Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

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formed in the following way :
HABITATIONS
each family worked to con-
struct what would afford them a bed during the night,
a seat in the day-time, a table for their repasts, and a
shelter in bad weather ;
it consisted of about fifteen
or twenty thin poles about 6 ft. (1.8 m.) long, which
were laid the one beside the other, and supported at the
two extremities by two transverse sticks set upon four
wooden posts ; the completed structure being about
two feet in height, four feet in breadth, and six feet in
length. A dozen leaves of the " chucho " gathered
together by their ends, and tied up at the head of the
bed, extended over it and covered it from end to end.
These beds were placed all round the enclosure, in such
a position that when all the occupants were sleeping
every one lay with his feet directed towards the centre
of the hut, which was purposely left vacant, to serve
either as a place for cooking, or for any other purpose.'
Jakun of Johor.— Before Favre himself visited the
Jakun, report had induced him to consider them (he
says) as savage as wild beasts, and as sleeping like
birds on the branches of trees. Even afterwards
when he questioned the Malays on the subject, some
of them answered as before ; but this was far from
being the truth, as there was no Jakun without some
sort of more or less well-ordered dwelling. Some of
them indeed had habitations which could scarcely be
called houses ; but these were very few ; and for the
most part they had houses. The Jakun of Johor
built houses in the Malay manner, some of them being
" fine buildings." Favre found several which were
much more comfortable than any Malay house he had
seen in the interior of Johor; such were the houses
' Translated iny. /. A. vol. ii. pp. 250, 257. For the original, see Favre in
Ann. P. F. xxii. 301.