BUILDING MATERIAL 6i 



together the free ends with the short piece he had 

 broken from the mid-rib. He then repeats the process 

 with another leaf, making each one slightly overlap 

 the last, until the stick is completely covered with 

 folded leaves. It should be said that each leaf is about 

 three inches wide and four feet long so that the free 

 ends, when the leaf is folded, lie about two feet from 

 the stick. " Atap " is always made by the men, never 

 by the women, and a quick worker will make a complete 

 piece in about ten minutes. 



The method of roofing with " atap " is very simple. 

 Pieces are fixed by strands of rattan to the timbers 

 of the roofing beginning from below and overlapping 

 each other hke tiles. The stick end of the "atap" is 

 uppermost and the free ends point downwards. When 

 there is no lack of " atap " and the pieces can be laid 

 on the roof very closely together it forms a most efficient 

 thatch, which keeps the house tolerably cool in the 

 hot weather and is impervious to the heaviest down- 

 fall of rain. 



The demand for " atap " started our regular trade 

 with the natives, it brought us into friendly relations 

 with them and they soon discovered that they could 

 put confidence in us. When they found that we really 

 paid them, as we promised, in beads and cloth, there 

 was keen competition in the " atap " trade and they 

 brought us as much as we wanted. For a few pieces 

 only they received beads, while for ten pieces and 

 upwards we paid them in cloth and they adopted various 

 tricks to obtain cloth, when they knew that the amount 

 they brought was only worth beads. One of their 



