ARCHITECTURE, &c. 
305 
from gable to gable, and afterwards, (within,) to the interlacing of 
the bamboo frame work, which was painted black and polished, 
so as to look much better than any rude cieling would, of which 
they have no idea; a small part appears in the houses in the 
drawing of Adoom-street (No. 9.) The pillars, which assist to 
support the roof, and form the proscenium or open front, (which 
' none but captains are allowed to have to their houses ) were thick 
poles, afterwards squared with a plastering of swish. The steps . 
and raised floor of these rooms were clay and stone, with a thick 
layer of red earth, which abounds in the neighbourhood, and these 
were washed and painted daily, with an infusion of the same earth 
in water ; it has all the appearance of red ochre, and from the 
abundance of iron ore in the neighbourhood, I do not doubt it is. 
The walis still soft, they formed moulds or frame works of the 
patterns in delicate slips of cane, connected by grass. The two 
first slips (one end of each being inserted in the soft wall) projected 
the relief, commonly mezzo : the interstices were then filled up with 
the plaster, and assumed the appearance depicted. The poles or 
pillars were sometimes encircled by twists of cane, intersecting 
each other, which, being filled up with thin piaster, resembled the 
lozenge and cable ornaments of the Anglo-Norman order ; the 
quatre-foil was very common, and by no means rude, from the 
symmetrical bend of the cane which formed it. I saw a few pillars, 
(after they had been squared with the plaster) with numerous slips 
of cane pressed perpendicularly on to the wet surface, which being 
covered again with a very thin coat of plaster, closely resembled 
fluting. When they formed a large arch, they inserted one end of 
a thick piece of cane in the wet clay of the floor or base, and 
bending the other over, inserted it in the same manner; the enta- 
blature was filled up with wattle work plastered over. Arcades 
and piazzas were common. A white wash, very frequently renewed, 
11 r 
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