MUD AS A BUILDING MATERIAL. 



765 



the ground-floor. It was explained that this results from utilizing 

 the earth on which the house stands, thus saving the expense of 

 transporting the building material from outside the town. 



In good houses a foundation is laid, varying from two to four 

 feet in depth, formed of rough stones or broken fire-burned bricks, 

 and piled up with mud and lime. This is carried up a foot or so 

 above the ground, before the mud wall is commenced. In villages, 

 where everything is rude, this foundation is made of any kind of 

 rubbish that is found handy. This is a very interesting feature 

 of mud architecture. Its object is no doubt to give strength 

 where the wall would be liable to friction from the street traffic ; 

 and probably to prevent to a certain extent damp from rising. It 

 would also be a safeguard against another serious danger that 

 is, if water were to accumulute by any chance round the base of 

 the mud walls, and remain long enough to soak through, a very 

 serious catastrophe might take place from the house tumbling 



Fig. 2. Mud-built Houses, Village of Sivah, Kiiorassajt. 



down. I can not recall to my memory any foundation of this 

 kind in the mud houses of India. Village houses in the north- 

 west of that country are usually built on a chabootra, which is 

 a raised platform of mud, about a couple of feet in height, and 

 this forms the floor of the house. This platform, by raising 

 the foundation of the walls above the ground, may perhaps 

 serve some of the purposes of the layer of stones in the Persian 

 foundations. 



The walls of Persian houses vary from two to four feet in 

 thickness. This depends entirely on the quality of the house and 

 the means of the builder. Thick walls make a cool house, and 

 that is a desirable thing in the climate of Persia. If upper rooms 

 are required, a greater strength of wall will be necessary. The 

 mud is either laid on in layers or in the form of bricks.* In garden 

 walls hollow bricks are used for the top, to give lightness. These 

 bricks are called sanduh, a word meaning " box," which is de- 



* Sun-dried bricks are called khest in Persian ; the fire-baked bricks are ajur or axjur. 

 In Afghanistan, khist is used for both burned and unburned bricks. Gill, with a hard g, is 

 Persian for mud. 



