The next day, Thursday, was market day, and a number of people

from the country were collected together buying and selling on an

open piece of rising ground to the south of the town. The morning

we devoted to inspecting the place, ascertaining the number of

houses, and taking bearings, observations and photographs from a

point half-a-mile to the east of the market. Our proceedings caused

intense interest, as the camera, theodolite, etc., were carried past;

business came to a standstill for some time, and a glance at the

crowd through the field-glass showed rows of dark faces all turned

in our direction, intently watching our mysterious proceedings. We

afterwards walked through the market, hoping to find some articles of

food or manufacture new to us; but there was not much that differed

from what may be seen every day in Imèrina. In fruit I fancied I

had found something new—viz. what appeared like a kind of small

banana with black skin; but more minute inspection showed that the

supposed fruits were small fish from the lake, smoke-dried, strung

on a strong reed. Some large wooden spoons with tin ornaments on the

handles reminded me of those made by the Bétsiléo. Bananas, very

large and fine, seemed the most plentiful fruit; sugar-cane grows to

a great size, ten to twelve feet high; and from what we saw all round

Antsihànaka it appeared a most fertile district, with rich alluvial

soil; were the whole marsh drained and brought under cultivation,

as the marshy plain to the west and north-west of the capital has

been, it would support a population many times greater than that

which inhabits Imèrina. All round Ambàtondrazàka many hundred acres

of the level are occupied by rice-fields, and it is the same in the

neighbourhood of all the villages bordering the plain; although a

large proportion of the area is still covered with marsh, reeds,

rushes and papyrus. From the rising ground we could count numerous

herds of fine cattle, generally from seventy to eighty in each herd,

and wherever we went we found cattle in great abundance feeding on

the rich pasture. Large numbers of these cattle belonged to rich

people in Imèrina. One noble was said to have nearly ten thousand;

others had five thousand; many people had a thousand, and the

majority of the Sihànaka had at least a hundred each.

[Sidenote: PAPYRUS]

After our usual employments of school examination, conversation

with the pastor and others, and renewed presents of food, on Friday

morning we set off on our circuit round the plain to visit as many of

the congregations, and see as much of the country and the position of

the Sihànaka villages, as was possible in six days, as our time was

limited to that period. Proceeding first westward, and skirting the

edge of the level ground, we passed for some distance through swamp,

with dense thickets of _hèrana_ and _zozòro_, the first being, as

already seen in Imèrina, a strong sedge extensively used for roofing,

and the other, a species of papyrus, employed for a variety of

purposes. This latter grows here to a great size, some ten or twelve

feet high, with a triangular and exceedingly tough stem, about two

and a half inches each way, nearly double the size it attains in the

cooler Imèrina province.

We had to cross numerous little streams by rickety bridges of plank.

From the level of the rice-fields the plain stretched northward like

an immense green lake; the rotundity of the earth was as clearly seen

from the perfect level as it is from the surface of the sea, for

the distant low hills appeared like detached islands with nothing

to connect their bases. Our course lay west by north-west, cutting

diagonally across several of those promontories formed by the

parallel lines of hills which run down each side of the Ankay valley.

Every village of the Sihànaka has near its entrance a group of two or

three tall straight trunks of trees fixed in the ground, varying from

thirty to fifty feet in height; the top of these has the appearance

of an enormous pair of horns, for the fork of a tree is fixed to the

pole, and each branch is sharpened to a fine point. Besides these,

there are generally half-a-dozen lower poles, on which are fixed a

number of the skulls and horns of bullocks killed at the funeral of

the people of whom these poles are the memorial. One thing struck

us as curious: several of the higher poles had small tin trunks,

generally painted oak colour, impaled on one point of the fork; and

in several instances baskets and mats were also placed on a railing

of wood close to the poles supporting the bullock horns. These

various articles were the property of the deceased, and put near his

grave with the hope of their being of some benefit to his spirit;

or perhaps from the idea, common to most of the Malagasy tribes, of

there being pollution attached to anything connected with the dead.

In several cases, on the very highest point of the lofty poles,

there was a small tin fixed, having a strong resemblance to those

we import containing jam or preserved provisions.[17] As among many

Eastern peoples, so in Madagascar, the horn is a symbol of power and

protection; the native army was termed _tàndroky ny fanjakàna_—“horns

of the kingdom.”

[Sidenote: CATTLE]

Some of the cattle we saw were magnificent animals, and it is not

strange that the bull was used frequently in public speeches, as an

emblem of strength, as it is the largest of all the animals known

to the Malagasy. It frequently occurs in this sense in the formulæ

and the songs connected with the circumcision ceremonial; for the

observance of this native custom was a time of very great importance

in the old native regime. Bull-fighting was a favourite amusement

with the Malagasy sovereigns; and in digging the foundations for a

new gateway to the palace yard at Antanànarìvo, the remains of a bull

were discovered, wrapped up in a red silk _làmba_, the same style of

burial as that employed for rich people. This was the honour paid

to a famous fighting bull belonging to Queen Rànavàlona I. It seems

pretty certain that anciently the killing of an ox was regarded as

a semi-religious or sacrificial observance, and only the chief of

a tribe was allowed to do this, as priest of his people. Robert

Drury, an English lad who, with others, was wrecked on the south-west

coast of Madagascar in 1702, and remained in the country as a slave

for fifteen years, gives many particulars about this custom of the

southern Sàkalàva people.

[Sidenote: THE OX]

An old Malagasy saying thus describes the various uses of the

different portions of an ox when killed: “The ox is the chief of the

animals kept by the people, and they are very beautiful in this

country. Our forefathers here knew well how it should be used, and

they said thus, when they invoked a blessing (at the circumcision):

The ox’s horns go to the spoon-maker; its molar teeth to the

mat-maker (for smoothing out the _zozòro_ peel); its ears are for

making medicine for nettle-rash; its hump for making ointment; its

rump to the sovereign; its feet to the oil-maker; its spleen to the

old man; its liver to the old woman; its lungs to the son-in-law;

its intestines to those who brought the ropes; its neck to him who

brought the axe; its haunch to the crier; its tail to the weaver;

its suet to the soap-maker; its skin to the drummer; its head to

the speech-maker; its eyes to be made into beads (used in the

divination), and its hoofs to the gun-maker.”

Our next morning’s ride brought us to Ambòhidèhilàhy, a large village

of a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty houses, occupying the

northern end of one of the promontories.

For the first time since we had left Ambòhimànga we had a meal in

an ordinary house, and could notice the arrangement of a Sihànaka

dwelling. I immediately observed that instead of there being _one_

post at each end and at the centre of the house to support the ridge,

as in the Imèrina houses, this had _three_ at each gable, just as

the Bétsimisàraka have; another confirmation, by the way, of my

belief, that the Sihànaka are connected with the coast tribes, and

have come up from the sea and settled on the margin of the fertile

plain. Instead of the one door and window on the west side, as in

the Hova houses, the Sihànaka make two doors on that side, with high

thresholds, dividing it into three equal parts, and a low door on the

eastern side, coming where the fixed bedstead is placed in Imèrina.

Here the bedstead was at the south-east instead of the north-east

corner; and the hearth, with its framework above for supporting

property of various kinds, at the south-east instead of the mid-west

side of the house.

After dinner we set off over level ground for Manàkambahìny, a

village nearly south from us, which we could see on a low hill

forming the extremity of the high ridge bounding the Mangòro valley

to the west. We found that the small rivers between the parallel

ranges of hills spread out into many shallow streams over a wide

surface, forming a swamp with luxuriant rushes and vegetation. The

wild birds seemed plentiful here. In several places was a kind

of snare for taking them on the wing, consisting of several stout

bamboos fixed in the ground a few feet apart, with cords stretched

between them, and loops of string suspended from these cords. We

were only able to stay a short time at the village, and then pushed

on, crossing the level ground at the southern extremity of the

Antsihànaka plain and coming at sunset to Ambòdinònoka, a good-sized

village on its western edge. Here we had reached our farthest south

in our journey round the province.

[Sidenote: SIHÀNAKA MATS]

We have just seen the interior of a Sihànaka house, and we ought to

have noticed the fine and strong mats with which they are furnished.

From the immense extent of marsh, the material for making these is

very abundant, and all women can make them; so no Sihànaka _buys_ a

mat, for they think that a disgrace. Of the _zozòro_ outer peel, or

skin, the very long mats called the Queen’s are made, which are from

eighteen feet to twenty-four feet long. The houses of many people

here are clean and neat from the abundance of such mats. The largest

kind of _zozòro_, called _tèry_, is as strong as wood, and the firm

triangular stems are used for the walls of the houses.

We were off early on Saturday morning, for, as we wished to get to

the second town in size, Ampàrafàravòla, for Sunday, we had a long

day’s journey northward of nine or ten hours before us. We were now

skirting the western edge of the great level, now and then crossing

patches of swamp, and then following the windings of a small river,

which we had at last to cross by canoes. The whole country appeared

to abound with wild birds of different kinds—herons, black and white

storks, wild geese, wild ducks, partridges and many others. The

fen country of the eastern midland counties of England, before the

great drainage works were carried out and the waters led off to the

sea, must have been very much like this Antsihànaka plain, which is

certainly a paradise for sportsmen. There are said to be no fewer

than thirty-four species of aquatic birds found on the Alaotra lake

and in the surrounding marshy country. In the little museum at the

L.M.S. College at Antanànarìvo we have, among other Malagasy birds’

eggs, a number from Antsihànaka, chiefly of water-fowl; most of these

are white, showing probably that they are well protected and so have

no need of imitative colouring.

