518 
THE WALLS. — FIRE PLACES. — SIZE OF THE HOUSE. 
the height of the posts, generally level at top, or sometimes fancifully 
indented or waved from one post to the other : its thickness is 
between four and six inches, and it extends only round the front part 
of the house, or that part which is comprised in the front-court ; it 
is sometimes built separate from the posts and at about six inches on 
the outside of them. At the distance of about three feet and a half 
within these posts, stands the principal, or outward, wall of the build- 
ing, reaching up to the roof and constructed of the same materials as 
the half-wall. The space between these walls, is commonly used as 
a sitting-place, when the heat of the sun renders shade desirable ; or 
in rainy or cold weather, at which time a fire is made on the floor, in 
a placed hollowed out for this purpose. 
At other times the fire is always made in a similar hollow in the 
floor of the front-court. This fireplace, as already mentioned, is a 
circular and very shallow basin, having its edge raised a little above 
the floor, and about two feet in diameter. The fires which are made 
in these, are very small, as well on account of the scarcity of fuel in 
the vicinity of so large a town, as of the fear of sparks or flame 
catching the thatch : for, where all the materials are so combustible 
and in this climate generally so dry, the destruction of such a house, 
would be but the affair of perhaps twenty or thirty minutes. 
The size of the house properly so called, or the space enclosed by 
the principal or outward wall, is from eight to thirteen feet in 
diameter ; which are the measures of the smallest, and of the largest 
houses. In this wall there are no windows, or opening for the 
admission of light, such being unnecessary, as this part of the dwel- 
ling is appropriated to the purpose of a sleeping-place : it serves also 
as a store-room for clothing and arms, for which, darkness is con-^ 
venient as it conceals the property from the knowledge of their 
neighbours or of strangers. The only opening therefore, is the 
doorway ; which may be better described as, a hole in the wall just 
large enough to admit a person to creep through, and of the shape 
of an irregular oval, the larger end of which being upwards, and 
the smaller a foot above the floor. 
