Professional Documents
Culture Documents
vii
CONTENTS
Preface xxix
ix
x CONTENTS
Appendix Problems
CASE STUDY 4-2 The Demand for Sweet Potatoes in the United States 132
Point Price Elasticity of Demand 133
Arc Price Elasticity of Demand 135
Price Elasticity, Total Revenue, and Marginal Revenue 136
Factors Affecting the Price Elasticity of Demand 140
CASE STUDY 4-3 Price Elasticities of Demand in the Real World 142
CASE STUDY 4-4 Income Elasticities of Demand in the Real World 144
CASE STUDY 5-3 Reaching Consumers in the Vanishing Mass Market 182
5-8 Estimating the Demand for U.S. Imports and Exports 205
10-6 The Architecture of the Ideal Firm and the Creative Company 445
The Architecture of the Ideal Firm 445
The Evolution of the Creative Company 447
CASE STUDY 10-9 Firm Architecture and Organizational Competitiveness
of High-Performance Organizations 448
CASE STUDY 10-10 The Most Innovative Companies in the World 449
CASE STUDY 11-1 Military Strategy and Strategic Business Decisions 469
CASE STUDY 11-5 Airbus’s Decision to Build the A380 and Boeing’s
Sonic Cruiser Response and the 747–8 486
14-5 Other Techniques for Incorporating Risk into Decision Making 611
Decision Trees 611
Simulation 613
CASE STUDY 15-5 The Choice between Equity and Debt 658
CASE STUDY 15-6 Capital Budgeting Techniques of Major U.S. Firms 659
APPENDIXES 673
Glossary 723
Index 737
PREFACE
T
astes, production, labor markets, and competition have all become highly globalized;
financial and economic crises have become more frequent; and the risks of doing
business have increased in a world economy that has become more sluggish (growing
less rapidly than in past decades). Thoroughly recognizing and highlighting this new busi-
ness environment, Managerial Economics in a Global Economy—while employing the
theory of the firm as the unifying theme—examines how firms reach optimal managerial
decisions in the face of these modern constraints.
As in past editions, the text balances concepts, application, and teachability. In clear,
concise explanations and illustrations, it surveys time-tested as well as the many new
and exciting topics in managerial economics (such as firm architecture, business ethics,
the evolution of the creative firm, Porter’s strategic framework, disruptive innovations,
electronic commerce, behavioral economics and marketing, big data analytics, the eco-
nomics of information, and risk management) and then illustrates how firms actually be-
have through 128 real-world Case Studies, 15 Boxes (one for each chapter of the text) on
Managerial Economics at Work, as well as 11 more extensive Integrating Case Studies.
The tools of decision making, such as spreadsheet applications, so much in demand by
students, are prominent. A flexible, modular organization makes the book suitable for both
full-term and abbreviated managerial economics courses, while an extensive instructor an-
cillary package, including online resources, makes it the perfect choice for lecture-based,
online, or hybrid managerial economics courses.
The primary aims of this text have been and remain:
• To provide a unifying theme of managerial decision making around the theory of
the firm with applications in a globalized economy. This text shows how managerial eco-
nomics is not the study of unrelated topics but the synthesis of economic theory, decision
sciences, and the various fields of business administration studies, and it examines how
they interact with one another.
• To identify and apply the basic decision-making process for optimal managerial
decisions. The text spells out the five steps of the managerial decision-making process that
firms ought to follow, whether firms did in fact follow these steps in specific cases, and the
outcome of their application (i.e., whether it led to the best managerial decision).
• To introduce an international dimension into managerial economics to reflect the
globalization of tastes, production, distribution, finance, and competition in our more
risky and crisis-prone, sluggish global economy. This text fully integrates and discusses,
in each chapter and for each topic, the international ramifications of managerial econom-
ics. Simply put, the 21st-century manager must be prepared to operate—and compete—
within a global economy that has grown more risky, crisis-prone, and sluggish, no matter
how large the firm.
xxix
xxx PREFACE
• To include one “Box: Managerial Economics at Work” in each chapter that can
be used for class discussion and analysis. The aim here is to simulate the firm’s decision-
making process in a real-world situation, using an actual team of managers (in our case,
the students in the class) led by the CEO of the firm (the professor), by trying to answer a
number of leading questions that the specific firm needs to address for successful manage-
ment. Was the actual decision of the firm correct? Why? If not, why not? Could the firm
have done better? How would your team have done it?