[Sidenote: WATER-BIRDS]

Of these numerous ducks and geese, perhaps the whistling teal is the

most common, not only in this province, but also in other marshy

regions. In the western part of Imèrina the _Tsirìry_, as it is

called, may be seen in flocks of five hundred together, so that a

certain district probably gets its name of “Bé (many) tsiriry” from

their numbers. At evening this bird and a tree duck (_Tahìa_) settle

down in such numbers along the shore of the lake that one cannot walk

by the waterside, for the ground is black with them. The tsiriry

builds its nest on hillocks among the grass, and the young birds are

taken to the water as soon as hatched. Another bird, the humped duck

(_Aròsy_), lays its eggs in the crevices of rocks. Many of the native

names of these wild fowl are imitative of their screaming cry; others

are descriptive, as “white-wings,” “handsome-bird,” “white-eyes,”

“many-shields,” etc. Besides the above-mentioned birds, there are

also coots, water-hens, herons, ibises, grebes, snipes and curlews in

the lake and the marshes. Of the white-backed duck (_Tafiòtra_) the

natives say that the female bird experiences some difficulty in the

laying of her eggs, which are very large in proportion to the size of

her body; this is said to make her faint and become unconscious, so

that she may be taken off her nest with the hand. On account this of

peculiarity, the duck is _fàdy_, or tabooed, by the native women, who

think that they would experience a similar difficulty in child-birth

were they to eat the bird.

From the abundance of water-birds in this province, the keeping of

ducks and geese is an important occupation of the Sihànaka. Geese

are greatly esteemed, and alive or killed are always presented as a

mark of respect to strangers. On account of their abundance, goose

quills for pens, as well as chillies and fine long mats, formed the

tribute formerly paid by the people to the queen at Antanànarìvo.

Guinea-fowls are also plentiful and are found in flocks of from

twenty to thirty together, but chiefly in unfrequented places.

[Sidenote: AMBÒHITRÒMBY]

After about two hours and a half’s journey we arrived at

Ambòhitròmby, a large village of nearly a hundred houses, situated

on a rounded hill which rose like an island from the plain. We were

formally received by an old man in a red _làmba_, the chief of the

village, in the presence of a large number of people, and the

accustomed speech-making had to be gone through. We then went into

the chapel, a long, narrow and low rush building, where the scholars

and most of the women were assembled. On going out of the chapel we

were asked to meet the chief people again to receive beef, rice, etc.

This was done with a formality and respect exceeding that shown on

any previous occasion. A mat was spread on an open space, on this

three chairs were placed for us, and in front of this, on another

mat, were arranged the provisions. Speech-making, compliments and

replies then followed as usual.

After tiffin, and taking some compass observations, we left

Ambòhitròmby soon after twelve o’clock, keeping still along the

western shore of the plain, and several times crossing bays which run

westward between the hills. Here we had much floundering about in the

bog, and crossing of cranky wooden bridges of the primitive single

round-pole construction. We passed Mòraràno and Moraféno, good-sized

villages, but were unable to stop at either place, as they were both

a little way out of the direct road, and we were pressed for time.

The population appeared considerable about this part of the plain,

for there were many other villages at no great distance, and a very

large extent of its margin was cultivated, the stacks of rice dotting

over the level surface for two or three miles to the eastward, and

for a long way north and south. After three or four hours’ walking

and riding we turned to the north-east, crossing a great bay formed

by one of the long promontories which stretch into the level from the

north-west as well as from the south-east shores of the plain. These

have evidently in an earlier (geological) period formed continuous

lines of hills, for they do not run in the same direction as the

main valley or depression of the country, but cut it at an angle of

about forty-five degrees—that is to say, while the general direction

of the Antsihànaka valley is north-north-east and south-south-west,

the lines of hills on either side have a bearing of north-north-west

and south-south-east. This is seen very distinctly in the map of the

district made on my return home: for many of the ridges seem to be

broken off more or less abruptly by the level ground, and then to

be continued on the other side of the plain. It seemed impossible

to avoid the conclusion that by some great convulsion in long-past

geologic ages a vast rent and depression had been made across the

lines of hills in a diagonal direction; while the water-worn and

wasted remains of some few of these towards the south, forming a line

of low detached hills, suggested that probably the action of water,

either as an arm of the sea running up the Ankay valley, or a great

river, had completed what was commenced by more violent agencies. The

unmistakable evidence of former volcanic action, in the presence of

extinct craters and lava streams to the west, north and north-east of

the plain, seems to show what was the agency which caused this great

depression of the surface.

[Sidenote: A NATURAL EMBANKMENT]

Half-an-hour brought us to the end of the promontory, which was

like an enormous dyke or sea-wall, one face having a steep slope,

and the other a long gentle rise. It was a pleasant and smooth

level road along the top of this great natural embankment to the

north-west. From it we had a delightful view, for the great flat

surface of the plain looked like an immense green lake, from which

the distant eastern line of hills seemed to rise like shores out of

a green expanse of water. The high mountains beyond these were lit

up by afternoon sunlight, and the western side or a still larger and

higher promontory to the east of us, broken up by lateral buttresses,

produced charming effects of light and shadow, and variety of colour.

At the head of the bay formed by these two long points we could see

the high rounded hill which rises above Ampàrafàravòla, and after a

time the little town itself began to show above the plain.

At a little before five o’clock we came to a hollow at the end of

the promontory, with a long piece of water dividing it from a steep

abrupt hill, on which the large village of Ambòhipèno is situated.

This place had a clay wall surrounding it, and contained about ninety

houses. The “road” to it is the water just mentioned, about four feet

wide, where the papyrus had been cut away; this being past, the path

was up a steep clay slope. As we got near the village, we could see

a number of people assembled to meet us, and on arriving at the top

had a most pleasing reception. As we cleared the water and began to

ascend, the singers struck up a hymn; they were all seated on one

side of the road, the school-children on the other, while a little

farther on were a crowd of people headed by the elderly men of the

place. One of these, the judge of the district, a pleasant old man,

then received us with the usual speeches, to which I had of course

to reply. After a few minutes’ delay, and promising to come and

preach to them on the following afternoon, we pushed on, for it was

near sunset, and we had still three or four miles to traverse before

reaching our destination.

[Sidenote: A HOSPITABLE RECEPTION]

It was about an hour after sundown before we reached Ampàrafàravòla,

but a bright moon near the full prevented any difficulty in

travelling. The town itself was almost entirely Hova, and consisted

of about ninety houses in a square stockade of palisading, a double

line of which ran all around it; but there were as many more Sihànaka

houses within half-a-mile of the _ròva_, and two or three small

villages at no great distance. On the west side of the town was a

large, well-built, clay chapel, not then finished. Our first look

at it, without any doors or windows, made us doubtful whether we

could use it as a lodging, especially as the evening breeze blew

sharply through the numerous openings; however, as we found there

were temporary doors and shutters of _zozòro_, which filled them

up to some extent, we decided that we had better stay in it. A few

minutes after our arrival, the lieutenant-governor of the district

and his attendants came out of the _ròva_ to meet us; and then, of

course, came loyal inquiries and polite speeches and, after a little

time, beef, rice and poultry, etc. We were glad at last to get some

tea, but we found the chapel very windy and letting in far too many

mosquitoes to be pleasant, so we pitched the tent at the far end of

the building as a sleeping apartment, and by dexterous management Mr

Pillans and I stole a march on our bloodthirsty little tormentors,

and managed to get a good night’s rest; while the doctor secured the

same under the protection of his mosquito net.

On Sunday morning the people assembled early (rather too early for

us) outside the chapel; and as soon as we had breakfasted, stowed

away our packages, beds, etc., at the farther end, and covered

them over with our tent to make things tidy, we let the people in.

Mr Pillans’ gorgeous rug again did duty as covering for the rough

little table which served as a reading-desk, while the doctor’s

photographic chemical box made it a convenient height. The chapel

was soon well filled with people, about four hundred and fifty in

number; they came in following the governor and his officers, who

took their seats first. Then came the commander’s wife, a very stout,

pleasant-looking lady, who, with two or three others, were dressed

in European style, as also were the chief men of the congregation.

The ladies, however, did not patronise chairs, but had cushions laid

on the floor. About half the congregation seemed to be Sihànaka, the

rest were Hovas. As soon as service was over, the singers begged

that I would teach them a new tune; so, as at other places, the

large paper copy of one, which was then new and very popular at

the capital, was brought out, and we practised it until we had to

ask them to let our lunch be got ready. They then removed into the

schoolhouse and sang away until it was almost time for the afternoon

service; and then again in the evening until late at night. They also

learned another new tune and hymn; and not only on Sunday night, but

early next morning, they were still at these two tunes, and the last

thing heard as we left the place was, “There is a happy land,” etc.,

over and over again.

[Sidenote: ANNOYING AND PAINFUL GRASS]

In the afternoon Mr Pillans and I set off to preach to the people

at Ambòhipèno, who had received us so pleasantly on the preceding

evening. We wanted to give our own men a perfect rest, and so

got some Sihànaka bearers. They jolted us not a little; carrying

logs of timber was much more in their line than carrying English

missionaries. However, we got there quickly and found the little

chapel filled with people waiting for us. On our way to and fro we

noticed a peculiar appearance in the grass, as if small handfuls of

it were tied together in a bundle, while still growing. On examining

a tuft of this, we found the unusual appearance was caused by a

small mass of fibres growing around, and the long awns intertwining,

involving the neighbouring grasses in their clasp; the end of each

is armed with a sharp and barbed point, fine and strong enough to

pierce the skin. This grass (_Andropogon contortus_) the natives

call _Léfon-dàmbo_ (“wild-hog’s spear”). In walking among this

grass the awns cling to one’s trousers by hundreds, and gradually

make their way through to the skin, causing a pricking like so many

pins. Almost as annoying, although not so painful, is a plant called

_Anantsinàhy_, which is found all over the central province, and of

which the small dry seeds, called _Tsipòlotra_, are furnished with

fine prickles, which make the seeds stick to your clothes by scores,

as you pass through any piece of waste ground.

