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The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki)

Paepae

Paepae.

The area in front of a house bounded by the stones marking off the two rectangular spaces with the mesial pathway, was termed the paepae.

Figure 1.Paepae of house at Nukunoni.

Figure 1.
Paepae of house at Nukunoni.

The paepae of the Nukunoni house was clearly defined as in Fig. 1. The row of stones bounding the path was 13 feet in length, whilst of the two rectangular spaces, one was 9 feet in width and the other 7 feet. This left the path 4 feet 6 inches in width. The doorway was thus not quite in the middle of the front wall of the house. Some of the stones were fairly large, that marked a being 4 feet long by 1 foot 8 inches wide, whilst b was 4 feet 8 inches by 1 foot 10 inches and 1 foot 6 inches thick.

The whole of the paepae, including the path was covered with white coral gravel known as kirikiri teatea. What had been the interior of the house was also covered with this gravel. The gravel had been carried from Amuri, four miles away, or from the small islands in the lagoon, for no such gravel is found on nearer beaches. The purpose of the gravel was "e hakairo i te hare," "to beautify the house." The old village sites that stood back on the high ground could always be located by the coral gravel, as well as the rows of stones. The sacred places, marae, of any importance were also floored with coral gravel. Thus page 3we find the scions of a chiefly family claiming to be kirikiri teatea from a particular marae.

Larger stones of water-worn coral were also used to flank the paths and houses. The similar use of like material round garden plots and paths may lead some to suppose that the paepae arrangement in Fig. 1 was due to European influence. This cannot be, for Nukunoni was destroyed by the people of the Vaipae district before the advent of Europeans. Credit must be given to the native aesthetic tase that went to the trouble of carrying the heavy gravel such long distances.

Figure 2.Pandanus leaf house at Tautu.

Figure 2.
Pandanus leaf house at Tautu.