531 



fixed to a framework of rafters and battens, the former radiat- 

 ing from the top of the gable, the latter being placed obliquely 

 (as in the diagram). The rafters are attached at the top to 

 the ridge-poles and at the bottom to a horizontal pole (Bahdgu 

 Ana). 



The front of the house (Itsdri) is, as mentioned, higher 

 than the rear (Dini). The front is also ornamented. Access 

 to the house is usually gained through the front, on which 

 side the facilities are much better. 



In very small houses access to the lower platform 

 (verandah) is gained directly by means of a sloping log, which 

 serves as a ladder. In all the larger houses, however, there 

 is an intermediary platform (A una clou), or there may be 

 two, in which case the sloping log leads to the first and lower 

 one. Such platforms rest on four piles (called Avna dou 

 Bogota), which are usually thick and not very well finished or 

 deeply sunk. In some houses, though not in all, an oblique 

 stake, serving as a ladder, is also placed at the rear of the 

 platform. 



The access to the upper compartment is gained from the 

 verandah by a trap door ( Urunoga), an opening in the roof 

 of the verandah or upper floor some two to three metres from 

 the front, a ladder leading from the lower to the upper plat- 

 form. The ladder (Ordho) consists of a board with pear- 

 ,shaped holes cut out. 



The house decorations consist of carvings done on 

 parts, of pendants hung along the eaves, especially on the 

 front gable, and of pigs' jaws or fish tails bound to the front 

 roof pile and to the front Bahdgu ana (horizontal pole running 

 along the thatch eave in the front). The carvings are done on 

 the front end of the O'ltre (top ridge pole) which projects 

 beyond the front gable, as well as on the ends of the Deredna 

 (longitudinal roof battens). The carving resembles, roughly, 

 fish tails and snakes' heads, but the natives do not so identify 

 them, saying that they have no meaning, and are only tradi- 

 tional designs. The outer sides of the six main piles are 

 carved, the pattern consisting of several parallel rows of four- 

 sided pyramids. The same ''crocodile skin" pattern is carved 

 on the roof of the verandah (under aspect of the upper floor). 

 In two or three houses in Maihi village, in one house in Kurere, 

 and in one house in Derebai there were large crocodiles carved 

 at full length of some two to three metres in very deep bas- 

 relief. 



The pigs' jaws and other remains of feasts are perhaps 

 the most characteristic decoration in all Western Papuo- 

 Melanesian tribes. 



