,S U M A T R Jl. 
of ha^bitatlon. The rows of houfes form commonly a qtiadraBgle, with 
paffages or lanes at intervals bet^veen the buildings, where, in the more 
confiderable villages, live the lower clafs of inhabitants, and where 
alfo their paddec-houfes or granaries are ere(fted. In the middle of the 
fquaxe flands the baUi^ or town hall, a room about fifty to an hundred 
feet long, and twenty or thirty wide, without divifion, and open at the 
fides, excepting when on particular occaiions it is hung witk mars or 
chintz. 
In their buildings neither ftone, brick, cor clay, are^vef made ufe of, 
which is the cafe in moll countries where timber abounds, and where 
the warmth of the climate renders the free admifTion of air, a matter 
rather to be defired, than guarded againft ; feutiii Sumatra the frequency 
of earthquakes is alone fufficient to have prevented the natives from 
adopting a fubftantial mode of building. The frames of the houfes are 
of wood, the underplate refting on pillars of about fix or eight feet in 
height, which have a fort of ca^iital, but no bafe, and are wider at top 
than at bottom. The people appear to have no idea of architedlure as 
a fcience, though much ingenuity is often Ihewn in the manner of work- 
ing up their materials, and they have, the Malays at leaft, technical 
terms correfponding to all thofe employed by our houfe carpenters, Their 
conception of proportions is extremely rade, often leaving thofe parts 
of a frame which have the greate ft bearing, with the weakeft fupport^ 
and lavifliing ftrength upon inadeqiiate prcfiTuic* I'or the floorings they 
lay whole kamhms (a well known fpecies of large cane) of four or fi\^ 
inches diameter, clofe to each other, and faflen them at the ends to the 
timbers. Acrofs thefe are laid laths of fplit bamboo, about an inch 
wide and the length of the room, which are tied down with filaments of 
the rattan ; and over thefe are ufually fpread mats of different kinds. 
.This fort of flooring has an elafticity, alarming to Ibrangers when they 
£rft tread on it. The fides of the houfes are generally clofed in with 
pakffpif, which is the bamboo half fplit, opened, and rendered flat by 
notching the circular joints withmfide, and laying it to dry in the fun, 
prefied down with weights. This i$ fometimes nailed on to the upright 
V.' timbers 