• To show how managerial decisions are actually reached in the real world. The text in-
cludes 128 real-world Case Studies, 15 Boxes (one for each chapter of the text) on Managerial
Economics at Work, as well as 11 more extensive Integrating Case Studies. These Integrating
Case Studies are substantial and designed to be assignable by instructors. Since managerial
economics is by nature an applied field, this feature can hardly be overstated. The Case
Studies, in contrast, are brief, engaging, and sometimes surprising illustrations of how the
theory being studied has been applied: the management revolution, business ethics at Boeing,
the American business model, management practices across countries, electronic commerce
at Amazon.com, benchmarking at Xerox, reengineering at General Electric, Gillette’s space-
technology global razors, General Motors deciding small is better, the new U.S. digital firm,
how firms get new technologies, open innovation at Procter & Gamble, the euro and the
international competitiveness of European firms, the exchange rate of the dollar and the prof-
itability of U.S. firms, Wal-Mart’s preemptive marketing strategy, transfer pricing by multi-
national corporations, price discrimination by Con Edison, “name your price” at Priceline,
the Microsoft antitrust case, risk metrics, auctioning of the airwaves, and many more.
• To present the most current topics of the discipline in a manner accessible to
students. These topics include firm architecture, firm governance, and business ethics;
Porter’s strategic framework, disruptive innovations, the virtual corporation, relationship
enterprises, and the evolution of the creative company; electronic commerce, behavioral
economics and marketing, business use of the Internet, and the economics of information;
the new digital factory, the new (international) economies of scale, and learning curves;
as well as total quality management, reengineering, benchmarking, the learning organiza-
tion, bundling, the effect of taxation on business decisions, and international risks.
The text has been thoughtfully designed to enhance the instructor’s efforts as follows:
• It offers complete coverage of all topics usually encountered in actual managerial
decision making and covered in any managerial economics course in a modular format.
Thus, the text allows a great deal of flexibility in the choice of topics that any instructor
may wish to cover or omit in an undergraduate, M.B.A., or executive M.B.A. course in
managerial economics.
• The core chapters for a one-semester C.B.A. course are Chapters 1–12 and 14, with-
out the appendices and excluding the following: all but the Case Studies in Chapter 4; all
but Section 5-7 in Chapter 5; and all but Sections 6-1, 6-4, and 6-5 in Chapter 6. Sections
8-9, 10-2, 11-2, 11-3, and 12-1 can also be omitted. This will leave about half of the text,
which covers the fundamental material for an excellent C.B.A. course. These chapters
comprise 50 percent of the text and are easily manageable in a single term.
PREFACE xxxi
• The core chapters for a one-semester M.B.A. course are Chapters 1–12 and 14,
without the appendices. These chapters comprise 60 percent of the text and are easily
manageable in a single term.
• The core chapters for an executive M.B.A. course are Chapters 1–13, without the ap-
pendices and excluding the following: all but the Case Studies in Chapter 4; all but Section
5-7 in Chapter 5; and all but Sections 6-1, 6-4, and 6-5 in Chapter 6. Sections 8-9, 10-2,
11-2, 11-3, and 12-1 can also be omitted. Some instructors could also drop Chapter 13. This
will leave about half of the text, which covers the fundamental material for an excellent
executive M.B.A. course.
• The text can be used in courses with or without calculus. In-depth coverage of the
full range of optimization techniques used in managerial decision making is presented in
Chapter 3. The calculus of optimization is introduced in the appendix to Chapter 3 and
used only in the mathematical appendices at the end of most chapters and in footnotes.
• While applied in nature, this text rests on sound analytical foundations. This ad-
dresses the common criticism that texts in this field are either overly theoretical (some are
really microeconomics, not managerial, texts) or are applied in nature but rest on weak
theoretical foundations.
• Diagrams are generally drawn on numerical scales to allow reading of the answers
in actual numbers rather than simply as distances, helping to make the abstract more tan-
gible for students new to the material. Also, the judicious use of color and shading in the
illustrations aids the student’s understanding.
