52 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



generally merely a slab of clay in a wooden frame- 

 work placed near the centre. The outside wall of 

 this side of the house is carried up to meet the 

 roof The entrance of light and air and the egress 

 of smoke are provided for by the elevation on a 

 prop of one corner of a square section of the roof, 

 marked out by a right-angled cut, of which one limb 

 runs parallel to the outer wall, the other upwards 

 from one extremity of the former. This aperture 

 can be easily closed, e.g, during heavy rain, by re- 

 moving the prop and allowing the flap to fall into 

 its original position. 



The front part of the house, which remains 

 undivided, forms a single long gallery serving as a 

 common antechamber to all the private rooms, each 

 of which opens to it by a wooden door (Pis. 36, 38). 

 It is in a sense, though roofed and raised some 20 

 feet above the ground, the village street, as well as a 

 common living and reception room. Along the outer 

 border of the floor runs a low platform on which the 

 inmates sit on mats. One part of this, usually that 

 opposite the chiefs apartment in the middle of the 

 house, is formed of several large slabs of hardwood 

 {Tapang or Koompassia), and is specially reserved 

 for the reception of guests and for formal meetings. 

 The platform is interrupted here and there by 

 smaller platforms raised some 3 or 4 feet from the 

 floor, which are the sleeping quarters assigned to 

 the bachelors and male visitors. At intervals of 

 some 30 or 40 feet throughout the gallery are fire- 

 places similar to those in the private chambers ; on 

 some of these fire constantly smoulders. 



Over one of these fireplaces, generally one near 

 the middle of the great gallery, is hung a row of 

 human heads (PI. 38), trophies obtained in war, 

 together with a number of charms and objects used 

 in various rites.^ 



^ By the Kayans the heads are suspended in a single long row from the 



