Richland beacon., 1888-04-28
PEOPLE WHO 1--we IlhiH.
RACES BUILDING THEIR HOUSES
IN THE TR T. TOPS
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i.Ii!, on t.. ..,t-.
IN SOrih Ameri.a tAr~e i. = tribe @.
indians call Il tie Wa-als. who live on.
or rather over, one Of ,hc dclta> e The
! orinoco River. Tnis delta cover, Il IRA I
Of land VIII ch, a c>rding to Darwin. 5
equal To nearly half the a.cl Of England.
/ During the dry season the tract is a
mass Of soft oo,c or mud. cut up by
sluggishiy moving channels If watcr. In
the wet season il Is covered by forty or
/ fifty Icet of water.
/ The prospect for human life in sucA a
/ place /, certainly di>cUura ring, and ya:
/ for ages and ages IL has been The home
/ ot the Naraus, who, independent f
( agriculture, which they could not prac-
| tee there, or fishing, which can be de
/ pended on for but snail portion of the
year, have existed there as secure from
famine or from danger from the elements
as the dwellers in more fi, orcd localities
b. building their HATS in the ita aim
/ the Only tree that can grow there st a
height of three or four fect above tha
highest water mark.
The hut consists of Undiscovered
foor ard a thitchcd roof stretcdcd be
/ tween four trees. Thr mud, OF cOu s.,
is tlken from the delta. but everything
| Gle used in the construction of this sim
! ple hut is ia ken from the tree, VIII ;ch is
/ thus described: When full grown it re-
semblcs a tall, cylindrical pillar, with a
e.. ii
! ing from its extreme top. Each leaf is
some ten feet in width, and is supported
upon Il huge stem about twelve feet III
length looking more like branch than
a leaf stem. Indeed, Il complete leaf is
a heavy load for a man At regular in
tcrvals the whole fan of leaves falls and
is replaced by another, the three adding
20 its height at every change Of leaf until
the stem IS nearly one hundred feet b il
and fifteen III circumference.
The description of the tree does not.
however, hint at its wonderful proper
ties. I; is the Warau', farm, his cloth
ing warehouse, his well, his country
store, in fact; for everything he needs
to eat, drink, wear or use is pro, urcd
from it. Without the tree he ould not
exist in his acIill home. Ham oldt. in
speaking of these people, compares them
TO tho c insects which are born on plant.
and whose lives are dependent upon and
measured by the life of the plant The
Waraus are, as m ght be expected, very
near TO the lowest level Cf human exist
ence. Considerably higher than these in
the scale OF humanity is the tribe of South
Ameri an sava-es, whose singular mode
of existence ga.c the name of Nenc-
zuea-Little Venice-to that northera
province. The villages of these people
are built over the bosom of il great frc Ia
water lake. which lies contiguous TO
the Gulf of Maracabo.
The shores of the lake are rendered
literally uninhab table by swarms OF
mosquitoes, which might and day hang
like dense clouds around the lake. To
escape from the mosquito these people
long ago abandoned the land. and sink.
ing piles int the lake, built their house
on them. Here, as with the Waraus,
natures gift seems singulariy Opportune;
for not only does the lake offer mile, of
surface not exceeding five feet in depth,
but the neighborng mountain sides fur
n;sh tree exactly suitable for piles
This is species of IRON wood, 50 hard
as TO turn 90: cage " II : Il .-...
Incredible .aa. y I'll lut metal tool; the
sayagcs coIld lel. trim a ld drive in
= ace these trees; but tue evidence that
they did is there. To further strengthen
the Piles. a'ure, in the course Of few
years OF submers!oI, covers them with a
deposit of lime, which practica ly con-
verts them into p liars 0f stone.
Secure on these substantial supports
the nat.v builds his hut, usng. no
metal, nails or bolts, but once more going
to the vegetable world for a su s;itute
This he finds in the sipio, which he uses
green to bind beams, rafters and other
parts of his structure with The sipio
dies and contracts, and no ban of iron
could be m )re rigid or nearly as dura-
ble.
The Dyaks of Borneo are ano,her:race
Of aerial dwel!ers. They al o use the
hard iron wood for p;ling and elevate
their huts twenty or thirty feet from the
ground. Some of their structures de-
serve more dignified name than hut:
for in some cases they have Eeen known
to be over 800 feet in length, anl oapa-
bic of accommodating 100 occupants
One rea on for b ild'ng on piles is the
avoidance Of snakes and other noxious
reptiles soplcnti'ul in the tropics bu, the
most important reason is that the Dyaks
place an extraordinary value on the hu-
man head as disassociated from the body
so much Sd that, for his heads safety.
each Dyak makes of his house a fort.
This singular ande ltlemel unpleasant
lnfatuation for other peoples heads s SD
great that no Dyak girl would con
slider a proposal of marriage from a
man who had not at lelst one iri head
AS might be expected, the Dyaks take
an unhealthy interest in the she clding o.
human blood, and do not consider any
important ceremony complete witho1.
an exhibition of it. The building Of one
of their long ho ises in the good d e.
before foreigners interfercl with their
'trong arm and foolish scrupies. was "a
ways the occasion o. human sacrifice.
The hole for the principal pile was dug
and the pile suspended perpendicular
over it A pretty young girl was then
invited and assisted to the bottom of he
hole. The pile was thereupon cut loose
and the sacrifice was completed
Near the DOurgo Straits on the coast
OF New Guinea there lives very sngu-
lar tribe Of Papuans, known commonly
as monkey men, from the facts that they
climb about the Inns OF the trees with
the ease and facility of monkeys. There
is a stretch of several miles along the
coast covered with dense grove of man
groves. Through the whole length of