Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-16

in diameter, and covered with mixture OF
clay and wattles. From the remains of
parallel rows of stakes from the platform
piles to the shore we know that the dwell
ings were connected with the mainland by
narrow bridges easily defensible in time of
danger.
Herodotus gives us a sketch of the Paro-
nian dwellers on Lake Prasias, who must
have lived in somewhat the same way. The
Irish lake dwellers were of late origin.
Their huts were built in the midst of
swamps, shallow water being chosen in
preference to deep, as the former could be
filled up. Thus the Irish holder made an
artificial island for himself-stockaded it
and dwelt like baron in castle with
moat. The modern race that most resemble
the ancient lake dwellers are the inhabitants
OF New Guinea and Central Africa, where
the huts on the river are built both on piles
or on earth spread on the long grass
There is a great gap between the prehis-
toric and the historic periods, and we have
not as yet collected enough materials to
bridge 1t over. The Egyptians are the earli-
est race of which we have anything like
definite knowledge. but sadly enough, the
recoSds of the dwelling houses of this race,
as well as of the Assyrian, the Persian and
the Greek, are very deficient. The Egyp-
tians were prominently building race,
and we know them from their buildings
alone. We know, however. that the Egyp-
tians bestowed as much pains on the houses
as they did on their rock-cut tombs, pyra-
mids and obelisks. There was the same ex-
actness in measurement, the same nicely of
jointure. The earliest Egyptian houses
were built of sandstone, but later limestone
and sun-burnt brick came into vogue. A
common type of Egyptian dwelling
was a three-story structure, or more
correctly, two stories, with an open
gallery, fanked with miniature columns. The
better class of houses were generally built
about a court on which rooms opened on
three, and sometimes four, sides. The open
courtyard held a reservoir for water or often
times fountain. The visitor entered the
house through massive porch, and could
pass BY means of the staircase, which ran
through the center of the house, to the open
terrace above. Some times the houses con-
tanned two courts, one for visitors, the
other for the exclusive use of the women.
The grounds round about were worked over
into conventional gardens with artificial
ponds, trees in pots, etc., very much after
the fashion of the japanese to-day. The
modern Egyptians have dwellings resem-
bling, in a small way, those OF their ances-
tors. Here YOU find the two courts, the fat
lures are far less substantial and imposing.
Assyria has grand ruins, but ruins they
we're early destined to be from the perisha-
BILE quality of the material. Sunburnt
bricks were universally used, and to secure
solidity the walls were
BUILT OF TREMENDOUS THICKNESS.
The Assyrian dwelling, as erected at
Paris, shows the type of the early private
houses. They were many stories IN height,
had no windows on the lower story, the on y
opening being at the entrance. As rule
the roofs of the Assyrian houses were fat,
though early reliefs show us structures
CAPPED with hemlspherical and oval cupo-
las, the light being admitted through OPEN
ings at the top. Within the walls, spread
with layer of plaster and painted, were
set off by friezes and borders of glazed tiles
The Chaldean clay was most admirably
suited for tile making. and from the relics
of the glazing that have come down to US
we know that the early Assyrians must have
been masters of the art. The palaces OF the
Assyrians were almost universally built OF