In the centre of the floor is a pit, or fireplace, much like the cooking-place one sees in Samoa or in Hawaii. Chickens and pieces of meat to be roasted are hung from a frame over the pit. Yams and other vegetables are boiled in earthen vessels which the native potters make. The floors are covered with closely woven mats; and in order to keep them clean an earthen vessel filled with water is kept outside so that whoever enters the house may bathe his feet. Inasmuch as the natives go barefoot one may see the usefulness of this custom. Great Britain has many islands in this part of the Pacific; Gilbert, Ellice, Tonga, Cook, and some of the Solomon group all fly the Union Jack. There is an English governor, or "High Commissioner," as he is styled, who looks after British affairs in the islands. In Fiji he is the real governor, but in many of the islands native chiefs and kings govern their peoples about as they please, provided they do not interfere with British interests. CHAPTER XXIX THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS Almost midway between the United States and China a mountain chain more than three thousand miles long crosses the tropic of Cancer. Only the highest peaks, however, reach above sea level; most of the range is fathoms deep in the waters of the Pacific. The eastern end of this great chain constitutes the Hawaiian group of islands, or the Territory of Hawaii. Altogether they are pretty nearly as large as the State of New Jersey, or five times the size of Rhode Island. All the islands are very rugged in surface--steep and high cliffs, deep valleys and canyons, and stupendous craters that have vomited great floods of lava. A little way from shore the Pacific has some of its deepest beds. If the sea could be removed the island of Hawaii would be a great dome five miles high. The coral polyps have added their mite to the building of these islands, and coral reefs are the foundation of the coast plain that surrounds a considerable part of the girth of each. An equable climate throughout the year, a soft and balmy air, brilliant coloring on bush and tree, magnificent pictures of sea and sky, and of mountain and plain, make the islands a veritable paradise. It is thought that these islands were peopled by Samoan natives about the year 600, and that subsequently their number was augmented by emigrants from the Fiji and other southern islands. At first there was plenty of land for all, but as their number increased, quarrels arose. Each island had its king or chief and some of the larger islands had two or more. The result was a condition very much like the feudal system; each king had petty chiefs, and these, in turn, their retainers, who were little better than slaves. Priests, who ranked equal to the petty chiefs, directed their pagan worship and occasionally made human sacrifices.