This Was Accepted After A
Little More Talk, And I Immediately Proceeded To Take Possession.
The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet
on posts, the walls about three or four feet more, with a high-
pitched roof.
The floor was of bamboo laths, and in the sloping
roof way an immense shutter, which could be lifted and propped up
to admit light and air. At the end where this was situated the
floor was raised about a foot, and this piece, about ten feet
wide by twenty long, quite open to the rest of the house, was the
portion I was to occupy. At one end of this piece, separated by a
thatch partition, was a cooking place, with a clay floor and
shelves for crockery. At the opposite end I had my mosquito
curtain hung, and round the walls we arranged my boxes and other
stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning and
dusting made the place look quite comfortable. My boat was then
hauled up on shore, and covered with palm-leaves, the sails and
oars brought indoors, a hanging-stage for drying my specimens
erected outside the house and another inside, and my boys were
set to clean their gnus and get ail ready for beginning work.
The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the
immediate neighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended
ceases to be navigable at this point, above which it is a little
rocky brook, which quite dries up in the hot season.
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