Kecskés Péter (szerk.): Upper Tisza region (Regional Units of Open Air Museum. Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1980)

2. THE VILLAGE

The bottom log of the house was placed into a foundation trench filled with pebbles or stones broght from more distant quarries, such as those of Hömlöc and Bene. The vertical poles were notched into these and were supported by cross beams at the corners. The column-like poles were joined at the top by beams going around the building like a „wreath" and the beams of the ceiling were placed crossways on these. In the last century there was often a main-beam called a „master-beam", holding up the beams of the ceiling. This construction was able to support the roof. The rafters met at 60° and ended lower than the top of the walls. If the rafters were extraordinarly high, they would be joined by vertical beams called „cock-perch". There might be pointed poles reaching higher than the top of the roof attached to some of the „cock-perches". Usually the buildings had no gable the roof reaching down at both ends, or possibly at only one end, or maybe there would be two half gables. The construction of the building would be filled in with split oak planks fitted into the grooves of the beams. The wall might be plastered. Plastering would be attached through insertions cut into the planks with a hatchet or by basketwork attached to it. In the 1870 forests were cut down to an unprecedented degree and wood became most expensive. In consequence cheaper material for making walls became general, such as wickerwork and adobe. In villages where flooding was frequent, the former was frequent, preferred because wickerwork remained erect after a flood and the furniture inside the house remained intact. The horizontal parts of the wall would be made of oak and branches into which broom and hazelnut twigs would be woven. In times of flood, the sturdy cons17