318 J. Butler — Rough Notes on the Ant/ ami Ndgas. [No. 4, 



lined with an overhanging tangled mass of prickly creepers and brushwood, 

 sometimes through a steep ravine and along the bed of an old torrent, in 

 either case admitting of the passage of only one man at a time. These 

 paths lead up to gates, or rather door-ways, closed by strong, thick and 

 heavy wooden doors, hewn out of one piece of solid wood. The doors are 

 fastened from the inside and admit of being easily barricaded, and thus 

 rendered impregnable against all attack. These doors again are often over- 

 looked and protected by raised look-outs, on which, whenever the clan is at 

 feud, a careful watch is kept up night and day ; not unfrequently the only 

 approach to one of these outer gates is up a notched pole from fifteen to 

 twenty feet high. The several clans, of which there are from two to eight 

 in every village, are frequently divided off by deep lanes and stone walls, and 

 whenever an attack is imminent, the several roads leading up to the village 

 are studded over with stout pegs, driven deep into the ground, which very 

 effectually prevents anything like a rush. On the higher ranges, the roads 

 connecting the several villages, as well as the paths leading down to their 

 cultivation are made with considerable skill, the more precipitous hills 

 being turned with easy gradients, instead of the road being taken up 

 one side of the hill and down the other as is usually the case among hill- 

 men. 



Their houses are built with a ground-floor, the slopes of the hills 

 being dug down to a rough level, no mat covers the bare ground. They 

 are generally placed in irregular lines, facing inwards, and are constructed 

 after a pattern I have never seen anywhere except in these hills. These 

 houses have high gable ends whose eaves almost touch the ground on either 

 side, this I believe to be a precaution against high winds. The gable in 

 front, which, in the case of men of wealth or position, is often decorated 

 with broad, handsome weather boards, is from 15 to 30 feet high, and the 

 roof slopes off in rear, as well as towards the sides, the gable at the back 

 being only about from 10 to 15 feet in height. In width the houses vary 

 from about 20 to 40 feet, and in length from about 30 to 60 feet. In 

 many of the villages each house is surrounded by a stone wall, marking 

 off the "compound" so to say, wherein the cattle are tethered for the 

 night. Half the space under the front gable, is often walled in with boards 

 as a loose stall, and bamboo baskets are tied up under the eaves of the 

 house to give shelter to their poultry. Pig-styes also, in the corner of a 

 compound, are not uncommon. The house itself is divided off into from 

 two to three compartments according to the wealth or taste of its owner. 

 In the front room, the grain is stored away in huge baskets made of bamboo 

 from 5 to 10 feet high and about 5 feet in diameter. In the inner room, 

 there is a large open fire-place, and around it are placed thick, broad 

 planks, for sitting and sleeping upon, and the back room of all generally 



