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SUMATRA'S WEST COAST 



Oriental structures. The floors of nearly all sag in the middle 

 and the ends of the houses are raised on high posts, frequently 

 carved and sometimes filled with bamboo wickerwork. They 

 are often communal in nature, as many as three or four families 

 living in the same dwelling. In front of each dwelling-house 

 stands a small square building, more highly decorated often 

 than the house itself, which is used for a goedang or rice granary, 

 and no native compound of houses is complete without such a 

 goedang. The interiors of these houses are not without modern 



IIHTKI. AT I'ADAXii I'AXIUANi;, SIMATRA 



conveniences in the way of comfortable beds, with pillows and 

 canopies, the better of the latter being often decorated with 

 curious and showy pendent ornaments made entirely of the 

 white pith of some tropical plant. These houses are more com- 

 fortable than those of any other race in the Dutch East Indies, 

 and seem luxurious when compared with the dirty hovels of 

 the Maoris or the pebble-floored homes of the Samoans. 



Although my friend and I were prepared by the enthusiastic 

 accounts of the Dutch officials to see a more comely race than 

 the Javanese in Sumatra, we were surprised and charmed by the 



