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An outhouse is a small enclosure around a pit that is used as a toilet.
Outhouses are all pretty similar in design and construction. Typical features include:
- Being separated from a dwelling or other structure so as to minimize smells, but not being so far away as to make a walk in
snow or cold weather uncomfortably long;
- having walls and a roof attached so as to shield the user from rain, wind, and thus to a small degree, cold weather;
- having a door, sometimes on which is cut or painted a crescent moon (for historical reasons having NOTHING to do with
Islam);
- in western societies, having at least one seat with a hole in it, below which is a pit into which the excrement falls;
- in eastern societies, having a pit in the floor, over which the user crouches, and into which the excrement falls;
- being a suitable distance away from any fresh-water well from which drinking water is drawn, so as to minimize risk of
contamination;
- Sometimes having a roll of toilet paper available (catalogs from retailers specializing in mail order purchases, for example
Montgomery Wards, were
also common; alternatively, in the days before toilet paper, old corn cobs, leaves, or other paper was used).
Outhouses are common throughout history. Outhouse humor is likewise
a constant, which usually involves someone either being trapped in one, falling into the hole, or other social faux pas from
producing poop.
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