• Important terms are presented in boldface in the chapters, and a glossary giving the
definition of each important term, arranged alphabetically, is provided at the end of the
book.
• A rich selection of problems follows each chapter. The 15 problems in each chapter
ask students to actually apply what they have learned from the chapter. Answers to se-
lected problems, marked by an asterisk (*), are provided in Appendix D at the end of the
book for the type of quick feedback that is so essential to effective learning.
• At the end of each chapter there are also from two to five spreadsheet problems (50
in total), which are so much in demand by students. The Companion Website (www.oup.
com/us/salvatore) contains numerous additional assessment options.
Based on feedback from instructors around the world, the author and publisher have made
several important improvements in the Ninth Edition:
• New sections, Case Studies, Integrating Case Studies, and spreadsheet problems
have been added or completely revised and updated. These examine the process of firms’
decision making in a world that has grown more crisis-prone and sluggish than in past
decades.
• New sections have been added (on big data, big data analytics, and behavioral
economics and marketing), other sections (such as on managerial economics in a more
risky, crisis-prone, and sluggish global economy; managerial economics and the Internet;
and barometric methods of forecasting) have been completely rewritten, and still other
sections (such as on optimal use of variable inputs, logistics and chain management, the
xxxii PREFACE
march of global oligopolists, and government regulations that restrict competition) have
been thoroughly revised and updated.
• About a third of the 128 Case Studies are new or completely rewritten, and the rest
have been revised and updated to make them more relevant. Among the new or completely
rewritten cases are Case Study 1-10, “Terrorism, Cyber Espionage, Financial Crises,
and Globalization”; Case Study 3-8, “Big Data Analytics at Amazon, MIT, and Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine”; Case Study 5-1, “Micromarketing: Marketers Zero in on
Their Customers”; Case Study 6-1, “Forecasting the Number of McDonald’s Restaurants
Worldwide”; Case Study 7-8, “The New U.S. Digital Factory”; Case Study 9-6, “The
Market Value of Monopoly Profits in the New York City Taxi Industry”; Case Study 10-
4, “Firm Size and Profitability”; Case Study 10-10,” “The Most Innovative Companies
in the World”; Case Study 12-4, “Transfer Pricing in Advanced Countries”; Case Study
13-9, “Deregulation in the Airline Industry: An Assessment”; Case Study 14-2, “The 10
Biggest Business Failures in the United States”; and Case Study 15-6, “Capital Budgeting
Techniques of Major U.S. Firms.”
• Six of the 15 Boxes (Managerial Economics at Work) have been completely re-
written or updated and expanded. These include Box 5, “BlackBerry Crumbles”; Box 6,
“Risks in Demand Forecasting”; Box 9, “De Beers Abandons Its Diamond Monopoly”;
Box 11, “Companies’ Strategic Mistakes and Failures”; Box 13, “Corporate Tax Rates
around the World and Multinationals’ Behavior”; and Box 15, “Is a College Education Still
Worth It?”
• Three of the longer Integrating Case Studies at the end of each of the five parts of the
text have been replaced, and others have been thoroughly updated. The new Integrating
Case Studies are Integrating Case Study 4, “Competition in High-Tech Industries in the
Age of Disruptive Innovations”; Integrating Case Study 9, “How the U.S. Airline Industry
Found Its Edge”; and Integrating Case Study 11, “Turning Networks into Software Will
Trigger a Storm in the Telecom World.”
• Responding to students’ requests, the number of spreadsheet problems at the end
of each chapter has been increased to 50 (an increase of 19 over the previous edition).
• The Companion Website has been updated and expanded and now includes 23 Case
Studies and Applications.
Chapter 3 also discusses several of the new managerial tools, as well as how spreadsheets
(Excel) can be used to reach optimal managerial decisions.
• Part Two (Chapters 4–6) analyzes demand. Separate chapters deal with demand
theory, the empirical estimation of demand, and demand forecasting. The appendix to
Chapter 5 shows how to do regression analysis with Excel, while the appendix to Chapter
6 shows how to forecast demand with Excel.
