Commoner’s house
The house of commoner consisted of three parts: the front verandah, approached by a rough platform of logs, the main room, and a small closet partitioned off the far end, beyond which there will sometimes be a small bamboo platform. The verandah was termed ‘sumhmun’ from the ‘sum’ or mortar in which paddy was pounded, which had its place there. On one side, the careful housewife stacked her firewood, and the front wall of the house was the place on which the householder, if he was a skilful hunter, display the skull of the animals and birds he had shot; among them hang basket in which the fowls laid and even sit on their eggs, hatching out as numerous and as healthy broods as did the most pampered inhabitants of model poultry farms. The fowls spend the night in long tabular bamboo baskets, hung under the eaves, access to which was gained by climbing up an inclined stick from the front verandah. Hens with broods were shut up each night in special baskets with sliding doors.
From the verandah a small door, about two and half feet by 4, with a very high sill opened into the house, the door was placed at the side furthest from the hill and consist of a panel of split bamboo work attached to a long bamboo which slides to and fro, resting in the groove between two other bamboos lashed on the top of the sill, in which there was generally a small opening, with a swinging door, for use of the dogs and fowls when the big door was closed. Immediately inside the door, in one corner, were collected the hollow bamboo tubes which took the place of water pots; the opposite will often be a large circular bamboo bin containing the household’s supply of paddy.
Next was a sleeping platform, known as Khum-ai. Beyond which was a mud hearth in the centre wherein three stones or pieces of iron were fixed, on which the cooking post rested. The earth was kept in its place by three pieces of wood, that in front being a wide plank with the top carefully smoothed, which form a comfortable seat during cold weather. The earth was put in wet and well kneaded, and eventually become as hard as brick. Along the wall an earthen shelf serves the double purpose of keeping the fire from the wall affording a resting place for the pots. Over the hearth were hung two bamboo shelves, one above the other, on which future supply of paddy was dried, and various odds and ends were stored.
These shelves also served to keep the sparks from reaching the roof. Beyond, the fireplace was another sleeping place, called the Khum-puii.e the big bed - which was reserved for the parents, while the young children and unmarried girls used the Khum-ai; the bigger boys and young men, as stated, slept in the zawlbuk.Beyond the Khumpui was the partition dividing off the small recess used as a lumber room, and often as a closet. The beds and hearth were always on the side of the house nearest to the hillside, and did not usually extend quite to the centre, the rest of the floor being vacant, and, in order to avoid obstructing this, the posts which support the ridge were placed slanting, passing through the floor in line with the edge of hearth. Along the wall opposite to the hearth were lashed two or more bamboos forming convenient shelves, while a platform of the same useful plant was constructed from one across beam to other. Forked sticks tied to the wall or to the uprights from hooks, and the large bamboo, wherever used, had opening cut in them which converted each joint into a tiny cupboard. At the far end of the house, opposite the front door, was a similar door opening on to a small platform, whence a notched log served as a means of descending to the garden of the street. Many house have bamboo platform adjoining the front verandah on which the women folk sit and do their weaving, while the young men lied at their ease and flirt with any charming girls .