[Sidenote: A DINNER WITH THE GOVERNOR]

On getting back to Ampàrafàravòla, we found that the Governor wished

us to dine with him and his officers in a small house which then

served as the _làpa_. In the courtyard was a little shed, much out

of repair, in which was a small cannon mounted on a very large

carriage, one of those made by M. Laborde for the old queen. At

some of the places we subsequently visited, after the usual loyal

inquiries for the queen, great officers, and for the governor and

lieutenant-governor of the Sihànaka, inquiry was also made as to the

welfare of this little two-pounder gun! We _might_ have replied, but

did not, that a cleaning now and then, and a little more thatch on

the roof of its shed, would probably tend to prolong its existence

and conduce to its general well-being. Our dinner was served in

thoroughly native style, being cooked in the same place where we ate

it, and with about a score of people helping to serve us guests,

three in number. They gave us rice and some excellently cooked beef

and turkey, and milk to drink. The chief cook would not allow us

to make any permanent impression on the heaped-up piles of rice on

our plates, for every few minutes they were replenished by fresh

supplies of rice and gravy, so we were obliged at last to relinquish

the unequal contest. Before dinner they came to ask us if the band

should play during the entertainment (as is customary when the great

people in Imèrina give feasts); but as I felt doubtful as to the

character of the tunes that the bandmaster might have available for

the occasion, I said that, being Sunday, it might be well to omit the

compliment; but I very readily agreed to their suggestion that the

singers should sing a hymn tune instead, which they did outside the

house. After doing justice to the fare, we returned to our chapel

lodgings, greatly pleased with much we had seen during the day.

[16] Subsequently, my friends, the late Rev. J. Pearse and his wife,

lived and did a great work, both medical and religious, among the

Sihànaka for several years; and after them, the late Rev. E. H.

Stribling and other missionaries continued that work until 1895. For

some years past Christian teaching has been carried on by Malagasy

sent by the native missionary society.

[Sidenote: OLD TINS]

[17] It may be remarked here how ubiquitous are the disused tins in

which various provisions made by English manufacturers are packed.

We were amused during our tour by the evidence of this in different

parts of Antsihànaka. It is usual in the Malagasy congregations for

a small tin box to be fixed near the door of the church to receive

money contributions and “the weekly offering.” We found that in some

villages old jam tins were employed for this purpose; in others again

sardine boxes were the favourite receptacle for the gifts of the

congregation; while in yet other districts a military feeling was

apparently the prominent one, for old powder flasks were suspended

from the wall for the Sunday contributions.

CHAPTER XV

LAKE SCENERY

We were up early on Monday morning, the doctor to prepare paper for

photographs, Mr Pillans and I to survey. He and I walked up a rounded

scarped hill, about a mile to the north-east of the town. This was

the only place we had seen in the neighbourhood which showed this

rude kind of fortress, so common on the hills of Imèrina and the

Bétsiléo country. It was a dull cloudy morning, and we could not

get any distant points, but took the bearings of a few neighbouring

villages. But we were greatly interested to find that the hill had

certainly been the centre of volcanic action, was, in fact, an

extinct crater, for large masses of lava were scattered all over

the hill, from the base to the summit. We afterwards found, as we

proceeded on our journey round its north-western slopes, that the

crater was on that side, and that from it a stream of molten rock

had poured down, spreading over a considerable surface of ground.

After bidding our good friends farewell, although they much wished

to keep us longer, we left at nine o’clock, still going northward.

We crossed over the head of the large bay of the plain formed by the

long promontory, passed a little cluster of villages called Mòraràno,

and then ascended the ridge of hills, coming out on some very high

ground which forms the western boundary or shore of this part of the

plain. From it we had an extensive view over the great level surface,

and could see the whole length of the Alaotra lake from north to

south. There was a fine variety of outline in the eastern line of

hills and mountains, and towards the north end of the plain there was

a great opening between the hills, showing the valley through which

the Màningòry river runs from the lake to the sea. We soon left the

high ground and came down to the plain, skirting its edge, generally

on low hills, and occasionally crossing great arms of it running

westward. Several of these were very boggy and difficult to cross,

with the most complicated and impracticable bridges we had yet

seen, even in Antsihànaka; some of them were in three stages, one a

steepish ascent, the middle span on the level, and another going down

again into _water_, not on to dry land, and none boasting more than a

slippery round pole as roadway.

[Sidenote: A CURIOUS CUSTOM]

Our journey of six hours and three-quarters to-day was only broken

by half-an-hour’s halt on a low hill to take observations; indeed

there was no village, nor even a house, where we could have stayed,

for we were travelling over a perfectly uninhabited country. After

we left Mòraràno, about an hour north of Ampàrafàravòla, we saw not

a single human habitation nor trace of cultivation, although there

were numerous fertile and spacious valleys, until we arrived at

Ambòhijànahàry. The only object we saw that gave any sign of man’s

presence was a large herd of fine cattle. I was afterwards told of

a curious custom formerly practised by the Sihànaka at the time of

the circumcision. They used to choose one of the largest oxen to be

found and sharpened his horns to a fine point; after two or three

days’ continuous drinking, when they had got perfectly maddened

with spirits and were ready for any foolhardy adventure, a party

would rush out to attack this ox, but without any weapons. As the

animal became infuriated, he of course defended himself by goring

his enemies, many of whom he generally seriously hurt, and some

occasionally killed outright, while the man who escaped without

injury was considered as born under a lucky star, and was resorted to

by numbers of people to give them charms to protect them from various

kinds of calamity.

Soon after four o’clock we reached Ambòhijànahàry, a large village of

about a hundred houses, on rising ground, and approached by a long

narrow passage between dense thickets of prickly pear. It is a poor

dirty place, and the chapel the smallest one we had yet seen in the

district, being only twenty-two feet by sixteen wide. However, it was

clean and neatly matted, and after stopping up a door and a window on

the windward side we put up the tent as a canopy for sleeping under,

as the gables were exceedingly well ventilated. Then came speeches,

beef, etc., etc., and replies as usual, _my_ oratorical efforts

becoming very brief; my companions remarked that the flowery parts

of my speeches in reply were gradually curtailed as we proceeded

farther on our journey. To the north of the village is a lofty point,

called Ankìtsika; it has a double cone-shaped outline—that is, a

small cone upon a large truncated one—and is doubtless of volcanic

origin. The word Ankìtsika means “at a cave,” and there is said to

be a cave at the top, where, in former times, the people took refuge

when their enemies, the Sàkalàva, made a raid upon them.

The village which we had now come to was “our farthest north,”

for from here we began to turn our faces homewards; and as we had

now seen the largest villages in the province, I may as well say

something here about the Sihànaka, and their occupations and means of

subsistence.

Their occupations are, chiefly, tending cattle, growing rice,

fishing, and making _tòaka_ (rum). Almost every family keeps cattle,

save the very poorest, and there is nothing the people like better

than to follow their herds and camp out in the pastures with their

wives and children. The day of cutting the ears of the young animals

(so as to distinguish them from those of the queen) was always kept

as a day of rejoicing, killing oxen, and feasting. Yet very few milk

their cattle, for they prefer the broth made from fish to milk.

[Sidenote: STORING RICE]

As we went round the outside edge of the plain, we saw a large extent

of rice ground under cultivation; but the people do not dig the soil,

or transplant the rice, as is the custom in Imèrina, but cultivate

their fields in the following way. First of all they make a number

of low earthen banks, which are intended to hold the water. That

being done, oxen are driven over the ground to be planted, where the

water is a few inches deep, and when the soil has been well turned

over, then the rice is sown; and there it is left until it is reaped,

without transplanting or weeding. When the rice has been reaped, it

is heaped together in round stacks, which are of a considerable size.

When quite dry, the grain is threshed out with a stick, two men or

more striking in regular turn. The rice is not stored in pits, as

in Imèrina, but in an enormous kind of basket or round enclosure,

made of papyrus plaited together, and about eight feet high and from

twenty to thirty feet in diameter. These are in the fields, and are

roofed over; and rice being so cheap and plentiful with them, the

people do not measure the rice itself, but they reckon it by the

number of these _vòlovàry_, of which the richer Sihànaka have seven

or eight or more.

[Sidenote: CATCHING FISH]

Catching fish in the lake and in the numerous streams and pieces of

water is the business of both men and women. The men angle for eels,

the women dredge for small fish in the shallow water (using a kind of

basket like a large sieve), and the little children fish with bait.

All the children have a tiny canoe, in which they go fishing in the

early morning from six to nine o’clock, when they return home, for

their small canoes would be upset by the wind and waves as the day

advances. The women catch, by dredging, small fish called _tòho_ and

also shrimps. These they dry in the sun, sew up in baskets, and take

for sale to the markets, many people becoming wealthy by their sale.

Until a few years ago all sales were done by barter, for little money

was employed. And it is the custom for the men not to bring home what

they have caught, but to leave it by the waterside for the women to

fetch.

There is abundance of _tòaka_ (rum) made in Antsihànaka, and its

manufacture is the work of poor old men and women and (formerly) of

slaves. In every house it is to be found, for they think it shows a

want of respect to visitors if they have not plenty of _tòaka_ to

give them. Whatever be the business in hand, whether funerals or

rejoicings, nothing can be done without drinking _tòaka_ (see an

earlier paragraph).

We left Ambòhijànahàry on Tuesday morning and turned eastward. Our

road lay through low swampy ground, often wading through water and

floundering through bog. But there was also a large extent of land

covered with rice-fields, and we passed several villages. We left the

lines of hills, which come down and terminate abruptly at the edge of

the plain. Rain fell during the last half of the journey and a thick

mist shut out everything from view; there was water above and around,

and water and bog below, so it was the most uncomfortable of all our

journeys. The only objects to interest were the clouds of birds,

which flew over our heads in immense numbers in every direction. Soon

after ten o’clock we got to a village of seventy or eighty houses,

called very inappropriately, Ambòhitsàra (“good town”), for it was

quite in the swamp, raised only a few inches above the level, and

surrounded by water, most of it stagnant. Here the people of the

village, in their speech to us, spoke of our staying there that

night, and crossing the lake the following morning; but as it was

still early in the day, and the water was not an hour distant, we

felt most unwilling to stop, especially as we feared risk of fever by

staying the night in such a low and damp situation. We therefore told

them that we must, if possible, get across the lake that day, and

requested them to lose no time in getting sufficient canoes to take

us over. After tiffin, we determined to go and see for ourselves, and

with much difficulty got our men off. The path was better than in the

morning, a large extent of land here being fine pasture and covered

with cattle.

