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After he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he made it so firm between the rafters with basket-work, thatching that over again with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or slated.
He swung onto the marshy arm of a small lake, whose surface was profusely dotted with conical muskrat houses which reared their brown domes above the broken rice-straw and cattail stalks. He had nearly reached the center when suddenly he halted, whirled half around, and clutched frantically at the breast of his shirt.
A certain number of these strips, which are to be used for decoration, are rubbed with oil, and are held in the smoke of burning pine or of rice-straw until a permanent black is obtained. Five weaves are recognized by the Tinguian, but they are really variations of two checkerwork and the diagonal or twilled.
The floor was neatly covered with new, clean mats of sea-green rice-straw, on which tables, silken cushions, arm-rests, drinking-cups, bottles and many other articles of comfort lay about. The stone walls were richly decorated with curtains and hangings of fine silken stuffs.
As there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed door case, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the door to open in the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my innermost wall, without making so much noise in getting over that it must needs waken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of the hill; which was again laid across with smaller sticks, instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but would have fallen down, and make a great noise: as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.
When they arrive at the designated spot, the mediums make a "stove" by driving three sticks into the ground, so as to outline a triangle, and within these they burn a bundle of rice-straw. Beside the "stove" is placed a branch, each leaf of which is pierced with a chicken feather.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them up both together upon it between us; but when we got them to the outside of our wall or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before; for it was impossible to get them over; and I was resolved not to break it down: so I set to work again; and Friday and I, in about two hours time, made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being in the space without our outward fence, and between that and the grove of young wood which I had planted: and here we made two beds of such things as I had; viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them on each bed.
But when we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get them over, and I was resolved not to break it down; so I set to work again, and Friday and I, in about two hours’ time, made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being in the space without our outward fence and between that and the grove of young wood which I had planted; and here we made them two beds of such things as I had—viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them, on each bed.
The huts were formed of clay, bamboos, or palm branches, and covered with tiles, rice-straw, or palm leaves. The larger boats of the natives struck me as very remarkable, and differed entirely from those I saw at Madras. The front portion was almost flat, being elevated hardly half a foot above the water while the stern was about seven feet high.
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