1896.] oi-b [Fumess. 



Otherwise known as Iron-w^ood ; some of these posts are at least eigh- 

 teen inches in diameter stripped of their bark. To enter the house you 

 must ascend, as I have said, by a notched log worn smooth by the passage 

 of many bare feet, and slippery from the constant wetting of heavy dews 

 "and frequent rains ; there is no railing. At the top of this rude ladder 

 you enter, under the eaves of the house, the long, wide, general living- 

 room, or street, where most of the life goes on, and where there is a con- 

 stant haze of smoke and a smell which is a mixture of wet dog and musty 

 garret. The floors of Tamabulan's house are famous, in that they are 

 made of unusually large hewn planks of Billian, some of them being five 

 feet wide, placed rather loosely over the cross beams underneath ; quite 

 a number of the ordinary houses have floorings made of flat strips of the 

 bark of the Nibong Palm. 



No nails are used in the construction of the houses, the joists being 

 either notched to fit each other, and then pegged, or bound with rotan ; 

 the roofing is either composed of small shingles of Billian tied in place, 

 or it is made of a thatch of palm leaves ; here and there are trap doors 

 in the roof which can be raised by poles to admit more light and air. 

 The eaves extend down to within four feet of the floor and from them to 

 the floor is built a grating of poles laid lengthwise. This space admits light 

 and air throughout the length of the house. Along this opening in several 

 places are platforms raised about eighteen inches and covered with mats 

 made of woven grasses or strips of rattan. On these the men sit and talk 

 or form interested groups round one of their companions skilled in play- 

 ing on the Kaluri (one of their most musical instruments, constructed on 

 the principle of the bag-pipe, except that a long-necked gourd takes the 

 place of the dog-skin bag). These verandas or streets are not cheerful 

 places, except close to the opening, where there is plenty of light ; the 

 eaves come down so low that a few feet away from the opening it is rather 

 dark and the beams of the house and the floor are so smoked that all the 

 light is lost in the high roof, where hang hundreds of long bunches of 

 ripening bananas and dusty old rattan traps, like long round baskets, for 

 catching fish, small dug-out canoes warped out of shape, and numerous 

 other native articles, stowed away, doubtless, with the same idea that 

 many an American housekeeper has that they will be useful to some one 

 some day, but that day never arrives and they occupy their place in the 

 order of things as "dust catchers." Oiiposite to the open ventilation- 

 space is a straight partition running the whole length of the house and 

 dividing the private familj- rooms from the general thoroughfare ; the 

 openings into the rooms are about twenty feet apart and are about three 

 feet six inches high by two feet wide, at a distance of two feet from the 

 floor ; to enter you must step over this threshold two feet or more high 

 and the door is pulled to wath a weight The object of this high thresh- 

 old is to keep the young children in, and to keep the ubiquitous dog 

 out, neither of which purposes is attended with success. 



The living-rooms are even more dingy and smoky than the public pas- 



PROC. AMER. I'HILOS. SOC. XXXY. 153. 2 N. PRINTED APRIL 20, 1897. 