[Sidenote: A PLEASANT PICTURE]

Three-quarters of an hour brought us to the lake, a beautiful expanse

of water, but only one small canoe was visible, and a stiff breeze

from the east had raised waves of a size quite formidable to such

cranky craft as Malagasy canoes are. The shore opposite to us seemed

from three to four miles distant; to the northward the water extended

for several miles, with bays running up among the hills, and a large

arm turning eastward in the direction of the valley through which the

river draining the lake flows into the sea. Many of the villages on

the rising ground across the water were seen quite distinctly (for

it had turned out a lovely afternoon) and seemed large places. A

considerable portion of the population is indeed massed round this

north-east corner of the lake, and we regretted being obliged to

leave so many large villages unvisited, but our time would not allow

us to go round the head of the Alaotra. The picture was a pleasant

one from the shore; the expanse of blue water, with the waves dancing

and sparkling in the sunlight; the villages on the green hills across

the lake; and behind them grand masses of mountain, with a good deal

of dark forest capping them. To the north of the Màningòry valley was

distinctly visible an extinct volcanic crater, with a large portion

of one of its sides broken down and revealing the immense cup-shaped

hollow within. The aneroid showed that the surface of the lake was

twenty-six hundred feet above the sea, about nineteen hundred feet

below the height of the capital.

We waited and waited on the shore, sweeping the opposite banks with

our telescopes for signs of approaching canoes, but looked in vain;

nothing like a canoe was to be seen, and the waves got higher and

higher; evidently it would not have been safe to cross so late

in the day, when the sea breeze, as is the case also on the coast

lagoons, makes a considerable swell, and crossing is practicable

only for the largest canoes. And while we are waiting, we may remark

that this Lake Alaotra is the largest one in Madagascar, and is

about twenty-five miles long, by four or five in average breadth.

But as the level marshy land to the west and south is only a few

inches above its surface, the lake is of much greater extent in the

wet season. It receives the drainage of the northern portion of the

Ankay plain, so that a considerable body of water must issue from its

north-eastern arm and flow towards the sea. According to the Rev. L.

Dahle, the name “Alaotra” is probably the Arabic _Al-lutat_, “the

dashing of the waves,” the sea. The Arabs of the Comoro Islands and

East Africa are known among the Malagasy as the “Taloatra”—_i.e._

“those from beyond the ocean.”[18]

[Sidenote: IRRITATING DELAY]

The afternoon wore on; the doctor took photographs of the opposite

shore; Mr Pillans and I took bearings for the map, and collected

shells; and at last, after waiting two hours, we reluctantly came

to the conclusion that we must go back to the village in the swamp,

which we accordingly did. However, we were not so uncomfortable as we

had feared, nor did we take any harm from the damp conditions. The

head people came to present beef, etc., but I fear I answered them

rather curtly, for we saw plainly it was never intended to let us get

over the lake until the following day; but, with the usual native

unwillingness to speak out plainly, they would not say so to begin

with. In the book which Dr Mullens wrote on his return to England he

says of this afternoon’s experiences: “I am afraid that the general

depression seriously interfered with the reply of our friend, Mr

Sibree. The dignity and fulness with which he usually dwelt upon the

affairs of the kingdom and the health of the authorities, and the

flowery eloquence with which he would describe the purpose of our

visit, entirely failed him here. His reply was brief and guarded, and

the two-pounder gun he passed over in total silence.”

[Sidenote: A DEEP LAKE]

On Wednesday morning we left Ambòhitsàra at half-past six, so as to

cross the lake as soon after sunrise as possible, as this is always

the calmest time of the day in Madagascar waters. We found about a

dozen large canoes waiting for us; several of these were from thirty

to forty feet long, and three to four feet beam, hollowed out of

a single tree. We all embarked and got off soon after half-past

seven, but the wind had already risen somewhat, and there was quite

a swell on the water. But the sail across was most delightful. As

we proceeded, the northern shores opened up, showing two deep bays

stretching far away between the hills, and an island, where the

Sihànaka made their last stand in resisting Hova domination. From

that time it has not been allowed to be inhabited, but is only used

for planting vegetables. We had only two paddlers, one at the head,

and the other at the stern of the canoe, and so were an hour and

ten minutes in crossing. We made an attempt to ascertain the depth

of the lake with an old knife as a sinker, and a piece of string

as a line, while the doctor, in true scientific fashion, “hove the

lead.” I regret to say that no accurate information was obtained,

for the sounding line was again and again thrown with the report,

“no bottom.” But our short line was no doubt the reason of our

ill-success. The lake is probably deep at its northern end, and it

is certainly shallow at its southern extremity, gradually changing

into marsh. Some of my missionary friends, who subsequently lived in

Antsihànaka, have described voyages across the southern end of the

Alaotra, where, amongst the dense growth of papyrus, rush, and tall

grasses, the only practicable paths for a canoe are dark passages,

almost tunnel-like, among the rank vegetation; and where a stranger

might easily be lost in the watery and reedy wastes around him.

There can be no doubt that the present lake is but a small remnant of

a much larger one; for, at a not very distant period, the water must

have covered the whole plain of Antsihànaka, thus forming a lake five

or six times the size of the present Alaotra. But at a yet earlier

period still, this lake extended for a hundred miles farther south,

down the Ankay plain, and for at least two hundred miles farther

north, forming an immense extent of water, not much unlike the

Tànganyika in Central Africa in size and outline, and of considerable

depth; for Mr Baron found numerous indications of old shore-lines at

elevations of eleven to twelve hundred feet above the present level.

Doubtless, the gradual lowering of the valleys of the Mangòro to the

south, and of the Màningòry to the north-east, drained off this great

lake, leaving only the present comparatively small sheet of water as

its representative.

[Sidenote: BIRD LIFE]

To an ordinary observer the Alaotra lake presents a good deal of

bird life, as well as the large reptiles which bask in the sun on

its shores. But to those who will examine more closely and will

use a good microscope, there are minute forms of life, both animal

and vegetable, which are wonderful for their beauty and their

variety. Among the latter are the Algæ, of which my late friend, Mr

Baron, made a collection, mostly from the neighbourhood of Alaotra,

including a hundred and eighty species, of which seventy proved to be

new to science. In a quarto pamphlet of fifty pages, with plates of

two hundred different figures, these fresh-water algæ were minutely

described, as belonging to thirteen different orders and thirty-one

genera.[19] Many new and interesting species were thus revealed,

and considerable additional knowledge of the distribution of known

forms attained. Without actual inspection of the plates it is

difficult to give any clear notion of the various remarkable, often

strange, and frequently beautiful forms of these lowly organised

plants as revealed by the microscope. The bi-lobed outlines of the

_Cosmaria_ are especially noticeable, and hardly less so are the

stellate, triangular and multangular forms of other species. It is

difficult to believe that some of these remarkable organisms are

plants at all; in many cases they are more like some beautiful shell,

delicately and elaborately sculptured; while in others they take the

form of a simple cell—round, oval or triangular—often as if about

to increase by fissure; while others again have curious processes,

more like those of some grotesque polyp than anything belonging to

the vegetable kingdom. These plants are additional illustrations of

the wonders that lie hidden from ordinary observation in the mud of

almost every pond and in the slime that gathers round almost every

water-plant.

It is a rather interesting fact that the crocodile found in the

Alaotra is a different species to that inhabiting all the rivers of

Madagascar; but it is identical with the crocodile found fossil,

together with the remains of the extinct hippopotamus and the

gigantic birds and lemurs which inhabited the island probably until

the appearance of man upon the scene. These reptiles are very

numerous in the lake, for in the afternoons, on the small rocky

islets which rise only a little above the water, the crocodiles are

seen snapping at each other to get space to bask in the sun. In the

small streams flowing into Alaotra they are numerous at all times

of the day, so that if there are only a few canoes, people dare not

cross for fear of being upset. Tortoises are also plentiful on the

shores and islets of the lake. Two species of water-lily are found in

the water, one being identical with the lotus of the Nile; besides

these there are numerous other water-plants, one being a twining

plant, called _Tsihìtafòtotra_ (“the root not seen”), which twines

about other plants in all possible directions, clinging to them by

numerous little disks; and there are also two species of convolvulus

(_Ipomæa_), with large red flowers. Besides the masses of papyrus

(_zozòro_) and _hèrana_ sedge, growing in the marshes and shallow

parts of the lake, a gigantic and handsome grass, called _Bàraràta_,

growing from twelve to fifteen feet high, is very abundant. It would

be taken by ordinary people for a species of bamboo, for its size and

the thickness of its jointed stem; its sharp prickly leaf sheaths

near the root make it very unpleasant for the unshod feet of the

natives. In and about the marshes occur the _Jaboàdy_, a species of

wild cat, and also a kind of muskrat, both of strong scent.

[Sidenote: MYTHICAL CREATURES]

There are certain mythical creatures firmly believed by the

Sihànaka to exist in Lake Alaotra. One of these is a monster having

seven heads and known as _Fanànim-pìto-lòha_. It is said to be a

sort of serpent, and when it lifts itself out of the water, as

it does occasionally, its head touches the sky! There are also

_Andrìambàviràno_ (_lit._ “water-princesses”). These creatures,

though residing beneath the water, never get wet, as they live in

water-tight palaces. They are said to have hair reaching down to the

waist. Veritable water-nymphs these!

