roTH] HUTS AND HOUSES 263 
on both sides, the whole being covered with ahouai leaves. People 
entered by a small opening in one of the sides (PBA, 141-142), 
which makes one incline to the belief that the ends were closed. The 
size of the dwelling was dependent upon the number of people oc- 
cupying it. There were some that held from 20 to 30 households. 
Increased height and width of building is obtained by raising the 
lower ends of the rafters on forked sticks, as in their large meeting 
house or taboiii (pl. 63 A; fig. 76 B), the common meeting place of 
members of the same nation, where they receive strangers, bury 
their dead, and hold their solemn festivals, or rather debauches. It is 
a kind of small hall, 50 or 60 feet long and 10 or 15 feet wide. Huge 
forked posts are fixed at the center and at the ends, which support 
the big pieces of timber for ridging. Rafters are then put in posi- 
tion on either side, these being supported below on smaller forked 
posts, about 4 or 5 feet high, spaced along the whole length of the 
structure; the wall plates or runners are tied to the inner sides of 
these posts, the roof being of the same materials as that of the other 
houses. The two ends, which serve as entrances, are always open 
(PBA, 145-146). 
313. The following table supplies the Warrau, Arawak, and Carib 
terms for the different parts of a rectangular house: 
English. | Warrau. Arawak, | Carib. 
Ridgepole. akwa-eku. ti shi-do. detano. 
Main post. hano-aréko. bahuta-bara. jéturu, déturu. 
Rafter. eburu. baudura. lardru. 
Wall plate. ere 
paki: ahoto-ekuhu. bahu-uinddito. appo-pono. 
Runner. 
Tiebeam. are maka. bai-ura. surapang. 
Wall post. kanokwa-amuna. bahuse. wak4bu. 
Rods (thatch). hanoko-abamahu. timidi-kusakwanna. | iararu. 
314. The way in which certain habitations have been grouped 
together as pile dwellings is extremely unsatisfactory, but in the 
absence of accurate and detailed descriptions of the methods of con- 
struction, better can not be done. As the group now stands, houses 
on piles or posts are neither peculiar to one particular tribe nor 
to the swampy coastland, but may be observed among many tribes 
far inland, in country both high and dry. At the same time ordi- 
nary (circular, oval, or rectangular) houses with a flooring con- 
structed on the tiebeams joining the side framing posts and the 
consequent disuse of the ground surface by the occupants must not 
