HABITATIONS AND FURNITURE. 



137 



[1900, PI. VI] ) leaving in the middle an open space, for préférence occupied by the pigs. 



The origin of this shape of house is presumably situated in the eastern part of its zone 

 of distribution, from where it may hâve been taken over by western neighbours, using it only 

 for spécial purposes. Thus, the people of Tobâdi told that the right to live in a pyramid-shaped 

 house, belongs by no means to everybody and that at Ingrâs it is exclusively allowed to those, 

 who are connected by descent or relationship with Tobâdi. To the west of Humboldt Bay, 

 for instance on Lake Sentâni and at Sâgeisârâ, not one private person, not even the village 

 chief lives in a pyramid-shaped dwelling, which, being still more strongly specialised hère, 

 only occurs as watch-house or temple. No doubt, the graduai distribution from east to 

 west is still going on at the présent day and as a proof of this, I can quote the érection in 

 1903 of a second pyramid-shaped watch-house at Ifâr (fig. 161), which previously only possessed 

 one similar dwelling. Hère at Ifâr, the distribution towards the west lias, as far as Lake Sentâni is 

 concerned, found its présent limit. As part of the type the pyramidical house must hâve a wooden 

 image on the top of the roof. This image, manufactured out of the lower part of the stem 

 of a palm, according to De Clercq and Schmeltz [1893, 55, PI. XXXVI, fig. 10], a kind 

 of Areca or Ptychosperma, often shows towards the lower part the graduai thickening of the 

 original stem, which made HORST [1S93, 151] talk of a figure in priest's robes; not uncom- 

 monly however, the image is more slender and the lower part eut in the form of a horizontal 

 disk. The fact that this image also occurs in H. B. and on Lake Sentâni on temples and 

 watch-houses, is not necessarily connected with the destination of thèse buildings. The image 

 on a men's watch-house at Asé, was, as people told me, of the female sex and called soso; 

 in Tobâdi, according to KONING [1903, 258], thèse images are called korwar or karwari (see 

 further Chapter X and XII). 



The third type is characterised by a horizontal ridge pôle, generally straight, 



Fig. 89. Village of Ajâpo; Lake Sentâni. 



but sometimes curved upwards at both ends, therefore saddle-shaped (see fig. 88 and FlNSCH 

 [1888, 355]), and called on Lake Sentâni koidé. 



Although, as remarked above, this shape of dwelling already occurs in H. B. and even 

 in Sékâ mixed with the pyramid form, it is only quite common on Lake Sentâni, as is shown 



Nova Guinea. III. Ethnography. 18 



