5^ SUMATRA. 
not unfrcquently over the galoorapye; in which cafe the roof is fo 
. durable as never to require renewal, the ejoo beiiig of all vegetable fub- 
ftances the leafl prone to decay, and for this reafon it is a common 
pradice to wrap a quantity of it round the end of timbers or pofts which 
are to be fixed in the ground. I faw a houfe about twenty miles up 
Manna river, belonging to Du patty Bandar Augoong, the roof of which 
was of fifty years landing. The larger houfes have three pitches in the 
roof; the middle one, under which the door is placed, being much 
lower than the other two. In fmaller houfes there are but two pitches 
wbich are always of unequal Height, and the entrance is in the fmaller,, 
which covers a kind of hall, or cooking room. 
There is another kind of hotifc, CTeQ:ed moftly for a temporary pur- 
pofe, the roof of which is fiat, and is covered in a very unconunon, 
fimple, and ingenious manner. Large, flreight bamboos are cut of a 
length fuiEcient to He acrofs the houfe, and being fplit cxadly in two, 
and the joints knocked out, they are difpofed in an order alternately 
concave and convex, in fuch manner that each of the latter falls 'mvo 
two of the former which He next it, fomething like the laying of pan- 
tils* The convex bamboos perfe6:Iy defend the building from raiir, and 
the concave ferve as gutters to carry the water off** 
The mode of afcent to the houfes is by a piece of timber, or ftout bam- 
boo cut 'in notches, which latter an European cannot avail himfelf of, 
efpecially as the precaution is feldom taken of binding them faft. 
Thefe are the wonderful light foaling ladders, which the old Portuguefe 
writers defcribed to have been ntcd by the natives of Acheen in their 
wars with their nation. It is probable that the apprehenfion of danger 
from the wild beafts, caufed them to adopt and continue this rude ex- 
pedient, in preference to more regular and commodious fteps. The 
detached buildings in the country, near to- their plantations, called ial- 
I €nd tbat Ui« ongmal uibabitants olthc PhiUppme iibnds coycsed (hm buildiogs in the fm^ 
