A SCIENTIFIC MISSION TO CAMBODIA. 313 



this doors open into the private family rooms or apartments of the 

 women and children, to which Europeans are not admitted, and na- 

 tive visitors but rarely. Two small rooms are also occasionally built 

 by the sides of the vestibule for the young men. The girls, what- 

 ever their age, always live with their mother. The whole structure 

 is some thirty-five or forty feet square. Besides his dwelling-house 

 the Cambodian builds a taller house, also on piles and having no en- 

 trance except by a small window, which he is particular to make tight 

 against the rain ; and this is the granary for his rice. 



This description answers for the more common houses of the coun- 

 try — for those which are occupied by people in moderate circum- 

 stances. There are also other kinds of houses. The poor sometimes 

 have to be contented with a low hut covering only a few square yards. 

 The wealthy citizen may use timbers and planks instead of bamboo, 

 but even the highest functionaries do not possess jointed planks. 

 Luxury demands fine wood, but it is not carefully worked ; and in the 

 houses of the ministers of state one can walk on planks two or three 

 inches thick, showing very evident gaps, and not even nailed to the 

 joists on which they rest. 



These primitive huts are far removed from the ideas we have of 

 Oriental luxury, and still further from those which we might conceive 

 from the ruins that exist in the country. At present Cambodian con- 

 struction does not go beyond wood. Only the pagodas are of stone, 

 and there is nothing in any of those which are standing to remind us 

 of the splendors of the past. 



There is one town, the city of Compong-Chnang, of variable popu- 

 lation, which may rise to five thousand during the fishing season, that 

 is built entirely on floating rafts. The people carefully follow the 

 movements of the water, drawing their houses toward the land when 

 it rises, and pushing them out into the sti-eam when it falls, but always 

 so that they shall be close to the shore without getting aground. 

 Nothing can be more picturesque than the appearance of this town 

 at evening when lighted by Chinese lanterns. The houses are sepa- 

 rate from one another, and never but one story high ; and the streets 

 are regularly laid out. 



The Cambodian's furniture is of the most primitive character. A 

 table, a few stools, some earthen or copper spit-boxes, a few jars, and 

 a bedstead made of boards, compose the useful part, while the orna- 

 mental is furnished by the arms and musical instruments hung on the 

 walls, and mats laid upon the ground. When we go into these large 

 rooms, we find them so scantily furnished, in comparison with our 

 overloaded apartments, that we can hardly realize that they are occu- 

 pied. But, then, what use has the Cambodian for bureaus, chairs, and 

 tables ? He has no wardrobe but his sampots, and he sits and eats on 

 the ground. Our furniture would be a superfluity to him. What 

 luxury he indulges in is in the line of wives, slaves, pirogues, and ele- 



