Volume 1

Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost].

  • Reinhold Rost
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and the Indian Archipelago : second series / [published by Reinhold Rost]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    337/358 page 291
    mouth, the aborigines neither give themselves time nor trouble to build large, agreeable, comfortable, and solid houses. Their habita- tions hardly give them shelter from the rain in ordinary weather; they are open to all the winds of heaven, and very often have neither doors nor windows. To form an idea of these huts—I am speaking of the better class—imagine nine posts, of which six are shorter and the three others a third longer than the other six, planted firmly in the ground in three rows, the three highest in the middle row. These posts are joined together at the top by means of transverse side pieces tied together with rattan-cane ; on those pieces which join the columns in the middle, they put laths to keep up the roof, and cover them with leaves. For the floor- ing, which is generally some feet from the ground, they put, by way of beams, on the side and transverse pieces of wood which join the posts, some laths more or less widely apart, which they cover with the bark of trees ; this constitutes their flooring. The sides are pretty well covered with leaves or bark. Poor as the huts of the Mantras may be, after all I have said, those of the Jakons are even more primitive. There are some who have a fancy for perching their dwellings up in trees twenty-five or thirty feet high. The commonest of this kind are built nineteen to twenty feet above the ground ; they get up by means of a ladder. Even their dogs get accustomed to living up in these airy houses. Those of the tribe who have no taste for these dwellings, build huts three or four feet from the ground. Just as with the Mantras, the first floor serves domestic purposes, here they sleep and eat by the fire, which is always lighted to drive away the gnats, with which the forests abound. In the second story the arms are kept for safety, as well as the provisions and kitchen utensils. The aborigines eat anything they can get : boars, monkeys, squirrels, stags, rats, birds, roots, and tubercles, which grow in abundance, such as the kladis, kledes or sweet potatoes, ubis or yams, and fruits, such as bananas, &c., the sugar-cane, which quenches their thirst at the same time that it nourishes them. The maize and rice which they cultivate, can only serve as nutriment four or five months in the year. To cultivate mountain rice, they have to make a clearing in the forest by burning, and sow it, and this requires a good deal of trouble; but to their mind, hunting and seeking their fortune in the forest is far better;1 who knows if one might not come upon some game, some fruit, or anything else ? All savages are particularly fond of hunting monkeys and squirrels, and they throw heart and soul into this sport; they think nothing of the trouble and fatigue, if they can be sure of the capture of their prey. If it is worth while they divide it among their relations, neighbours, and friends ; if not, they quickly cut it up, after burning 1 [“ Journal of the Indian Archipelago,” vol. v. p. 487.] U 2
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3