1892.] S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Eaces. 257 



instruments are also tabu to them, but are played by the " Malassi " 

 or unmarried young men ; and women eat by themselves. 



Thus we see on the great island of Papua amongst races now 

 distinct in physique and language from our Indo-Mongoliaus, Dravi- 

 dians, and Kols, these singular communal barracks. Under the names of 

 " Dubu, Marea, or Buam ram ra," these peculiar and conspicuous semi- 

 sacred houses are built on piles, decorated with skull trophies, used as 

 guest and council houses, with the projecting siesta platform, are the 

 sleeping places of the young men, and strictly tabu to the women, the 

 family live in subordinate huts. 



In Dr. Guppy's " Solmon Islands " page 57, we find that : — " In 

 the large villages, the houses are .generally built (on piles) in double 

 rows with a common thoroughfare between ; the tambu house occupies 

 usually a central position, and has a staging in front. Page 67 : — 

 " In the the tambu houses of St. Christoval and the adjoining Islands, 

 we have a style of building on which all the mechanical skill of which 

 the natives are possessed has been brought to bear. These sacred 

 buildings have many and varied uses. Women are forbidden to enter 

 their walls, and in some coast villages as at Sapuna in the Island of 

 S. Duna, where the tambu house overlooks the beach, women are not 

 permitted to cross the beach in front. The interior of these houses 

 is free to any man to lie down and sleep in." 



If we turn to the Bismark Archipelago, the Louisiades, and New 

 Hebrides we find either recent or former traces in them of these social 

 barracks and many of the customs which so commonly accompany 

 them such as " jhuming," tatooing, pile building, head-hunting, &c., and 

 here there are canoe houses. 



Mr. W. Powell, referring to the little houses of the natives on 

 New Britain, says : — " For each village two large houses are built; one 

 for the men the other for the women, no man is allowed in the woman's 

 house, nor is any woman allowed in the man's house, the latter is 

 generally used for a council house. They are lined with bunks made 

 of bamboo which extend along both sides, serving as beds or seats." 



Near Port Webber he found, in a clearing, several houses, a large 

 one in the centre, a council or reception house, with the large "gara- 

 moot" or wooden drum before it. This house " might have been as 

 in other parts of New Britain, a young man's sleeping Jwuse." 



" When in want of women for their young men to marry (as they 

 may not marry into their own tribe), they make a raid against the 

 bush tribes of Byning and seize the young women, eating the bodies 

 of the men killed or taken prisoners." 



Captain C. Bridge in the Proceedings B. G. S., September 1886, 

 page 549, informs us that "at Ambrym (New Hebrides) and some 



