2o8 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



the following way. A deep groove is cut along one 

 side, and wedges of hard tough wood are driven 

 in with rough heavy mallets. Deep transverse 

 grooves are then cut in the rounded surface of each 

 half at intervals of three or four feet ; and the inter- 

 vening masses of wood are split off. In this way 

 it is whittled down until it is only some six 

 inches thick. The plank is then trimmed down to 

 the desired thickness by blows of the adze struck 

 across the direction of the grain. The two ends are 

 generally left untrimmed until the plank has been 

 transported to the site of the house and has lain 

 there for some time. This prevents its splitting 

 during the journey to the house and the period of 

 seasoning. 



When the floor has been laid, it only remains to 

 make the main partition wall which separates the 

 gallery from the rooms along the whole length 

 of the house, and the walls between the several 

 rooms. These walls are made only some eight or 

 nine feet in height. The wall of the gallery is 

 made of vertical planks lashed to horizontal rails 

 whose extremities are let into the columns of the 

 anterior set of the double median row. The wall 

 thus divides the house into a narrower front part, 

 the gallery, and a broader back part ; the latter is 

 subdivided by the transverse walls into the series of 

 rooms each of which accommodates one family. 



The work of construction is carried on by all the 

 men of the house ; the women and children lend 

 what aid they can in the way of fetching and carry- 

 ing, and in preparing rattans. The ownership of 

 each section is arranged beforehand ; the section of 

 the chief being generally in the middle, and those of 

 his near relatives on either side of it. Each man 

 pays special attention to the construction of his own 

 section, and carries out the lighter work of that 

 part, such as laying the shingles, with the help of 



