Note 4 — SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ASSAMESE TRIBES. (continued 2)

The dwellings of the Assamese are of the meanest description imaginable: there are no stone or brick houses4 in the country; a simple hut, ten feet by twenty, divided into a couple of rooms for sleeping and sitting in, or not uncommonly one solitary room, form the only accommodation a man, wife, and family possess. The hut is about ten feet high, with a grass roof, and the walls are made of reeds plastered outside, and sometimes inside also, with mud and cow-dung. A small platform of bamboos, two feet high, serves as a bedstead; and a seetulpattee, or grass mat, constitutes the amount of bedding, without any other covering than the clothes that are worn during the day. Many Assamese, however, prefer the bare ground, with a simple mat as a bed. The earth floor is daily plastered with mud and cow-dung: the cow being held sacred amongst the Hindoos, its ordure has, it is considered, the peculiar property of not only cleansing, but purifying their habitations. Its use certainly gives their huts a tidy appearance, and worms and insects are not so troublesome as they would otherwise be.