BAMBOO — McCLURE 401 



atrical troupe. Such a shelter may consist of little more than four 

 bamboo posts set in the ground and surmounted by a rough lattice of 

 bamboo culms to support a thatch of grass or palm leaves. If the 

 proprietor spends the night there, three sides may be covered with 

 bamboo matting supported by a few extra bamboo crossbeams and 

 braces. Shelters for an agricultural or industrial fair or flower show 

 are put up by a commercial mat-shed builder on a larger scale and 

 more securely. Itinerant theatrical troupes employ bamboo struc- 

 tures of a distinctive architecture, tall and narrow, with the walls of- 

 ten covered with gaudily decorated mats, and surmounted by orna- 

 mental devices of traditional rococo design. The floor, which is 

 elevated several feet above the ground, is made of thin wooden planks 

 laid on bamboo beams and held in place by thin strips of bamboo 

 bound down by bamboo thongs. The top-heavy structure is held erect 

 by means of long bamboo braces, to which is often added the security 

 of bamboo guy ropes. 



Mention of these theaters, built for short gala festivals, calls to 

 mind the much more highly ornamented and even more transient "tri- 

 umphal arches" or gateways erected over the road to be traveled by an 

 honored guest or a conquering hero. In these triumphal arches the 

 versatility of bamboo as a building material and a decorating medium 

 is exhibited to fine advantage. 



BAMBOO IN ORIENTAL FURNITURE MAKING, COOPERY, AND JOINERY 



The furnishings of a house may be more or less predominantly of 

 bamboo construction, depending upon the pecuniary circumstances 

 or the artistic tastes of the family. The kitchen stools, the baby's 

 play chair, the sofa used for the afternoon siesta in torrid weather, 

 and the settee on the veranda or in the garden pergola are all articles 

 of furniture commonly made of bamboo. The species used for this 

 purpose vary locally, but in the more temperate parts of the Orient 

 most of them belong to the genus Phyllostachys. Now and then one 

 will see a treasured settee or a tea table fashioned from the brilliant 

 purplish-black culms of Phyllostachys nigra. In more tropical areas 

 various species of Bambusa enter into furniture making. Bamboo 

 dowel pins are commonly employed by carpenters for joining boards 

 edge-to-edge in the making of certain articles of furniture such as 

 beds and wardrobes. The best dowel pins are made from the rind 

 wood of Arundinaria amabilis. Phyllostachys puhescens is also used. 



Bamboo enjoys enormous usage in the Orient in the form of hoops. 

 The large wooden tubs used in the pickling and food-processing in- 

 dustries are commonly bound with bamboo hoops (pi. 5, fig. 2) . These 

 are more resistant than iron hoops to the action of salt and vinegar. 

 While wooden water buckets and wash basins are almost always first 