[Sidenote: A GRATIFYING CHANGE]

But to return to our journey, we landed at the foot of the hill

on which Ambòhitsòa, a village of about eighty houses, is built,

and mounted to the top by a steep pathway. Here a most extensive

and lovely view presented itself, I think _the_ most beautiful of

its kind I had ever seen in Madagascar. The lake lay before us,

stretching far away to the southward in a great rounded curve, and

with its indented bays and island fastness to the northward. The

changing shades of purple and blue of the water; the green of the

plain beyond; and the varied outline of hills and mountains in the

far background to west and north—all lit up by bright sunshine—made

as charming a picture as an artist could desire to transfer to

canvas. But we had little time to spare, and so after hastily taking

bearings we went to Màrosalàzana, the next village to the south,

which we could see on a high hill at three or four miles’ distance.

On entering the village, a place with about sixty houses, we found

a crowd of about four hundred people waiting to receive us. These

were not all inhabitants of the place, for many of them had come from

Ambòhitsòa to meet us. After a formal reception by the authorities

we found the school-children assembled on an open raised space in

the centre of the village, a group of nearly a hundred altogether,

dressed in their best. Many of the girls had a peculiar kind of

collar to their dress, consisting of seven or eight massive silver

chains of different patterns; they also wore armlets of silver. Many

of these children and young people had most intelligent and pleasant

faces. We heard them read, and then I was delighted to find they knew

the smaller catechism well. I talked to them a little about it, and

then addressed a few words to the numbers of people crowded round the

children, speaking to them of the great love of God in sending His

Son. It was an interesting scene, and one we did not soon forget:

the bright intelligent group of children in the centre; the crowd

of wondering Sihànaka on each side; the little knots of women in

their dark blue dresses and silver ornaments; and the lovely scene

around us—all made a picture attractive in its outward aspects, but

still more interesting when one thought of these people as seemingly

prepared to welcome a fuller teaching than they had yet received.

The pleasant scene at this village, as well as what we had witnessed

at others, gave a cheering promise of what might be expected were

the people more thoroughly instructed. In a short report supplied

by Rabé, the native evangelist, he says that when he first went to

Antsihànaka, “only a person could be found here and there who washed

their clothes, for everyone’s dress was smeared with castor-oil, and

they thought it would spoil their clothes to wash them, as they would

soon be worn out; so that the clothing of the people was offensive to

the last degree. For that reason the dark blue cotton was generally

worn, as it was nearly black to begin with. But now there is hardly

anyone who does not wash his clothes, and has not white dress. Not

long ago, when it was evening, the young men in the villages used to

form into two parties, and had violent boxing-matches all through

the village, the women also often joining in the fray. But now no

one practises this rough sport. Not long ago rum was what the people

chiefly delighted in; and if any strangers who visited them were not

made thoroughly drunk, the owner of the house was looked upon as

inhospitable, although he gave them the best of everything to eat.”

[Sidenote: EXPENSIVE FUNERALS]

We left Màrosalàzana at one o’clock, and found outside the village

something which gives the explanation of its name, “many poles”—viz.

a group of more than twenty poles stuck in the ground close together,

and holding ox skulls and horns. This was the largest group we had

yet seen, and there also were many more lying mouldering on the

ground. Besides these, there were several very high poles with

forked tops, such as we had already seen at almost all the Sihànaka

villages. These lofty poles are called _jìro_, a word which in Hova

Malagasy signifies a “lamp.” We had already seen these on our journey

northwards, but here was a larger number than we had hitherto met

with. These _jìro_ are only raised in memory of a _male_ Sihànaka;

to eulogise a woman, the rush mats and baskets which she made and

possessed while living are arranged on poles by the wayside to meet

the public gaze. These people spend a large amount of money and

property on the funerals of their relatives. Mr Pearse gives the

following account of what was expended at that of a man dying at

a village called Màngalàza:—Thirty silk _làmbas_, to wrap up the

corpse, value two hundred and sixty-nine dollars; a hundred oxen,

value three hundred dollars; drink and food, principally the former,

thirty-nine dollars’ worth; showing an expenditure of more than six

hundred dollars on this particular funeral. (At that time a dollar

was worth as much or more to the Malagasy as a pound would be to us.)

[Sidenote: A WIDOW]

After returning home from Antsihànaka, I heard many other particulars

about the people and their habits, and among them the following

curious, and cruel, custom with regard to widows; and as this is

so utterly different from anything practised by any other Malagasy

tribe, as far as I am aware, it is well to put it on record. It

is much more like a Hindu custom than a Malagasy one, and is as

follows:—When the corpse of the deceased husband is about to be

buried, the widow is decorated profusely with all the ornaments she

possesses, wearing a scarlet _làmba_, with beads and silver chains

on her neck and wrists and ankles, long ear-rings depending from her

ears to her shoulders, and silver ornaments on her head. Then she

is placed in the house, so that it may be seen by everyone how her

husband adorned her while he was yet living; and when the people go

away to the funeral, she remains still in the house, and does not go

to the grave. When the relatives and friends have returned home and

seen the widow sitting in her grand clothing and ornaments, they rush

upon her, tearing her dress and violently pulling off her ornaments,

so as to hurt her, and say at the same time: “This is the cause of

our losing our relative”; for they believe that the _vìntana_—_i.e._

fate or luck of the wife—is stronger than that of her husband and so

has caused his death. Then they give her a coarse _làmba_, a spoon

with a broken handle, and a round dish with the stand broken off; her

hair is dishevelled, and she is covered up with a coarse mat; and

under it she remains all day long, and can only leave it at night;

and whoever goes into the house, the widow may not speak to them.

She is not allowed to wash her face or her hands, but only the tips

of her fingers. She endures all this sometimes for a year, or at

least for eight months; and even then, her time of mourning is not

ended, but endures for a considerable time afterwards. And she is not

allowed to go home to her own relatives until she has been divorced

first by the husband’s family.

The house in which people die is left by the survivors, and no

one occupies it again; they do not pull it down, but let it fall

to pieces of itself, but they do not leave the village as do the

Sàkalàva in similar circumstances. Such houses are called _tràno

fòlaka_ (“broken houses”); but I am informed that this last custom is

falling into disuse; and happily, the influence of Christian teaching

has caused the treatment of widows to be greatly altered, so that it

is now becoming a thing of the past.

After leaving the “village of many poles,” our afternoon journey was

southward, first crossing several spurs of the higher hills with

their intermediate valleys; and then down a long level tract of

country between the lake and a bold wall-like line of hills, which

here forms the eastern boundary of the plain. We passed several large

villages, and stopped for the night at a place of forty or fifty

houses, called Ambòhimànga.

[Sidenote: UNLUCKY DAYS]

In one of the villages situated in the dense papyrus thickets which

cover the marshes to the south of the lake, a place called Ànoròro,

lives a strange tribe of people who seem quite isolated, not only

in their dwelling-place, but also in their barbarous habits, from

the other Sihànaka, and who speak a distinctly different dialect. In

the rainy season, when the water rises, it enters into the houses of

these people, and they then put together several layers of _zozòro_

to form a kind of raft, so that as the water rises, this raft rises

with it. Upon these _zozòro_ they make their hearths and their beds;

and there they live, rising and falling with the water, until the

rainy season is over and they can live on the ground again. There

are some curious stories about the simplicity of these people and

their fathers, for they have no intercourse with anyone outside

their village except on a certain day, when they go out to sell the

fish they have caught. These people appear to have no fewer than

eight unlucky days in each month, so that during more than a quarter

of their time their superstition prevents them from going about or

engaging in any work.

While speaking of unlucky days, it must be here noticed that all

over Antsihànaka, Thursday is considered as _fàdy_ (tabooed), and no

one will work their rice-fields on that day. To build brick or clay

houses is not permitted, death being the supposed penalty in case of

transgression. To use hemp also, either in the form of cloth, or for

smoking, is also universally tabooed. And besides the _fàdy_ common

to all Sihànaka, each family or clan has inherited a set of _fàdy_ of

its own, so that in addition to the universal abstinence from work on

Thursday, there will be another day of the week on which nothing may

be taken out of the house, the mats may not be swept, etc. Various

foods and actions, too numerous to particularise, are _fàdy_ to

certain villages; while considered quite harmless in some places,

they would bring all manner of evil in others.

On Thursday morning we set off again, and after two hours’ journey

along the east edge of the plain, left it and made a straight

course over the rice-fields for Ambàtondrazàka, leaving the great

semicircular bay to the east of the town on our left. We got in at

ten o’clock, all very wet with the heavy drizzle, but we were soon

comfortably settled in the chapel, and got our things dried in the

sun. We were again most kindly received by the officers and the

congregation there, but we were obliged to leave soon, so as to get

back to Antanànarìvo for some important engagements. On consultation

with our bearers, we found that they were willing to make a long

journey for a day or two (encouraged also thereto by promises of an

extra day’s pay), so that we might get quickly over the uninhabited

country, and reach Anjozòrobé by Saturday afternoon. So we left

Ambàtondrazàka at midday and arrived at Màngantàny by sunset.

[Sidenote: BEAUTY OF THE GRASS]

Again were we charmed with the varied scenery of the route, and

especially by the grasses, about which I have already spoken in this

chapter, and which Dr Mullens graphically describes in a passage

which may well conclude this account of our Antsihànaka journey. He

says:

“I received the impression, afterwards repeatedly confirmed, that

one of the most beautiful things to be found in Madagascar is its

grass. It is beautiful in the sheltered valleys, where the tender

blades, enriched by the dew and the rain, are refreshing to the

eye, and yield like velvet to the foot. But here the grass is

in its glory on the great hills. Burnt year after year by long

sweeping fires, it springs up again with a profusion which clasps

huge rocks within its soft embrace. Here it is short but strong;

there it rises in vast tufts, each of which contains many thousand

blades and covers many feet of ground; and yet again it spreads

over vast patches of country in thick, tall masses, which tower

above men’s heads, open their tinted blades to the warm sun, and

wave their myriads of golden feathers in the summer winds. And

it is when we contemplate this rich but simple provision of the

divine bounty, when we watch these masses of slender blades,

each tuft a forest in itself, clothing with beauty what man has

neglected, laying up store for man and beast, opening their golden

hair to the dews by night and the warm winds by day, and joyously

revelling in the life given them from above, that then we can,

with Mr Ruskin, appreciate and share the admiration and the praise

given by the Psalmist to Him ‘Who maketh the grass to grow upon the

mountains.’”[20]

[Sidenote: “NO MAN’S LAND”]

The following day we had a long journey over “no man’s land,” taking

provisions with us and stopping to dine by a stream half-way, and

reached Mandànivàtsy before nightfall. Saturday morning we crossed

the high ridge in the forest, entering Imèrina again, and got to

Anjozòrobé in good time in the afternoon. After the fatigues of the

week we had another pleasant Sabbath, the first of the month, with

the good people there. Monday evening brought us to Ambòhitrérana,

and a couple of hours’ ride on Tuesday morning took us home to

Ambòhimànga in time for breakfast; thus completing in little more

than nineteen days our very interesting journey and exploration.

