24	THE LUSHEI  CLANS	chap.
idleness to toiling in the hopes of being able to add to your
worldly possessions. This I believe to be the explanation of the
difference between the Lushai and the Chins, the latter being
eager to earn money by work or trade, while the former far
prefer to lie smoking in the sun.
4. Houses. The house of a commoner consists of three parts, the froht
verandah, approached by a rough platform of logs, the main
room, and a small closet partitioned off at the far end, beyond
which there will sometimes be a small bamboo platform. The
verandah is termed " sum-hmun," from the " sum," or mortar
in which the paddy is cleaned, which has its place here. On
one side the careful housewife stacks her firewood, and the front
wall of the house is the place on which the householder, if he
is a sportsman, displays the skulls of the animals and birds he
has slain; among them hang baskets in which the fowls lay,
and even sit on their eggs, hatching out as numerous and as
healthy broods as do the most pampered inhabitants of model
poultry farms. The fowls spend the night in long tubular
bamboo baskets, hung under the eaves, access to which is gained
by climbing up an inclined stick from the front verandah.
Hens with broods are shut up each night in special baskets
with sliding doors.
From the verandah a small door, about 2£ feet by 4, with
a very high sill, opens into the house. This door is placed at
the side furthest from the hill, and consists 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
to the top of the sill, in which there is generally a small open-
ing, with a swinging door, for use of the dogs and fowls when
the big door is closed. Immediately inside the door, in one
comer, are collected the hollow bamboo tubes which take the
place of water pots; opposite will often be a large circular
bamboo bin containing the household's supply of paddy. Next
to this is a sleeping platform, known as " kum-ai," beyond which
is the hearth of earth, in the centre of which three stones or
pieces of iron are fixed, on which the cooking pot rests. The
earth is kept in its place by three pieces of wood, that in front
being a wide plank with the top carefully smoothed, which
forms a favourite seat during cold weather. The earth is put in