318 



A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



side, a platter whereon a morsel of food is offered every time 

 they eat in its presence. Every time they drink they dip 

 their iinger and thumb in the fluid, and flick a drop or two 

 upward with a few muttered words of invocation. Along 

 the four sides spaces for sleeping on are raised some nine 

 to twelve inches above the level of the rahanralan or floor of 

 the house. The inmates sleep on small, neatly made bamboo 

 mats, and rest their heads on a piece of squared bamboo with 

 rounded edges, exactly similar to the Chinese pillow. In one 



•,^^ 



HOUSE IN TIMOK-LAUT. 



gable is the foean or fire-place, and opposite to it on a trellis- 

 work platform is placed the cranium of the father of the Head 

 of the house. Indian corn and other comestibles and various 

 articles are stored on little platforms stretching between the 

 rafters, and their scanty clothing and other articles are sus- 

 pended from the roof by wooden contrivances often elaborately 

 designed and elegantly carved (see pp. 320, 324). After seeing 

 how elaborately covered almost everything they used was with 

 carvings, executed with undoubted taste and surprising skill, 



