Primitive ArcMfeciure. 25 
is attested by the vast number of remains and relics we find therein. 
Its use by the Kock Veddahs— one of the rudest races of mankind — 
has continued to the present day. History, however, furnishes 
other reasons for the use of the cave. Thus hermits affect them 
that they may be uncontaminated by worldly things, and the fisher- 
man of the Yank-tse still uses them, as they are most convenient 
for his occupation. 
As man became more accustomed to his surrounding, as his ideas 
became stronger and more definite, he set about building his own 
shelter. At first it was a mere pile of leaves and branches. If sub- 
ject to a constant wind, he arranged a semi-circle of branches thrust 
upright into the ground, and often built a fire in the open side.^ 
In a more advanced stage he builds a circle of branches, brings their 
tops together, and ties them with a strip of bark. But the hut is 
still incomplete, and remains so until the frame is interwoven with 
cross-branches and twigs, sometimes, as with the Fuegians, only on 
the windward side, sometimes, as with the Damaras, over the whole. 
The shed has an origin equally early as the hut, although it was 
developed differently. In fact it depended on the material on hand 
whether this form or the other was adopted. In Australia, ^ where 
large strips of bark are readily obtained by the natives, a lean-to is 
the usual form: in Fernando Po.^ on the other hand, a coarse mat- 
ting stretched out on four poles is in universal use. The latter may 
be considered the normal form of shed, and we can trace its progress 
from these slightly inclined roofs to the elaborately finished, high- 
pitched roofs of the hot regions of South America. 
The early habitations of man may be roughly classified as circular 
and rectangular. Much speculation has been indulged in as to the 
causes of this difference, and it is a singular fact that the two styles 
of dwellings are frequently found side by side in districts where 
there does not seem to be a natural cause for any distinction. It has 
been suggested that rectangular houses are characteristic of the 
communistic manner of living and circular ones of single families. 
The members of a single family can readily sleep around one fire ; 
when several families are congregated under one roof several fire- 
places are required, and the house is extended, usually in one direc- 
tion. While this is true, there are many circular houses occupied in 
common, and there are also numerous instances among the rudest 
* Tasmanian Journal, i., 250. 
=■ Angas's Aust. and N. Zealand, ii., 213. 
' Allen and Thompson's Narrative, ii., .197 
