198 HOUSES. 



house a poor dwelling, yet these clay houses are warmer than 

 the timber ones, and are probably quite as durable as the 

 majority of cheap brick houses in England. There is some- 

 thing similar to such construction in the " cob " houses seen 

 in Devonshire and the western parts of our own country. 

 The boundary walls of the compounds are also made of the 

 same hard clay, and it is remarkable how many years such 

 material will last without much damage, although exposed 

 almost daily for five months every year to the heavy rains of 

 the wet season. The better class of houses are of timber 

 framing, the walls being of thick upright planks, which are 

 grooved at the edge, a tenon of the tough anivona palm fibre 

 being inserted so as to hold them together. Several lengths 

 of the same fibrous substance are also passed through each 

 plank longitudinally at different heights from the ground, so 

 as to bind them aU firmly together round the house. 



The roof in both clay and timber houses does not depend 

 for its stability on the walls, but is mainly carried on three 

 tall posts, which are let into the ground for some depth and 

 carry the ridge-piece. One of these posts is in the centre, 

 and one at each end close to the walls inside the house. 

 This is a wise provision, as the roofs are generally of very 

 high pitch, and in violent winds would need much more sup- 

 port than could be given by being merely placed on the walls. 

 The gables are always thatched with the same materials as 

 the roof, either of long grass or the rush called Mrana. The 

 ridge covering is of another kind of grass, and is fastened 

 down with laths of split bamboo, and further secured by 

 layers of clay. At each gable the outermost timbers cross 

 at the apex, and project upwards for about a foot or two, the 

 extremities being notched and often ornamented with a small 

 wooden figure of a bird. In the houses of people of rank 

 the tandro-trano or " house-horns " are three or four feet long, 

 while in some of tl.e old royal houses they project ten or 

 twelve feet, the length being apparently some indication of 

 the rank of the owner. In some tribes these gable orna- 

 ments, which have become only conventional horns among 

 the Hovas, are carved in exact resemblance of the pair 

 adoruin" the head of a buUock. 



