224 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



hours' work, and abandoned as carelessly as a sports- 

 man in our forest abandons the shack he has built to 

 camp in while hunting in the vicinity. 



To the Guiana Indian a house is a place to hang 

 up his hammock, and "those of his wife and children, 

 and often of his friends and their wives and children. 

 A popular writer, in describing one of these habita- 

 tions, says : 



" Their architecture differs considerably, accord- 

 ing to the district. As a rule, the climate is so warm 

 that houses are but little needed, all that is required 

 being a simple roof overhead. The ordinary kind of 

 habitation is nothing more than a mere shed or sort 

 of barn, without the walls, supported on posts and 

 thatched with lea\'es. 



" From the posts and rafters are hung the personal 

 goods of the natives, such as pans, paddles, clubs, 

 guns, bows and arrows, and similar articles, while 

 from one or two of the crossbeams is sure to be 

 hanging the singular cassava press. Between the 

 upright posts, and sometimes from the transverse 

 beams, are suspended the hammocks, some of which 

 are almost invariably occupied, as the master has a 

 natural genius for lying in his hammock when not 

 absolutely obliged to be upon his feet. The number 

 of hammocks under a single roof is almost incred- 

 ible. They are hung in tiers, one above the other, 

 like the berths on board a passenger ship, and when 

 thirty or forty of them are occupied at once it seems 

 rather wonderful that the building should be able to 

 stand such a strain. 



