are on the lower ridges only, and not on the high
mountains; but the actual elevations above sea-level of these lower
ridges are, I think, generally higher than those of the top ridges of
the Kuni. Plate 54 shows the position and surroundings of the village
of Salube (community of Auga), and is a good representative example,
except that the plate does not show any open grassland.

The villages are, or were, protected with stockades and with pits
outside the stockades, and sometimes with platforms on trees near the
stockade boundaries, from which platforms the inhabitants can shoot
and hurl stones upon an enemy climbing up the slope. The stockade
is made of timber, is about 15 to 25 feet high, and is generally
constructed in three or more parallel rows or lines, each of the
lines having openings, but the openings never being opposite to one
another. These protections have now, however, been largely, though
not entirely, discontinued. [60] It is, or was, also the practice,
when expecting an attack, to put into the ground in the approaches
to the village calthrop-like arrow-headed objects, with their points
projecting upwards.

The average size of the villages is small compared with that of the
large villages of Mekeo, some of them having only six or eight houses,
though many villages have thirty houses, and some of them have fifty
or sixty or more. The houses and _emone_ are much smaller than those
of Mekeo, and much ruder and simpler in construction and they have
no carving or other decoration. There are no communal houses.

The houses are ranged in two parallel rows along the side of the ridge,
with an open village space between them, the space being considerably
longer than it is broad, and more or less irregular in shape. The
houses are generally built with their door-openings facing inwards
towards the village enclosure.

At one end of the village, and facing down the open space, is the
chief's or sub-chief's _emone_. These are, like the Roro _marea_
and the Mekeo _ufu_, used, not only in connection with ceremonies,
but also as living houses for men, especially unmarried men, and
for the accommodation of visitors to the village. There are probably
also in the village the _emone_ of one or more of the notables before
mentioned, of which one will be at the other end of the village and
any others will be among the houses at the side of, and facing into,
the village enclosure. There are not often more than three _em