HOUSE.
Bait, ARAB. Casa, . . . . IT., Sr.
Maison, Oor, TAM.
Hans, GER. Illu, TEL.
Khans, . HIND., PERS. Er, Konak, . . Tunic.
In the granitic country of Telingana, the houses are usually built of adhesive earth or clay, of a square or rectangular form, smeared often with red earth, and picked out with perpendicular bands of slaked lime, with a pyramidal roof of palmyra leaves or grass. houses in the Karnatie are of mud walls, with roofs thatched with grass or palm leaves. Houses on the banks of the Kistna, near its debouchure, have circular walls of adhesive earth.
In the Tamil and Telugu country, the walls are usually of mud, with thatch or tiles for the roof. The humbler races have circular houses ; their houses in Telingana are detached from each other, outside the gharri or fort. In the Canarese tract about Hurryhur, the back of the house is formed by raising a very high wall, on which a long sloping roof rests.
In Arabia and Mahomedan countries of Persia and India, houses have a common courtyard, with numerous rooms leading from it.
The circular form of hut is the only style of architecture adopted among all the tribes of Central Africa, and also among the Arabs of Upper Egypt ; and although these differ more or less in the form of the roof, no tribe has ever yet sufficiently advanced to construct a window. Their houses are circular and conical, with only one opening for a doorway.
The Yezdy, a Kurd race settled near Aleppo, build a stone wall, and erect over it a goat-hair roof.
In Persia, the cottages of the villagers and peasantry are of mud, or rough stones cemented with mud, and mostly consist of two rooms. The walls, which are usually about seven feet high, are very thick, and full of niches and recesses, which serve as cupboards for depositing all manner of miscellaneous articles. The roofs of the larger Persian houses are flat, and many have tall bad-gir or wind towers rising high above. The bad-gir is a largo square tower, covered on the top, but opening below into the apartment above which it is erected. The four sides are kid open in long perpendicular apertures like narrow windows, and within these are partitions or walls intersecting each other, to as to form four channels in the tower. By this contrivance, from whatever quarter the wind blows, it is caught in the tower and conveyed into the room below, so that a constant current of air is kept up, except when it happens to be a dead calm.
The cottage of Bengal, with its trim, curved, thatched roof, and cane or bamboo walls, is the best looking in India.
The houses of Hindustan are built of clay or unburnt bricks, and tiled.
In the greenstone tract of the Dekhan, Berar, and the Mahratta country, where wood is scarce and of high price, the walls are mostly of mild, with flat roofs. The houses are huddled close
together, surrounded by a wall, often with a central gharri or fort.
Houses with a flat roof have a parapet (Deuter onomy xxii. 8) to prevent any one falling into the street.
Acts x. 9 tells us that 'Peter went upon the housetop to pray.' All the flat-roofed houses of India would admit of this ; but seine of the rich Hindus have a room on the top of the house, in which they perform worship daily.
2 Samuel xi. 2 says, And it came to pass in an evening-tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house.' It is common in India with Mahomedans and Hindus to sleep in the afternoon. The roofs of houses are flat, and it is a pleasing recreation in an evening to walk on the fiat roofs.
In Tibet, the peasant's house much resembles a brick kiln in shape and size. It is built of rough stones, without cement, and has two or three small apertures for ventilation. The roof is flat.
Houses in Burma, Arakan, the Straits Settle ments, and all through the Archipelago, are raised on piles ; some on the river side are built over the river on piles several feet high, with wooden or bamboo matting walls. The whole frontage on the left bank of the Moulmein river is built over, as also in Mergui. Some of the tribes of Further India live in great houses, communicating in their entire length. This is for defence.
Houses in many eastern countries are built as a quadrangle, the four outer walls being dead, or pierced with loopholes ; in one of the halls is the entrance to an open unroofed courtyard, sur rounded by chambers or open verandahs. This arrangement explains the circumstances of the letting down of the paralytic into the presence of our Lord, in order that he might heal him (Mark ii. 4, Luke v. 19). The paralytic was carried by some of his neighbours to the top of the house, either by forcing their way through the crowd by the gateway and passages up the stairs, or else by conveying him over some of the neighbouring terraces; and there, after they had drawn away the awning, they let him down along the side of the roof, through the opening or impluviumn, into the midst of the court before Jesus.' Matthew x. 12-14 says, And when ye conic into an house, salute it. And whosoever shall not receive you,' etc. It is the custom amongst Hindus of a stranger to go to a house, and as he enters it to say, Sir, I am a guest with you to-night.' If the person cannot receive him, he apologizes to the Stranger.—Horn's Critical Study of the Scriptures, i. p. 385 ; Shaw's Travels, i. pp. 374-376 ; Hartley's Researches in Greece, ii. p. 240 ; Robinson's Tr. ii. p. 351 ; Ward's Hindoos.