Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/130

 I 20 The House in India from the Point of View

This round circular form of temple \vas derived from the round shepherd's huts in the Campagna, which are in use to the present time.^

Another primitive type of dwelling is used by the Gypsy- like vagrants and by some jungle tribes. An encampment of Sansiyas or Habiiras in Northern India consists of rude shelters of mats or blankets suspended on short poles. They supplement these in the rainy season by booths made of grass, leaves and branches. But the true vagrant, like the Magahiya Dom, makes no hut of any kind ; he lives in the open, and it is only in the very worst weather that he seeks shelter under the house eaves in some neighbouring village. The Kilikets, a wandering tribe in Bijapur, live in flimsy reed booths, so small that the inmates cannot stand upright. In obedience to tribal custom they must move to another place every three months, but sometimes, for the sake of convenience, instead of moving the hut, the fireplace is shifted from one corner to another.- The huts of the Sholigas of Mysore consist of bamboos with both ends stuck in the ground, so as to form an arch, which is covered with plantain leaves.^ General Dalton describes the houses of the Juangs, one of the most primitive tribes of Bengal, who up to a short time ago were clothed only in leaves and are perhaps so still : " They are the smallest that human beings ever deliberately constructed as dwell- ings. They measure about six feet by eight, and are very low, with doors so small as to preclude the idea of a cor- pulent householder. Scanty as are the above dimensions for a family dwelling, the interior is divided into two compartments, one of which is the storeroom, the other used for all domestic arrangements. The Paterfamilias and all his belongings of the female sex huddle together in this one stall not much larger than a dog-kennel ; for the

^Journal Roman Studies, iii. 245.

"Bombay Gazetteer, xxiii. 198.

"* F. VMQkv\Vi'\K\, Journey throtioJi Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, ii. 17S.