thing that the
natives of Celebes have not discovered the use of diagonal struts in
strengthening buildings. I doubt if there is a native house in the
country two years old and at all exposed to the wind, which stands
upright; and no wonder, as they merely consist of posts and joists all
placed upright or horizontal, and fastened rudely together with rattans.
They may be seen in every stage of the process of tumbling down, from
the first slight inclination, to such a dangerous slope that it becomes
a notice to quit to the occupiers.

The mechanical geniuses of the country have only discovered two ways of
remedying the evil. One is, after it has commenced, to tie the house to
a post in the ground on the windward side by a rattan or bamboo cable.
The other is a preventive, but how they ever found it out and did not
discover the true way is a mystery. This plan is, to build the house
in the usual way, but instead of having all the principal supports
of straight posts, to have two or three of them chosen as crooked as
possible. I had often noticed these crooked posts in houses, but imputed
it to the scarcity of good, straight timber, until one day I met some
men carrying home a post shaped something like a dog's hind leg, and
inquired of my native boy what they were going to do with such a piece
of wood. "To make a post for a house," said he. "But why don't they get
a straight one, there are plenty here?" said I. "Oh," replied he, "they
prefer some like that in a house, because then it won't fall," evidently
imputing the effect to some occult property of crooked timber. A little
consideration and a diagram will, however, show, that the effect
imputed to the crooked post may be really produced by it. A true square
changes its figure readily into a rhomboid or oblique figure, but when
one or two of the uprights are bent or sloping, and placed so as to
oppose each other, the effect of a strut is produced, though in a rude
and clumsy manner.

Just before I had left Mamajam the people had sown a considerable
quantity of maize, which appears above ground in two or three days, and
in favourable seasons ripens in less than two months. Owing to a week's
premature rains the ground was all flooded when I returned, and the
plants just coming into ear were yellow and dead. Not a grain would be
obtained by the whole village, but luckily it is only a luxury, not a
necessity of life. The rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in
ord