scaffolds, after which they are packed in baskets and then removed to their villages. This custom makes a general distribution of the capture, and leaves each household in possession of its share.[1]
Their communism in living is involved in the size of the household, which ranged from ten to forty persons. "The houses of the Sokulks are made of large mats of rushes, and are generally of a square or oblong form, varying in length from fifteen to sixty feet; the top is covered with mats, leaving a space of twelve or fifteen inches, the whole length of the house, for the purpose of admitting the light and suffering the smoke to pass through; the roof is nearly flat, * * * and the house is not divided into apartments, the fire being in the middle of the large room, and immediately under the hole in the roof. * * * On entering one of these houses he [Captain Clarke] found it crowded with men, women, and children, who immediately provided a mat for him to sit on, and one of the party immediately undertook to prepare something to eat."[2] Again: "He landed before five houses close to each other, but no one appeared, and the doors, which were of mats, were closed. He went towards one of them with a pipe in his hand, and pushing aside the mat entered the lodge, where he found thirty-two persons, chiefly men and women, with a few children, all in the greatest consternation."[3] And again: "This village being part of the same nation with the village we passed above, the language of the two being the same, and their houses being of the same form and materials, and calculated to contain about thirty souls."[4] In enumerating the people
- ↑ Alfred W. Howitt, F. G. S., of Bariusdale, Australia, mentions, in a letter to the author, the following singular custom of an Australian tribe concerning the distribution of food in the family group:
"A man catches seven river eels; they are divided thus (it is supposed that his family consists only of these named):
"1st eel. Front half himself; hind half his wife.
"2d eel. Front half his wife's mother; hind half his wife's sister.
"3d eel. Front half his elder sons; hind half his younger sons.
"4th eel. Front half his elder daughters; hind half his younger daughters.
"5th eel. Front half his brother's sons; hind half his brother's daughters.
"6th eel. One whole eel to his married daughter's husband.
"7th eel. One whole eel to his married daughter."This custom may be supposed to show the ordinary household group, and the order of their relative nearness to Ego. It foots up himself and wife, wife's mother and sister, his sons and daughters, his brother's sons and daughter's, and his daughter's husband. It implies also other members of the household, who are obliged to take care of themselves; viz, his brothers and sisters.
- ↑ Lewis and Clarke's Travels, pp. 351-353.
- ↑ Ib., p. 357.
- ↑ Ib., p. 376.
