1771* ROUND THE WORLD. 345 



that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scar- 

 city, when they mix them with their rice to make it 

 go farther. 



The houses of their town are built upon piles, or 

 pillars, four or five feet above the ground : upon 

 these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which are 

 placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave 

 a free passage for the air from below : the walls also 

 are of bamboo, which are interwoven, hurdlewise, 

 with small sticks, that are fastened perpendicularly 

 to the beams which form the frame of the building : 

 it has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with 

 palm leaves, that neither the sun nor the rain can 

 find entrance. The ground over which this build- 

 ing is erected, is an oblong square. In the middle 

 of one side is the door, and in the middle between 

 that and the end of the house, towards the left hand, 

 is a window : a partition runs out from each end 

 towards the middle, which, if continued, would di- 

 vide the whole floor into two equal parts, longitu- 

 dinally, but they do not meet in the middle, so that 

 an opening is left over-against the door ; each end 

 of the house, therefore, to the right and left of the 

 door, is divided into two rooms, like stalls in a stable, 

 all open towards the passage from the door to the 

 wall on the opposite side : in that next the door to 

 the left hand, the children sleep ; that opposite to 

 it, on the right hand, is allotted to strangers ; the 

 master and his wife sleep in the inner room on the 

 left hand, and that opposite to it is the kitchen. 

 There is no difference between the houses of the 

 poor and the rich, but in the size ; except that the 

 royal palace, and the house of a man, whose name 

 is Gundang, the next in riches and influence to the 

 king, is walled with boards instead of being wattled 

 with sticks and bamboo. 



As the people are obliged to abandon the town, 

 and live in the rice-fields at certain seasons, to secure 

 their crops from the birds and the monkies, they 



