138 



G. A. T. VAN DER SANDE. 



in fig. 89, the village of Ajàpo, seen from the N. E., on which only one small, pyramid-shaped 

 watch-house occurs. The large house of the village chief, situated transversely at the end of 

 the peninsula, along both sides of which the remainder of the village is built, is characteristic 

 on account of the two small, pyramidical cupola's placed on the long ridge. Thèse buildings, 

 imè, never stand hère on dry land, as was already stated by BlNK [1897], by VAN ASBECK 

 [Buletin N°. 41] and by KONING [1903, 275], they are ahvays pile-dwellings, which, where 

 the space allows it, are built parallel with the shore, and otherwise, if possible on account 

 of the depth of the lake, at right angles to the line of the shore. 



The roof of u n plai ted sago fronds, jàm, (nowhere did I see, as reported of K. W. Land, 

 (HaGEN [1899, 201]) the walls and the roof made of plaited leaves; thatching with Pandanus 

 leaves, common in K. W. Land ([1. a], BlRO [1901, 20]), I saw only with small or 

 temporary huts; roofs of bark are mentioned by SELIGMANN [1906, 227] of Tivi in 

 British N. G.) descends on both sides from the main beam over the edges of the floor, 

 thus the eaves hide the low, barely 1 m. high, side wall of sago stalks, tabô, simbèri (?). 

 On the short sides the gables of palm leaves are almost vertical. In most cases, there 

 is only one door opening, inemau, mimau, in the middle of the short side turned towards 

 the shore (fig. 90), where the floor is continued in a platform, nariô, from which the shore is 



reached along one or more 

 small stems. Apart from this 

 opening there are, hère and 

 there, in the long side walls 

 hidden holes, through which 

 I saw the women pas- 

 sing in and out of their 

 boats, when thèse, as on 

 fig. 94, are lying along those 

 sides. The house of the vil- 

 lage chief of Asé, in fig. 94 

 the one most to the right of 

 the two large dwellings, was 

 ± 80 m. long and ± 10 m. 

 broad. The light coloured, 

 oblique margin, which is 

 noticed on the roof, consists 

 of planks of old, worn-out 

 boats; only the most im- 

 portant buildings hâve such margins (see figs. 90, 92, 94). The house of the chief at Ajapô 

 is also very long, but communal dwellings of British N. G. are 512 feet (Mac Farlane 

 [1888, 70]), 600 — 700 feet (Annual Report [1899 — 1900, p. XII, 99]), up to 400 yards in 

 length (HUNT [1905, 8]). 



At Asé I witnessed the construction of a new house for the recently married son of 

 the old village chief, ondôfrâ, and I could not help being struck by the importance of this 

 work with such primitive means. ERDWEG [1902, 355] gave a lively description of the great 



Fig. 90. Shore end of a dwelling; Asé. 



