34 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



4 to 6 feet off the ground, on logs. The thatch comes low down to protect the 

 rather flimsy walls from the wind and rain. Cane leaves are very commonly used, 

 but thatching material varies, of course, according to the locality : it generally lasts 

 about three years. The pitch of the roof is exceedingly steep. An open platform 

 projects from the front verandah that leads into the house. There are two en- 

 trances, one at the front and one at the back, that are reached by the notched 

 logs that do duty for ladders. The living room is generally about 30 ft. by 24. In 

 all hill-houses trophies of the chase adorn the walls. The master of the house sleeps 

 near the door and the remainder of the family on the further side of the fire-place. 

 Such household duties as cleaning grain are carried on near the back door. Shelves 

 are hung from the roof to hold the family belongings. The room is exceedingly dark 

 as light can only enter through the low doorways. The flooring is of split bamboos ; 

 the fire-place is of earth and stones. Entering by the front door there is a long passage 

 running down the right side of the house ; this leads to the latrines, which are over the 

 pigsties, and provides a peculiar but most effective form of sanitation. 



Galong houses are raised high off the ground sometimes to a height of 12 feet, bamboo 

 being the usual struts. Memong houses are built in orderly rows, a practice followed 

 largely by the Abors, but other Galong villages that have been visited presented a 

 less regular appearance. The Galongs divide off the living room, and make special 

 accommodation for the women, thus following in a modified form the Mishmi custom of 

 providing cubicles behind the common room of the house for the different families 

 that live under the same roof. The Daflas (like the Mishmis) live several families 

 together, under one roof, but provide only one big living room. 



A typical Subansiri house would be about 80 feet long and about 20 feet broad. 

 The Subansiri houses are substantially built of planks and firmly supported on struts, 

 like Abor and Galong houses. The western Dafla houses are smaller and flimsily 

 built, generally of bamboo ; whilst instead of providing strong well- thatched pens 

 raised off the ground for their live stock, like their neighbours the eastern Daflas, they 

 almost invariably herd them together under their houses. Fire-places are made at 

 intervals down the centre of the room. The usual shelves hanging from the roof 

 are provided. At the end of the living room the grain is cleaned, and here the women 

 give birth to their children. This portion of the room is partially screened off. As 

 in Abor houses the head of the Dafla establishment has his place nearest the door, and 

 the principal members of the household sit round the first fire-place, generally on short 

 bits of log, smoking incessantly and passing round the ever-flowing gourd. Along 

 the left side of the house runs a narrow passage, in which the beer is brewed, and on 

 the right side is a long open verandah in which fowls are kept. At the far end of 

 the living room in the Subansiri houses a door opens on to a narrow verandah leading 

 down to the pigsties. All hill granaries are raised off the ground on piles and an 

 attempt is made to keep out the rats by providing the struts with broad wooden 

 discs. 



Besides the ordinary dwelling houses and granaries Abor villages invariably contain 

 a barrack for the young men called the moshai) and often, but by no means invariably , 