[18] Among the Sàkalàva, _Alaotra_ means “ocean” or “sea,” so that

it is the sea-like sheet of water. _Cf._ the use of _Bahr_ among the

Arabs, in _Bahr-Tabariyeh_, Sea of Tiberias, and _Bahr-Lut_, Sea of

Lot—Dead Sea.

[19] _Trans. Linn. Soc._, vol. v., pt. 2 (_Botany, 2nd Ser._).

[20] It is a significant fact that the Malagasy word for “glory,”

“honour,” is _vòninàhitra_, which, literally translated, is “flower

of the grass.” Did this expression arise from the native admiration

of some of these beautiful grasses, similar to that which so excited

Dr Mullens’ delight when travelling in this country.

CHAPTER XVI

LAKE ITÀSY

Madagascar is not at present one of those regions of the earth where

volcanic disturbances occur; but there is ample evidence, from the

numerous extinct craters found in various parts of the island, that

at a very recent period, geologically considered—possibly even within

the occupation of the country by its present inhabitants—it was the

theatre of very extensive outbursts of subterranean energy. The

whole island has not yet been examined with sufficient minuteness

to determine the exact extent of these old volcanoes, but they have

been observed from near the south-east coast in South Latitude 28°,

and in various parts of the centre of the island up to the north-west

and extreme north, a distance of six hundred and eighty miles; and

probably a more complete survey would reveal other links connecting

more closely what is, as at present known, only a series of isolated

groups of extinct craters. In the central provinces of Madagascar

there are two large clusters of old volcanic cones and vents: one of

them in about the same latitude as the capital (19° South), but from

fifty to seventy miles away to the west of it, in the neighbourhood

of Lake Itàsy; the other in the district called Vàkinankàratra,

situated about eighty miles to the south-south-west of Antanànarìvo,

and south-west of the great central mountain mass of Ankàratra.

This second volcanic region stretches from twenty to thirty miles

from Antsìrabé away west to Bétàfo and beyond it, and contains

numerous and prominent extinct craters, some of which have been

described by the graphic pen of the late Dr Mullens in his “Twelve

Months in Madagascar” (pp. 214-219). The doctor says that he counted

in this southern group about sixty cones and craters.

[Sidenote: A MAGNIFICENT VIEW]

The Itàsy just referred to is a lake situated about fifty-five miles

west of Antanànarìvo, and is about five miles long from east to west,

and three miles from north to south. It is irregularly square in

outline, several small headlands breaking up its shores into little

bays; while to the north, where the river Lilìa takes its overflow

to the sea, is a long extension or arm of the lake, curving round a

mountain, which proves to be an old volcano. Seen from the east, as

I approached it from the capital, it appeared as if in a depression

of the general surface, and its waters were of a lovely blue. A still

finer view of it is obtained from a mountain called Ambòhimiangàra,

which is about three miles distant from it to the north-east. This

is by far the highest point for a long distance around the lake;

and as we proceeded towards it during our two days’ journey from

Antanànarìvo, its great rounded mass gradually rose and dominated the

whole landscape.

A late friend of mine, who resided long in the district, wrote of

Ambòhimiangàra as “a kingly hill, higher by head and shoulders than

any other near it, its crown of white stones rising some eighteen

hundred feet above the lake lying blue at its feet. The view from

the summit was magnificent, the centre of the whole being the lovely

Itàsy embosomed in its bright green hills, a pearl encircled with

emeralds, with mountains upon mountains in every direction as far as

eye could reach. Fierce thunderstorms were being marshalled hither

and thither, and could be counted by the half-dozen wherever the

eye turned. The whole mountain is a mass of quartz; where the rocks

protrude it is toned down to silver-grey by lichens, but where the

rain has washed it away, it appears as coarse sand and pebbles of

the purest white, with an occasional speck of pink.... We had a good

ride, after our descent, along the north-western arm of the lake.

This end of Itàsy, forming, as it were, a little lake by itself, and

reflecting the deep blue and white of the sky above it, lay calm in

the bright sunshine, encircled by the green hills, while clusters of

houses, embowered in peach and other trees, grouped themselves around

its shores. Here and there a canoe’s dark line among the sedges

showed where the fisher was at work with hook and line; and across

the meadow to the right, a herd of cattle was slowly wending its way

to fresh pastures. Altogether, it formed a most inviting subject for

a picture.”

Some way down the river flowing from the north-western arm of the

lake is a very beautiful waterfall. The river, broken into three

streams, falls in foaming white masses over a ledge of black lava,

some fifty feet deep. The whole bed of the river for a mile above

is of the same black character, the lava broken into innumerable

blocks and setting off the vivid colour of the verdure on the river

banks. The people say that Itàsy was once only a huge swamp, and

its becoming a clear lake is within the memory, or perhaps the

traditions, of the inhabitants. Other legends relate that the lake

was formed by a Vazìmba chieftain, named Rapèto, damming up the river

flowing from the swamp; and so the rice-fields of a neighbouring

chief, with whom he was at variance, were flooded and have ever

since remained under water. There is doubtless an element of truth

in this latter account; but the chieftain, also supposed to be a

giant, was not a human being, but a volcano, which broke out at the

north-western corner and dammed up the river for a long period, as

shown by the lava in its bed, as just described. The river has now

cut its way several feet through the barrier which was thus thrown

across its course.

[Sidenote: FLAMINGOES]

I spent several hours one day in a canoe on the lake with a friend,

shooting wild duck (my first and my last exploit in this line). We

found birds very abundant on the water, and in the swamps and rank

vegetation along the shores. Flamingoes, with their white plumage and

pink tinge pervading the whole under part of the wings, are fairly

common here, and are said to be extremely good eating. The native

name for this bird, _Sàmaka_, is appropriate and descriptive, as it

means “disjointed,” “split,” referring to its immensely long legs.

It is also called _Amjòmbona_, from its trumpeting cry, this being

also the native name for a large species of triton shell used as a

trumpet. An adult male bird stands more than four feet high; and

when on the defensive these birds make quite a loud noise by sharply

opening and closing their beaks, which are long and powerful. When on

the wing, they fly exceedingly high.

[Sidenote: RAIL]

Among the many birds frequenting this lake and the neighbourhood

are the purple water-hens, of which three species are found in

Madagascar. They are of a rich bluish-purple colour, and have a very

powerful beak, with which they easily root up the Hèrana sedge, when

growing on the edge of the lake in shallow water. They do this for

the sake of the tender rootlets, and perhaps also for insects. Of the

jacanas, two species are found here; with their extremely long toes

they walk easily upon the large leaves of aquatic plants, seeking for

the water-insects which form their food. They dive with great ease

and are therefore very difficult to shoot. Six or seven species of

rail have been observed in the island; the most common one (_Rallus

gularis_) is regarded with great respect, as it is believed to bring

rain in dry weather. Its loud whistling and tremulous cry is heard

chiefly towards evening. These birds are said to be so careful of

their eggs and young that they may easily be taken by the hand from

the nest. M. Pollen says: “I once saw a hen-bird who would not quit

the space near her nest, but kept walking around it, ruffling her

feathers, and dragging her wings on the ground, in the same way as

our domestic hen does when defending her young. Other birds common to

the marshy districts are crested coots, curlews, snipe and plovers.

Two species of birds peculiar to Madagascar, for whom a special

family had to be formed, can only be spoken of by their scientific

name of _Mesites_; they are very curious and specialised birds,

taking their place between the rails and the herons.” According to

the native accounts, when the nests of these mesites, which are

mostly placed on a low situation, are flooded, the parent birds drag

them to where they will be free from injury by the water. If anyone

takes their young, they follow them into the village; and on account

of this love for their offspring they are considered sacred (_fàdy_),

because, say the natives, they are in this like human beings.

[Sidenote: HOT MINERAL WATERS]

Not very far to the east of the second group of old volcanoes

mentioned above is the large village of Antsìrabé (“much salt”),

which is about seventy-five miles south-west of Antanànarìvo, and is

now on the automobile road to the Bétsiléo province. At this place

one of the chief springs is largely charged with lime, which has

formed an extensive deposit all over a small level valley sunk some

twenty feet below the general level of the plain around the village.

For a long time this place furnished almost all the lime used for

building in the capital and in the central province of Imèrina.

Besides the deposit over the floor of the valley, there was also a

compact ridge-shaped mass of lime accretion, seventy feet long by

eighteen to twenty feet wide, and about fifteen or sixteen feet high.

This had all been deposited by the spring, which kept open a passage

through the lime to the top. Some years ago, however, the spring was

tapped by a shaft, of no great depth, a few yards to the north, over

which a large and commodious bath-house was erected by the Norwegian

Lutheran Mission; and here many visitors came to bathe in the hot

mineral water, which has been found very beneficial in rheumatic and

other complaints.[21] A little distance to the south-west is another

spring, not, however, hot, but only milk-warm, the water of which is

drunk by those who bathe in the other spring. This water has been

shown to be, in chemical constituents, almost identical with the

famous Vichy water of France. All over the valley the water oozes up

in various places; and about half-a-mile farther north are several

other springs, somewhat hotter than that just described, to which the

natives largely resort for curative bathing.

