344 THE niiLirriNE islands. 



towns of Zamboanga and Ilo Ilo are mostly of closely similar 

 pattern. They stand in like manner on piles, though on dry 

 ground, and have a platform usually at one end. This is 

 reached by a short steep ladder, with widely separated and 

 irregular rounds, up which the house-dogs, from practice, run 

 as nimbly and easily as the children and their mothers. The 

 platforms are now used for drying clothes upon, and such 

 purposes. 



The first process of modification of the pile-dwelling gone 

 on shore, is the putting up of a fence of palm leaves in the 

 lower part of the spaces between the piles supporting the house. 

 A pen is thus formed in which pigs or other animals are kept. 

 Then well-made mats or reed walls are put up, entirely enclos- 

 ing the space between the piles, with a regular door for entrance, 

 and the place becomes a convenient store-house. As a further 

 stage, boards are nailed between the piles, and a secure 

 chamber is obtained. 



A further step again, is the adoption of stone pillars for the 

 wooden piles. Wooden houses thus supported on stone repre- 

 sentatives of piles, may often be seen with an iron railing, pass- 

 ing from pillar to pillar beneath, and in this way forming an 

 enclosure. From stone pillars the step is easy to arches, sup- 

 ported on pillars of masonry as a substructure ; and some houses 

 of business, although their upper structures have ceased to be 

 wooden, and are built of more solid materials, are still to be 

 seen amongst the rest, supported thus on the descendants of 

 piles. 



In the last stage the arches are discarded, and continuous 

 walls of masonry substituted as a support to the wooden super- 

 structure. Even then the ground-floor is often still used only 

 as a store-house or piggery, but in many cases is regularly 

 occupied. 



Thus, in these houses, what would seem almost an impos- 

 sibility is nevertheless the fact. The ground-floor is an addition 

 to the first story, which latter is the older, and preceded it. 

 The verandah is the representative of the platform originally 

 intended for the inhabitants to land on from canoes. 



I watched the building of one house, which when finished 

 looked perfectly two-storied, the lower part being neatly boarded 

 in, and provided with a door and windows. Nevertheless, in 

 the construction of the house, the history of its development 

 was exactly recapitulated, just as is the case familiarly in natural 

 history. The roof and first story were first built complete 

 upon the piles, and the lower structure added in afterwards. 



I could not help being struck by the remarkable resem- 

 1 )lances of many of these Malay houses to Swiss chalets. In 



