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Chapter One. The Material Background |
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structure and rooms and roof of Yonyang's house |
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There was no outlet for the smoke, and the only source of light was a small door in the outer wall of the living room which opened on to the narrow lane separating Yongang's house from that of his neighbor. |
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At the back of the house the hall widened into a spacious utility room, which stretched across the whole width of the house. This was the stage for such activities as the spreading out and drying of rice and taro, the dismembering and cutting up of animals slain for food, and for the entertainment of guests too numerous to be accommodated in the living room. Here stood the baskets used in the preparation of rice beer, and it was in this room that confinements took place. |
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The back door of the house led on to a veranda erected on bamboo piles above the slope of the hill. The veranda measured 15 by 20 feet, and about one-third of it was protected from sun and rain by the protruding roof of the house. A railing surrounding the veranda provided convenient support for the drying of clothes. To one side there was a latrine, sheltered from the house by a screen of palm leaves, and the excrement falling to the ground was eaten by pigs roaming among the piles. In fine weather the family liked to work on this open veranda. Here men made baskets or fashioned and repaired wooden implements, and women spread the mats on which they dried rice and taro, made pots, cleaned raw cotton, and busied themselves with spinning, weaving, and sewing. |
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The roof of the house rested on three stout mainposts which carried a long ridge pole and a framework of bamboo rafters. It was thickly thatched with layers of palmyra palm and provided excellent protection against the elements. |
