25G 
HABITATIONS, 
more comfortable than any Malay house I have seen in the Interior* 
of Johore: such are the houses of the Pang'llulu Batin on the river 
of Johore, and that of a Jakun chief on the river of Banut; these 
two houses were divided into several rooms, some of which were for 
the private accommodation of the Jakun ladies of the family ; the 
furniture consisted of some pots, plates, several other vessels and a good 
quantity of mats : other houses w ere much more common, but yet 
pretty comfortable, clean, and always divided into two or three rooms 
at least, and furnished with a frying pan of iron to cook rice, a few 
shells of cocoannt to keep water, and baskets used to bring fooc'L 
All those houses are raised about six feet from the ground, and are 
entered by a ladder like the Malay houses.* 
The best houses of the Menangkabau Jakuns are about the same 
as the more simple and common houses of the Jakuns of Johore, 
the others are as described by Lieutenant Newbold “ rude edifices 
on the top of four high wooden poles; thus elevated for fear of ti¬ 
gers, and entered by means of a long ladder, and presenting, view¬ 
ed through certain holes which serve as doors, no very satisfactory 
appearance to the uninitiated. The roofs are often thatched with 
Clmcho leaves. There is hut one room, in which the whole family 
is huddled together with dogs and the bodies of the animals they 
catch. The huts are so made as to be moveable at a moment’s warn¬ 
ing ; they are ordinarily situated on the steep side of some forest clad 
hill, or in some sequestered dale, remote from any frequented road 
or foot-path, and with little plantations of yams, plantains, and 
maize ; some have also fields of rice about them. The bones and 
hair of the animals whose flesh the inmates of these scattered dwell¬ 
ings feed upon strew the ground near them, while numbers of dogs 
generally of a lightbrown colour give timely notice of the approach 
of strangers. 
The Jakuns of Malacca whom I characterised as the most igno- 
» 
rant, are also the poorest and most miserable, their best houses are 
about the same as the worst of those of the Menangkabaus, and I 
found several families who lived without even having any house at all. 
* See ants voh I. p. 253, 
f Newbold, voh ii, p, 404, 
