the building, you have to step up to, or even
climb, and wriggle yourself through the opening, and then step down
on the other side. Inside the building you find the centre of the
floor space occupied by a longitudinal fireplace, about 2 feet broad,
extending from front to back of the building; and the floors on each
side of this fireplace slope upwards somewhat from the visible level
of the fire-place towards the sides of the building. The fireplace
part of the interior is, in fact, dropped to a level below that of
the adjoining floors, so as to form a long trough, which is filled
up with soil upon which the fire can burn; and it is the visible
top level of this soil covering which is practically flush with
the inside lower level of the adjacent upward-sloping floors. Some
distance below the roof there is usually an open ceiling of reeds,
used for the purpose of storing and drying fruits and other things,
and especially, as will be seen hereafter, for drying fruit required
in the preparation for the big feast.
Fig. 4 is a diagram of the front of an _emone_, disclosing the internal
plan of the floor and fireplace, for which purpose the front hood of
the roof and the front platform are omitted from the plan, and of the
horizontal front timbers the third up from the bottom is shown at the
ends only, the middle part being omitted, and small portions of the
timbers immediately above them are omitted. The words in parentheses
appearing in the explanatory notes to the figure are the Mafulu names
for the various parts of the building.
_Explanatory Notes to Fig._ 4.
(_a_) Main posts, one at the front of the building, one in the middle,
and one at the back (_apopo_).
(_b_) Posts supporting roof, a line of them running along each side
(_tedele_).
(_c_) Posts supporting outer edge of flooring, a line of them on each
side (_emuje_ or _aje_).
(_d_) Post supporting inner edge of flooring and hearth, a line of
them on each side (_foj' ul' emuje_).
(_e_) Lower ridge pole (_tanguve_).
(_f_) Main downward-sloping roof work, strongly made, going all the
way back, only four or five of them on each side (_loko-loko_).
(_g_) Upper ridge pole (_tope_).
(_h_) Main horizontal roof work, resting on _f_ (_gegebe_).
(_i_) Upper downward-sloping roof work, not so thick as _f_ resting
on _h_, going all the way back at intervals of about 1 foot (_engala_).
(_k_) Upper horizontal roof work, not so thick as _h_
resting
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