Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/509

To make the cabin of the picture a copy of the common Cheung Mai house, the stair-ladder and the southern wall, as seen there, must be removed. A platform from eight to twelve feet wide must be raised within a few inches as high as the floor of the main building. This platform must extend from near the centre of the house at its southern end, beyond its south-western corner, to give passage-way to the kitchen. At the west end of this platform stands a covered settle for the earthen water-pots which hold water for drinking and cooking. The outer posts of this platform rise high enough to support a railing, and a board on top of this railing gives room for earthen flower-pots and for boxes of earth in which are growing, for family use, onions, red pepper, garlic, etc. The floor of the platform serves in daytime for drying betel-nuts and fruit. At night, after the heat of the day, it furnishes a place for rest under the cooling sky. The stairs are placed at the end of this platform. Such a house may be built entirely of bamboo except the grass thatch required for the roof. Neither hammer nor nail is needed for its construction. The different parts are held together by thongs of split bamboo or ratan. These houses are built at small cost. Very many of them are kept neat and tidy. And they have their conveniences. The writer had occasion to pay a native peasant a considerable sum of money.