[Sidenote: EXTINCT HIPPOPOTAMI]

During the excavations for the foundations of the bath-house, the

skeletons of several examples of an extinct species of hippopotamus

were discovered, the crania and tusks being in very perfect

preservation. Some of these are now in the museum at Berlin;

the finest specimen was sent to the museum of the University of

Christiania in Norway. This Madagascar hippopotamus was a smaller

species than that now living in Africa, and is probably nearly allied

to, if not identical with, another hippopotamus (_H. Lemerlei_), of

which remains were found in 1868 by M. Grandidier, in the plains of

the south-west coast. I was informed by the people that, wherever

in these valleys the black mud is dug into for a depth of three or

four feet, bones are sure to be met with. From the internal structure

of the teeth and bones of the hippopotami discovered at Antsìrabé,

traces of the gelatine being still visible, it is evident that the

animals had been living at a comparatively recent period. There have

been occasional vague reports of the existence of some large animal

in the southern parts of the island; and perhaps the half-mythical

stories of the _Sòngòmby_, _Tòkandìa_, _Làlomèna_, and other strange

creatures current among the Malagasy, are traditions of the period

when these pachyderms were still to be seen in the lakes and streams

and marshes of Madagascar.

Besides the remains of hippopotami, Mr Rosaas, for many years a

missionary of the Norwegian Society, and stationed at Antsìrabé,

obtained considerable quantities of the bones of extinct gigantic

birds. It is about eighty years ago (_circa_ 1834 and 1835) since

it became known to naturalists, through the discovery of portions

of massive leg-bones and fragments of enormous eggs, that there

was evidence of the former existence in Madagascar of large birds.

For a quarter-century after that date, the dislike of the heathen

queen to all foreign influence prevented fuller investigations of a

scientific character. But since the year 1861 further researches,

and excavations made in widely separated localities, have shown that

several species of these great birds existed until a comparatively

recent period in many parts of the island. It was evident that they

were flightless, and were allied to the ostrich, and still more

closely to the recently extinct _Dinornis_ of New Zealand. The

generic name of _Æpyornis_ was given to these birds, of which several

species were discovered, ranging in size from that of a bustard

to a bird exceeding an ostrich in height and also in the massive

character of the skeleton. The largest species was accordingly named

_Æpyornis maximus_. Subsequently, the remains of still larger birds

were discovered and these were called _Æ. titan_ and _Æ. ingens_, the

largest of them being about ten feet in height. More recent and exact

examination has shown that the _twelve_ species which had been formed

must be reduced to a smaller number, as some of the lesser kinds have

been proved to be young and immature forms of the larger species.

From the collection of hundreds of bones, and, in a very few cases,

complete skeletons, it is now clear that several species of these

great birds once roamed over the marshes and valleys of Madagascar,

as the ostrich does still in Africa, and the cassowary in Australia

and some East Indian islands.

[Sidenote: EXTINCT ANIMALS]

The egg of one of the species, probably of the largest one, is the

largest of all known eggs, its longer axis being twelve and a quarter

inches, and the shorter one nine and three-eighths inches; it thus

had a capacity equal to six ostrich eggs, and to one hundred and

forty-eight of those of the domestic fowl.[22] From the marks of

cutting with a sharp instrument seen on some of the bones, it seems

highly probable that these great birds, as well as the hippopotamus,

gigantic tortoises, and other animals, were living when the first

human inhabitants of the island appeared upon the scene; and

doubtless this was also the reason of the disappearance of both birds

and beasts, as they were hunted and used for food.

[21] Since the French occupation this bath-house has been removed,

and the mass of lime accretion has been broken up for use.

[22] The following appeared in _Punch_, 22nd July 1893:—

“_Good Egg-sample!_—One egg was sold the other day for £160, 18s.,

_vide_ _Times_ of Wednesday last. The egg was a perfect specimen

of that _rara avis in terris_, the gigantic _Æpyornis maximus_ of

Madagascar. What did Mr Stevens do with it? Did he have it made into

several omelettes for a breakfast party of a dozen? Of course it was

a perfectly fresh egg, and the only thing at all high about it was

the price.”

CHAPTER XVII

VOLCANIC DISTRICT

Within a few miles of Antsìrabé are two crater lakes. The nearer

and larger of these is called Andraikìba, which lies distant about

four miles due west. This is a beautiful sheet of water, blue as the

heavens in colour, in shape an irregular square, but curving round

to the north-west, where it shallows into a marsh, which is finally

absorbed in rice-fields. The lake is said to be of profound depth,

but the hills surrounding it are not very lofty, rising only about

two hundred feet above the surface of the water, from which they

ascend steeply. Fish and water-fowl, and crocodiles also, are very

abundant in and on its waters.

But the most interesting natural curiosity to be seen in the

neighbourhood of Antsìrabé is the crater-lake of Trìtrìva. This is

situated about ten miles to the south-west, a pleasant ride of two

hours by palanquin. Travelling at first in a westerly direction, the

road then turns more to the south-west, and skirts the southern foot

of the old volcano of Vòhitra. Passing about a mile or two south of

the high ground round the southern shores of the Andraikìba lake,

the road gradually ascends to a higher level of country, so that

in about an hour and a half’s time we are nearly as high as the

top of Vòhitra—probably about five hundred feet. Reaching a ridge

between two prominent hills, we catch our first sight of Trìtrìva,

now from two to three miles distant in front of us. From this point

it shows very distinctly as an oval-shaped hill, its longest axis

lying north and south, and with a great depression in its centre, the

north-eastern edge of the crater wall being the lowest part of it,

from which point it rises gradually southwards and westwards, the

western edge being at the centre from two to three times the height

of the eastern side. To the north are two much smaller cup-like

hills, looking as if the volcanic forces, after the main crater had

been formed, had become weaker and so been unable to discharge any

longer by the old vent, and had therefore formed two newer outlets at

a lower level.

[Sidenote: AN OLD VOLCANO]

Descending a little from the ridge just mentioned, we cross a valley

with a good many scattered hamlets, and in less than half-an-hour

reach the foot of the hill. A few minutes’ pull up a tolerably easy

slope, perhaps two hundred feet in height, brings up to the top, at

the lowest part of the crater edge; and on reaching the ridge the

crater of the old volcano and its lake is before us, or, rather,

below us. It is certainly an extraordinary scene. The inner sides of

the crater dip down very steeply on all sides to a deep gulf, and

here, sharply defined by perpendicular cliffs all round it, except

just at the southern point, is a rather weird-looking dark green

lake far below us, the water surface being probably from two hundred

to three hundred feet lower than the point we are standing upon,

and consequently below the level of the surrounding country. The

lake, exactly shut in by the cliffs of the crater surrounding it,

is not blue in colour, like Andraikìba, although under a bright and

cloudless sky, but a deep and somewhat blackish-green. It must look,

one would suppose, like ink under a stormy sky or in the shadows of

evening.

We sit down to rest and try to take in all the details of this novel

picture. It is undoubtedly an old volcano we are now looking down

into; the spot on which we rest is only a few feet in breadth, and we

can see that this narrow knife-edge is the same all round the crater.

Outside of it the slope is pretty easy, but inside it descends

steeply, here and there precipitously, to the edge of the cliffs

which so sharply define the actual vent and, as distinctly, the lake

which they enclose. Looking southwards, the crater edge gradually

ascends, winding round the southern side, and still ascending as the

eye follows it to the western, the opposite side, where the crater

wall towers steeply up from two hundred to three hundred feet higher

than it does on the east, where we are standing. The lake we judge to

be about eight hundred to nine hundred feet long and two hundred to

two hundred and fifty feet wide, forming a long oval, with pointed

ends. The cliffs which enclose it appear to be from forty to fifty

feet in height, whitish in colour, but with black streaks, where the

rain, charged with carbonic acid, has poured more plentifully down

their faces. These cliffs are vertical and in some places overhang

the water, and from their apparently horizontal stratification are

no doubt of gneiss rock. In coming up the hill I noticed a few small

lumps of gneiss among the basaltic lava pebbles. The strongest

feature of Trìtrìva is the sharply defined vertical opening of the

vent, looking as if the rocks had been cut _clean through_ with an

enormous chisel, and as if they must dip down—as is the case—to

profound depths below the dusky green waters. At the northern end

of the lake is a deep gorge or cleft, partly filled with bushes and

other vegetation. Southward of this, on the eastern side, the cliffs

are still lofty and overhang the water, but at about a third of the

lake’s length they gradually decrease in height, and at the southern

point they dip down to the level of the lake, so that at that part

only can the water be approached. On the western side the cliffs keep

a pretty uniform height all along the whole length.

[Sidenote: THE CRATER]

So steep is the inward slope of the crater walls that we all

experienced a somewhat “eerie” feeling in walking along the footpath

at its edge; for at a very few feet from this a false step would

set one rolling downwards, with nothing to break the descent to the

edge of the cliffs, and then to the dark waters below. Yet there was

a strange fascination in the scene, and the variety and contrast

and depth of the colours would make the Trìtrìva lake and slopes a

striking subject for a painting from many different points along its

crater wall. When we arrived, the sun, yet wanting an hour and a half

of noon, was still lighting up the grey-white stone of the western

cliffs, but the shadows were every minute growing more intense as

the sun became more nearly vertical. Far below us was the deep green

oval lake; above it, the stratified gneiss cliffs with their black

streaks, diversified here and there by patches of bright green bush.

Then again from their edges sweep steeply upwards the grey-green

sides of the crater, culminating in the lofty western ridge opposite

to us. And over all was the blue sky flecked with cirrus clouds;

altogether a scene such as I have seen nowhere else in Madagascar, or

indeed in any other country.

