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



indications that some forms of communal association preceded the 

 isolation of the family turn up in several unexpected ways. At page 

 140 of his travels D'Albertis illustrates a " Marea " at Paras village 

 300 ft. long by about 36 wide, this being the great communal 

 building, or sacred house, tabu to women, and in this instance the 

 houses of the married folk, also built on piles, are two rows of little 

 huts, one along each side of the great building, distinct from it, yet 

 with little flying bridges to it, across which the men alone could pass, 

 the women's access to them being by little doors and ladders on the 

 outside, as in fig. B. This arrangement and isolation of the married 

 people's quarters, on either side of a common hall or passage, seems to 

 underlie the construction of houses very generally all over this part of 

 the world, as in figure A. In the case of the " Mou Miori," (D'Alberts) 

 1. c. pp. 319-20, these married quarters are no longer little appendages 

 aloug each side of the Marea, but are really distinct houses, and set 

 back, so as to form a wide street, in which the communal Marea is 

 placed. And here again we see that this arrangement as a street, 

 is very common, from Assam to the Pacific. We even see that the 

 clear space between the rows of houses used for dancing on, has a 

 distinct name, the " Akra " of the Oraons, the " Inrrai" of neAV Hebrides, 

 Ac, fig 0. All these houses are built on piles, 3 or 4 to 8-10 ft. long, 

 and have the siesta platform S, projecting in front beyond the eaves; 

 the "Airaba" of New Guinea, the "Tung gong" of Miris, and 

 "Humtong" of Nagas. In all the figures, A. B. C. Co are the com- 

 munal and M the married quarters. 



The building of houses on piles which is very common among 

 races having communal barracks, has long been a stumbling block to 

 anthropologists. Mr. Crawford in his " History of the Archipelago" 

 p. 159, attributes it to the people inhabiting marshes, banks of rivers, 

 and the sea coast. Others say as a means of security from attacks of 

 enimies or wild animals. But as Sir Henry Yule pointed out in the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Institute i February 1880, page 296, it 

 cannot be due to these and is really a race character. 



The most likely cause for the custom seems to be the presence of 

 the pig, which, as a domestic, or semi-domestic animal, is kept by almost 

 all pile building races, and which unless there were some means taken 

 to effectually frustrate its depredations, would devour everything edible 

 within reach, infants included, as some of the people themselves point 

 out. They could not go out to their jhums, without leaving a guard 

 behind them. This " pile building " is one of the allied customs before 

 alluded to ; and exhibits the usual variation due to influence of physi 

 cal surroundings. 



