constructing more than one room under a single roof.