Chap, xvi.] DISTRir.UTION OF PILE DWELLINGS. 345 



the chalet the basement enclosed with stone walls is usually 

 only a cattle-stall, the first story is the dwelling-house, and, as 

 in the Malay building, is constructed of wood. It seems 

 possible that the chalet is the ancient lake-dwelling gone on 

 shore, like the Malay pile-dwelling, and that the subs'tructure 

 of masonry represents the piles which formerly supported the 

 inhabited portion of the house. There are similar balconies 

 in the chalets which possibly represent the platforms. A good 

 deal of the carving of balconies, and some of the staircases, in 

 the better constructed wooden houses in Ilo Ilo, reminded me 

 very much of that of the same structures in chalets, though the 

 resemblance in this case is accidental. 



The most interesting feature about pile-dwellings seems to 

 be their very wide geographical extension. Representatives 

 of almost all races of man seem to have arrived at the same 

 expedient, apparently not by any means a simple one, indepen- 

 dently of one another. There are the well-known Pfhalbauten 

 of Switzerland, in South America the similar houses of the 

 Cuajiro Indians, on the Gulf of Maracaibo. In North America 

 the Haidahs on the north-west coast construct similar habi- 

 tations. Commander Cameron lately observed similar dwell- 

 ings in Lake Mohrya, in Central Africa.* In New Zealand, 

 the Lake Pas, which were mostly used as store-houses, are 

 known from the Rev. Richard Taylor's description.! In this 

 case, piles were driven into the bottom of the lake, and the inter- 

 stices filled in with stones and mud, so as to form a platform. 



There are the well-known New Guinea pile-dwellings, such 

 as seen by us at Humboldt Bay, and there are also the pile- 

 dwellings of all the Malay races. The Gilbert Islanders also 

 construct houses raised on piles, and a number of these natives 

 from the island of Arorai, who were taken to Tahiti, to serve 

 as labourers on cotton estates, have put up houses of this kind 

 for themselves in the latter islands, amongst the very different 

 dwellings of the Tahitians themselves. 



It seems probable that the idea of a pile-dwelling has in 

 many cases arisen through natives escaping from enemies by 

 getting into a canoe or raft, and putting off from shore into a 

 lake or the sea, out of harm's way. If the attacked had to stay 

 on such a raft or canoe for some time, they would anchor it in 

 shallow water with one or more poles, as the Fijians do with 

 their canoes on rivers, and hence might easily be derived the 

 idea of a platform supported on piles. 



* S. L. Cameron, Comm. R.N.," Across Africa," Vol. II., p. 65. London, 

 1872. 



t Rev. Richard Taylor, F.L.S., "On the New Zealand Lake Pas 

 Trans. N. Zealand Inst, Vol. V., 1872, p. loi. 



