Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

.90
HABITATIOXS
rudest that can be imagined. Rowland, in writing of
the Labu tribe that he observed, mentions that when
they had deserted the house built by his coolies, with
its raised sleeping-platforms, he found them again in
the interior of the jungle (instead of at the edge),
and that every married man (or bachelor) had built
for himself a small round hut on the level of the
ground. Each of these huts was entirely constructed
of the leaves of the " bertam " palm [Eugeissona tristis,
Griff), measuring about two or three metres in length,
the stalks of which were planted close together in the
ground, so as to form a circle of about two metres in
diameter ; the extremities of the leaves met at the
top, but gave only a scanty shelter from the rain.
The people in these huts lived upon the ground itself,
which is always moist in the jungle, and generally
considered to be unhealthy, and in heavy rain were
not protected from flooding even by a ditch round the
hut. Yet in these huts they soon recovered from
their fevers and coughs, and regained their usual
serenity. These huts stood close together, a few steps
from a brook.'
Hut Furniture.
Kenaboi.—The Kenaboi, who appear determined
in this as in many other things to take a different line
from the Sakai, to which race Vaughan-Stevens says
he assigns them," made their pillows of split lengths
of bamboo cut square at each end, the lengths being
interwoven with one another "in and out."^ The
interior served the women for holding small objects,
' Rowland, p. 708. have Semang affinities.
2 This begs tiie entire question. It ^ An obscure and obviously in-
is more probable that the Kenaboi may accurate description.