HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



form of a square board house was ever made in aboriginal times, 

 though the modern board house copied from the white man has com- 

 pletely replaced all forms of aboriginal house throughout the Pomo 

 region. 



In the valley region the houses were usually circular or rectangular 

 in ground-plan, though sometimes they took the form of an L. A 

 framework of poles was first erected. The vertical poles were placed 

 firmly in the ground about a foot and a half or two feet apart, brought 

 together at the top, and, in the elliptical house, firmly bound along a 

 horizontal ridge-pole which was usually about half the length of the 

 house. On the outside of these, horizontal poles were bound from 

 about fifteen to eighteen inches apart, each crossing of a horizontal 

 and a vertical pole being firmly bound together with withes or grape- 

 vine. Upon this framework was laid, course upon course, a thatch of 

 long grass, each course being held in place by a horizontal pole which 

 was covered by the lower edge of the next higher course of thatch. 

 This presented to the weather an even and thoroughly waterproof 

 surface. A slot, perhaps six inches wide and about the length of the 

 ridge-pole, was left unthatched and served as an outlet for the smoke. 

 This was the regular winter grass house, called kadi' tea (C, S). It was 

 watertight and warm, but must ordinarily be rebuilt each season. 

 Informants also stated that a fairly small, conical grass house, called 

 ttsillu'lutc (C), was formerly made in the valley region. 



None of these grass-thatched houses has been used for many years, 

 and unfortunately it has been impossible to secure any actual photo- 

 graphs. Powers 1 shows a drawing of the L-shaped grass house. In 

 speaking of the division of the Pomo which he calls the "Gallinomero", 

 he says: "The remnant of them now living a little way below Healds- 

 burg occupy one great wigwam, Ventura with his subjects, twenty 

 or thirty together, on the most democratic equality. This wigwam 

 is in the shape of the capital letter L, made up of slats leaned up to 

 a ridge-pole, and heavily thatched. All along the middle of it the 

 different families or generations have their fires, while they sleep next 

 the walls, lying on the ground underneath rabbit-skin and other less 

 elegant robes, and amid a filthy clutter of baskets, dogs, large conical- 

 shaped baskets of acorns stacked one upon the other, and all the 

 wretched trumpery dear to the aboriginal heart. There are three 

 narrow holes for doors, one at either end and one at the elbow." 



This was a survival of the communal house which was quite fre- 

 quently found, at least in the valley and the lake regions, and which 



1 Contr. N. A. Ethn., Ill, 1877, p. 175 and fig. 20. 



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