The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-07-07
THEY LIVE IN TREE TOPS.
The Strange Mid-Air Homes of Tribe o
South American Sayages

The Strange Mid-Air Homes of q Tribe Of
South American Savages.
There is a tribe of South American
savages whose singular mode OF exist
ence gave the name of Venezuela-Little
Venice-to that northern province
The villages of these people are built
over the bosom of great fresh water
lake, which lies contiguous to the gulf
of Maracaibo. To escape from the
mosquito, then. these people long ago
abandoned the land, and, sinking piles
in the lake, built their houses on them
Here natures gifts seem singularly op-
perfume, for not only does the lake Of
fer miles of surface not exceeding five
feet in depth, but the neigh6oring
mountain sides furnish tree exactly
suitable for piles. This is species of
ironwood, so hard as to turn the edge of
an ak. 1t seems incredible that with.
out metal tools the savages' could fell,
trim, and drive in place these trees, but
the evidence that they did is there. To
further strengthen the piles nature, in
the course of a few years of subversion,
covers them with deposit of lime
which practically converts them into
pillars of stone.
Secure on these substantial supports
the native builds his hut, using no
metal, nails or bolts, but once more 60
ing to the vegetable world for a substi-
tute. This he finds in the sipo, which
he uses green to bind beams, rafters and
other parts of his structure with. The
sipo dries and contracts, and no band of
iron could be more rigid or nearly as
durable. These savages are not by any
means the only lake-dwellers known;
for besides the Swiss lake-dwellers of
prehistoric times, there are the Lake
Prasias jewellers mentioned by Hero
dotus, who thus describes their way of
living:
''Planks fitted on lofty piles are
placed in the middle of the lake, with
narrow entrance from the mainland by
a single bridge. These piles that sup
port the planks all the citizens ancient
" placed there at the common charge,
but afterwards they established a law
to the following effect: Whenever a
man marries, for each wife he sinks
three piles, bring wood from
mountain called Arbelus,' but every
man has several wives. They live in the
following manner: Every man has a
hut on the planks, in which he dweils,
with a trap door closely fitted in the
planks, and leading down to the lake.
They tie the young people with cord
round the feet, fearing lest they should
fall into the lake beneath. To their
horses and beasts of burden they give
fish for fodder, of which there is such
an abundance that when man has
opened his trap door he lets down an
empty basket by cord into the lake,
and, after waiting a short time, draws
1t up full of fish"
The Dyaks of Borneo are another race
of aerial dwellers They also use the
hard iron wood for piling, and elevate
their huts twenty and thirty feet from
the ground. Some of their structures
deserve more dignifed name than hut;
for in some cases they have been known
TO be over five hundred feet in length
and capable of accommodating 500 occu-
pants. One reason for building on piles
is the avoidance of snakes and other
icAAOho POi1So oo PiChbAIui III OAiC
tropics; but the most important reason
is that the Dyaks place an extraordinary
value on the human head as disasso-
ciated from the body-so much so that,
for his heads safety, each Dyak makes
of his house a fort. Near the Dourga
straits, on the coast of New Guinea,
there lives a very singular tribe of
Papuans known commonly as monkey
men, from the fact that they climb
about in the limbs of trees with the ease
and facility of monkeys. There is a
stretch of several miles along the coast
covered with dense underground of
mangroves. Through the whole length
of this wooded belt these monkey men
fly with outstretched arms and legs,
preferring that mode of locomotion to
any other.-N. Y. Journal.