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G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



ail the inhabitants can assist in the construction of the new house. This, possibly gave rise 

 to the ■ erroneous opinion, which Von RosENBERG [1875, 92] formed of the Arfak and which 

 was afterwards accepted by KOHLER [1886, 7], viz. that generally ail assistants, apart from 

 a right to be fed, could also claim a place in the new building. At ail events this is not 

 the case on Lake Sentâni, the work is done for the sake of the food, just the same as in the 

 case of the construction of the boats. After this the thatching is made from the fronds of the 

 sago palm, sometimes in the way described by Pr ATT [1906, 191], differing from the Malay way. 

 On the floor, the usual laths, wa, consisting of the outer layer of a palm, hère called kabû, are 

 laid. Where thèse laths were lying transversely, I saw along the middle pôles which support 

 the main beam and which are sometimes ornamented with carvings, a narrow longitudinal layer 

 of laths, by which a convenient passage was formed. Both to the left and to the right a 

 number of small apartments is formed in thèse family résidences, by partitioning them 

 with vertically placed sago leaf stalks, semberi, whilst between thèse apartments there are 

 open spaces ail with large fire places. Whilst the rooms are intended for married people and 

 during confinement (for which no separate houses exist hère), close to thèse fire places, ail the 

 household paraphernalia is found, which the woman requires for her daily work, viz. the 

 préparation of the meals and also the manufacture and repair of bags, nets, etc. Thèse houses 



Fig. 92. Platform above the water; Seis âra. 



are never provided with Windows, otherwise then in the shape of part of the thatching 

 lifted up and supported by a small stick and from which the women watched the visiting 

 strangers. This opening, the door and the often occurring defects of the roof serve as 

 ventilators. 



As regarding ventilation, SCHMELTZ [1904, 202, fig. 8] illustrâtes a Tugeri house of 

 similar shape (but not on pôles) in which both halves of the roof do not meet in the same 

 horizontal main beam, but hâve each a separate ridge pôle, the eastern half of the roof 