• Part Three (Chapters 7 and 8) presents the theory and measurement of the firm’s
production and costs. I have worked hard to make the presentation of input substitution
in production in Chapter 7 and the discussion of short-run and long-run cost curves in
Chapter 8 complete and clear. A brand-new chapter on linear programming is included on
the Companion Website for this text.
• Part Four (Chapters 9–12) brings together demand analysis (examined in Part
Two) and production and cost analysis (examined in Part Three) in order to analyze how
price and output are determined under various forms of market organization. Chapter 9
deals with perfect competition, monopoly, and monopolistic competition. Chapter 10 ex-
amines oligopoly and firm architecture. Chapter 11 deals with game theory and strategic
behavior, while Chapter 12 deals with pricing practices under various forms of market
organization.
• Part Five (Chapters 13–15) examines regulation and antitrust, the role of govern-
ment in the economy, risk analysis, long-term investment decisions, and capital budgeting.
The author and OUP have crafted an extensive set of resources to support adopting instruc-
tors and students:
1. The Computerized Test Bank, which contains multiple choice questions with
answers, true-and-false questions with answers, and numerical problems (fully
worked out). The software allows for easy exam creation, formatting, and modifi-
cation (e.g., producing multiple versions of the same exam, etc.). Exams can also
be easily exported to the leading learning management system formats, such as
Blackboard and Canvas.
2. An Instructor’s Manual provides the answers to all end-of-chapter questions and
problems. The Manual was prepared by the author with as much care as the text
itself.
3. PowerPoint Presentations. All figures and tables from the text are available in
PowerPoint-based slides. In addition, OUP has also created a set of customizable,
PowerPoint-based lecture slides for each chapter, allowing instructors to get up
and running with the text even more rapidly.
All instructor resources are available for download through the Ancillary Resource Center
at www.oup.com/us/salvatore.
For students, the following materials found on the Companion Website (www.oup
.com/us/salvatore) will aid in their studies:
1. Free, Open-Access Online Study Guide. Automatically graded quizzes for each
chapter help students self-assess their progress before taking exams. Case-based
xxxiv PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This text grew out of the undergraduate and graduate courses in managerial economics
that I have been teaching for over two decades at Fordham University in New York, at the
Business and Economics University of Vienna and Krems, and at Peking University. I was
fortunate to have had many excellent students, who with their questions and comments
contributed much to the clarity and exposition of this text.
I owe a great intellectual debt to my brilliant former teachers: William Baumol (New
York and Princeton Universities), Victor Fuchs (Stanford University and the National
Bureau of Economic Research), Jack Johnston (University of California at Irvine), and
Lawrence Klein (University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business). It is
incredible how many of the insights that one gains as a student of a superb economist and
teacher live on for the rest of one’s life.
Many of my colleagues in the School of Business and Department of Economics
at Fordham University made suggestions that significantly improved the final product.
Among these are Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Victor M. Borun, Sris Chatterjee, Francis Petit,
James Stoner, and Robert Wharton from the Business School, and Mary Burke, Joseph
Cammarosano, Fred Campano, Edward Dowling, Duncan James, Erick Rengifo, Henry
Schwalbenberg, and Greg Winczewski from the Department of Economics. My former
colleague, Frank Fabozzi, also made many valuable suggestions.
The following professors have made many valuable suggestions for the present edition
of the text: Daniel Farhat, Radford University; Andrew Light, Liberty University; David
McClough, Ohio Northern University; Evelina Mengova, Governors State University; and
Matt Metzgar, University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
Other American professors made valuable contributions that helped make this one of
the leading texts in managerial economics all over the world. These are Robert Brooker of
Gannon University, Denise Dimon and Bob Johnson of the University of San Diego, Otis
Gilley of the Louisiana Technical University, Jack Hou of the California State University
at Long Beach, Brad Kamp of the University of South Florida, Carl Kogut of Northeast
Louisiana University, David Miller of Gannon University, Marc Nyeland of the University
of Copenhagen, Lucjan Orlowski of Sacred Heart University, Bob Pennington of the
University of Central Florida, and David Saurman of San Jose State University.
The following professors reviewed previous editions of the text and made many useful
suggestions for improvements: Stuart Abraham, Monmouth University; M. J. Alhabeeb,
University of Massachusetts–Amherst; Anthony Andrews, Governors State University;
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.