256 S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Races. [No. 3, 



Sigr. D'Albertis, in several places in his travels in New Guinea, 

 describes the " Marea," as gnest and council houses, tabu to women, 

 and situated at the end of a street of houses. At page 194 he refers to 

 a corpse which was " taken to the house of the unmarried young men." 

 In many works of travel we see illustrations of the Marea or Duhu 

 in New Guinea, as being situated at the end of a street, where the 

 houses of the married people ai'e placed end on, in two rows facing 

 each other. At page 140 D'Albertis illustrates a "Marea" (at Para's 

 village) 300 ft. long x 36 to 45 wide, this being the public hall and sacred 

 house, but in this instance the huts of the married people are built 

 (also on piles,) as a row of miniature houses along each side of the 

 main communal building, and joined thereto by little flying 

 bridges, across which the women dare not pass, their exit being by 

 little doors and ladders down on the outer side. 



Viewed in plan this arrangement of the large communal hall in 

 the centre, with the married quarters all divided off along each side, 

 is absolutely identical with the ground plan of many Indo-Mongolian 

 houses, where there is a long and wide common central apartment, 

 at times reduced to a passage, and off which on each side, are the 

 rooms of tho married couples all partitioned off, with their own fire- 

 places, and with ladders and doors in the outer walls. 



Among the Arfak villages Sr. D'Albertis alludes to the houses built 

 on piles, wherein tho men and women live, in one, divided down the 

 middle by a partition, the men one side the women on the other, aud 

 they eat apart. 



Captain Strachan in his "Expedition to New Guinea," page 166, 

 says : — Some of the houses of the Turi Turi were from 100 to 150 

 ft. long, the women and the men lived in separate houses, not even 

 tho married people living together. The houses are raised from the 

 ground and a broad step ladder leads to a platform at either end. 

 There are also platforms at the sides with several small doors or 

 openings at intervals along the building." Sr. D'Albertis, (pp. 319-20), 

 referring to the Mou, Miori, and Erine villages, says that the houses 

 are in 2 rows, while large houses called " Marea " on piles, and tabu to 

 women, contain skull trophies, and have no doors, but platforms in 

 front called " Araiba " 6 to 12 feet high. These are the young un- 

 married men's sleeping houses. 



Dr. Holrong refers to these " Marea " or " Dubus," when he says : 

 M The young men live together in one building which is distinguished 

 by the figure of a man." (Pro., E, G. S. 1888, page 602). 



Mr. J. C. Galton writing in "Nature," (page 205, 1880) of Maclay's 

 travels, says that the "Buam ram ra," or sacred house is strictly tabu to 

 women and children, while the "Baruru" or great drum and all musical 



