HOUSES OF THE PYGMIES 205 



The houses are greatly superior to those of the Mimika 

 Papuans, from which they differ in every respect. They 

 are built on piles, which raise the floor of the house from 

 four to ten feet above the ground according to the steep- 

 ness of the slope underneath. The walls are made of long 

 laths of split wood with big sheets of bark fastened on 

 to the outside. The roof is a fairly steep pitched angular 

 structure of split wood covered with over-lapping leaves 

 of the Fan-palm. The floor is made like the walls and 

 covered with large sheets of bark ; in the middle of the 

 floor is a square sunken box filled with sand or earth in 

 which a fire is kept burning, and over the fire hanging 

 from the roof is a simple rack, on which wood is placed 

 to dry. The house consists of one nearly square com- 

 partment, measuring about ten feet in each direction. 

 The way of entering is by a steep ladder made of two 

 posts tied closely together, which leads to a narrow 

 platform or balcony in front of the front wall of the 

 house. There are no notches on the posts, but the 

 lashings of rattan, which tie them together, answer 

 the purpose of steps or rungs for the feet. As well as 

 in the excellence of their houses, the Tapiro show another 

 point of superiority over the neighbouring Papuans in 

 their habit of using a common retiring place at the edge 

 of a small stream. 



There was an old man in the village, bald and white- 

 bearded, and horribly disfigured by disease,* who ap- 

 peared to be unquestionably the headman of the place. 

 He sat in one of the huts all day and shouted shrilly to 

 the other men who were constantly going in and out to 



* I saw three men who showed unmistakable signs of syphihs. 