[Sidenote: A ROMANCE]

After fixing in our minds the view from the north-east, we proceeded

southwards along the crater edge to the higher part at the

south-east, where the view is equally striking, and the depth of

the great chasm seems still more profound. Here we waited some time,

while most of our men went down to one of the hamlets in the plain

to the east to get their meal, in which quest, however, they had

only poor success. On expressing a wish to taste the Trìtrìva water,

one of our bearers took a glass, and descending by a breakneck path,

went to fetch some water from the lake. He was so long away that we

were beginning to feel uneasy, but after a quarter of an hour he

reappeared with the water, which tasted perfectly sweet and good. He

also entertained us with some of the legends which were certain to

have grown up about so weird-looking a place as Trìtrìva. Pointing to

two or three small trees or bushes growing on the face of the cliffs

near the northern point of the lake, he told us these were really a

young lad and lass who had become attached to each other; but the

hard-hearted parents of the girl disapproving of the match, the youth

took his loin-cloth, and binding it round his sweetheart and his

own body, precipitated her with himself into the dark waters. They

became, so it is said, two trees growing side by side, and they now

have offspring, for a young tree is growing near them; and in proof

of the truth of this story, he said that if you pinch or break the

branches of these trees, it is not sap which exudes, but blood. He

appeared to believe firmly in the truth of this story.

He also told us that the people of a clan called Zànatsàra, who live

in the neighbourhood, claim some special rights in the Trìtrìva lake;

and when any one of their number is ill they send to see if the

usually clear dark green of the water is becoming brown and turbid.

If this is the case they believe it to be a presage of death to the

sick person.

Another legend makes the lake the former home of one of the

mythical monsters of Malagasy folk-lore, the _Fanànim-pìto-lòha_ or

“seven-headed serpent.” But for some reason or other he grew tired

of his residence, and shifted his quarters to the more spacious and

brighter lodgings for seven-headed creatures afforded by the other

volcanic lake of Andraikìba.

[Illustration: WATER-CARRIERS

The woman with a baby on her back has a full pitcher simply balanced

on her head]

This same bearer assured us that in the rainy season—contrary to

what one would have supposed—the water of the lake diminishes, but

increases again in the dry season. He told us that there is an outlet

to the water, which forms a spring to the north of the mountain. I

noticed a white line a foot or two above the surface of the water all

round the foot of the cliffs, showing a probably higher level than at

the time of our visit. It was popularly supposed to be unfathomable,

but some years after my visit the Rev. Johannes Johnson, of the

Norwegian Mission, sounded the lake in three places. The deepest

portion was found to be at the northern end, where it proved to be

four hundred and seventy-four feet in depth.

[Sidenote: A MAGNIFICENT VIEW]

Walking round to the southern end of the crater edge, the lake, here

foreshortened, has a somewhat close resemblance in outline to that

of the lake of Galilee, as seen on maps; but I must confess that the

first sight of it in its deep chasm made me think much more of the

other lake of Palestine, the Dead Sea, in its profound gorge between

the Judean hills and the highlands of Moab. After making a slight

pencil sketch or two, I proceeded up the far higher saddle-back ridge

on the western side. Here the lake seems much diminished in size and

lying far down at an awful depth. But a magnificent and extensive

view is gained of the surrounding country: the long flat-topped

lines of hill to the east running many miles north and south, and

surmounted directly east by the two perfect cones of old volcanoes;

the peaked and jagged range of Vòlombòrona to the south-east; the

enormous mass of Ibity to the south, and then west, a flat region

broken by abrupt hills. To the north-west are the thickly populated

valleys towards Bétàfo, with many a cup-shaped hill and mountain

marking old volcanic vents; and beyond this a high mass of country

with serrated outline against the sky, showing the district of

Vàvavàto; and finally, coming to due north, is the varied grouping

of the hills, which form the southern termination of the central

mountain mass of Ankàratra. Between us and these again is the

extensive plain of Antsìrabé, with the white walls and gables of

the church and the mission buildings plainly visible in the bright

sunhsine, although ten or twelve miles distant—altogether, a panorama

long to be remembered. From this point also the significance and

appropriateness of the name given to the old volcano is clearly seen;

for Trìtrìva is apparently a combination of the words _trìtry_, a

word used to describe the ridge on the back of a chameleon or a fish,

and _ìva_, low, deep; so that the name very happily describes the

long steep western ridge or crater wall, and the deep chasm sweeping

down from it.

[Sidenote: THE VOLCANIC DISCHARGE]

It may just be said further, that the slopes of the crater both

inside and out are covered with turf, which grows on a dark brown

volcanic soil, mingled with rounded pebbles of greenish or purple

lava, very compact and close in structure, and containing minute

crystals scattered sparingly through it. Occasional blocks of this

are found round the edge of the crater wall, and the same rock crops

out at many places on the steep inner slopes. I did not notice any

vesicular lava or scoria; and at a little homestead not far from the

north-eastern foot of Trìtrìva, I was surprised to find the _hàdy_

or fosse dug to twelve or fourteen feet deep almost entirely through

the red clay or earth found all through the central regions of the

island. The dark brown volcanic soil, here seen in section, appeared

to be only eighteen inches deep, with layers of small pebbles. So

that the discharge of the volcanic dust and ash appears to have

extended only a short distance from the mountain; at least it does

not appear to have been very deep, unless, indeed, there has been

much denudation. It must be remembered, however, that this point

is to the windward side of the hill; probably the volcanic soil is

deeper to the west of it. The much greater height of the western

wall of the crater is no doubt due to the prevailing easterly winds

carrying the bulk of the ejected matter to the west, and piling it up

to two or three times the height of the eastern side. After seeing

the amount of gneiss rock which must have been blown out of the

vent, I expected to have found much greater quantities of it, and in

larger blocks, than the very few and small fragments actually seen on

the outer slopes. The greater portion, however, is probably covered

up under the quantities of volcanic dust and _lapilli_ which were

subsequently ejected.

Trìtrìva, it will be evident from this slight sketch, will greatly

interest those who have a taste for geology and physical geography;

while its peculiar and somewhat awe-striking beauty makes it equally

worthy of a visit from the artist and the lover of the picturesque.

Certainly it became photographed upon our memory with a distinctness

which rendered it a vivid mental picture for many a day afterwards.

[Sidenote: VOLCANO OF ANKÀRATRA]

Returning northward from Antsìrabé towards the neighbourhood of

Itàsy, we have to pass to the westward of the great _massif_ of

Ankàratra; and the summits of this mountain mass being the highest

points in the centre of the island, a short space must be devoted

to a brief description of it. From the capital, Ankàratra is the

most prominent object in the landscape to the south-west, rising by

easy gradients to about twice the elevation of the general level of

Imèrina, and three or four points showing distinctly against the sky,

although they are from forty to forty-five miles distant. The highest

point is called Tsiàfajàvona (“that which the mists cannot climb”),

and is eighty-six hundred and thirty-five feet above sea-level. There

is no doubt that the whole mountain is an ancient volcano, for the

rock which has been poured out as lava from it is a black olivine

basalt. One peak, to the east, consists of mica-trachyte; and at

its northern foot there is an exposure of augite-andesite rock.

“Seen from Antanànarìvo, the mountain of Ankàratra seems to be one

almost uniform mass, but when actually there, it resolves itself

into deep ravines, enormous spurs, conspicuous peaks, and isolated

or continuous mountain masses. The spurs, which run out like so many

fingers in all directions, and to great lengths from the main body

of the mountain, do not represent so many lava flows, but have been

formed by the numerous streams which have excavated the deep and wide

valleys between them.”

The amount of lava that has issued from Ankàratra, says Mr Baron, is

truly astounding, reaching in places to a depth of twelve hundred

to fourteen hundred feet, and occasionally to as much as two

thousand feet. Occasionally the basalt assumes a columnar form; but

everywhere the surface of the lava is decomposed into soil. This,

and the apparent absence of all craters on and around the mountain,

seems to point to a long period having elapsed since the volcano was

active, probably several centuries. When on the highest point of the

mountain, there appear to be two ranges of summits; which lie in the

form of a cross, the intersection being marked by a small cone. On

the south-western slopes are considerable remains of forest, which

probably in former times covered a large proportion of the present

bare highland of the interior of Madagascar. It is by no means easy

to get natives to go with one to these lofty points. They are afraid

of the vengeance of the spirits of the mountains, who will punish all

who dare invade their territories.

In one of the valleys to the west of the Ankàratra _massif_ there is

a river called Antsèsika, which is quite lost to sight and sound for

about a mile and a quarter. It disappears under a mass of enormous

gneiss boulders, which have filled up the valley of the river, so

that the stream runs for a considerable distance at an immense depth

below the general level. In the upper part of its course, this river

passes over a series of grand falls before diving deep into the

earth, as just described. Its name of Antsèsika is very appropriate,

as it means “that which is thrust in.”

[Sidenote: EXTINCT LEMUROID ANIMALS]

Some members of the extinct fauna of Madagascar (Æpyornis,

hippopotamus and crocodile) have been already noticed, but we must

here mention other discoveries made within the last few years. About

twenty years ago a skull, in a sub-fossil condition, was discovered

on the south-west of the island, and proved to be that of a gigantic

form of lemuroid animal. This skull is very much larger and longer

than those of any existing lemurs (which are fairly globular in

shape), and belonged to a creature more like a gorilla in size

and strength. More recently, at a place called Ampàsambazìmba,

which is five miles north of Itàsy, the remains of a number of

species (fourteen or fifteen) of extinct lemuroid animals have been

discovered; in fact this spot seems like the burial-ground of a whole

fauna now entirely passed away, and probably quite recently; for Dr

Standing, who conducted the excavations, thinks that not more than

five centuries have elapsed since some at least of these animals

were living. Several new species of apparently quite distinct genera

have been disinterred; they are mostly larger than any existing

lemuroid; and some of them form links between the true monkeys and

the lemurs—families of primates now very distinct from each other.

Some of these newly discovered creatures seem, from the position of

the nostrils, eyes and ears (like those of the hippopotamus), to have

been adapted to a partially aquatic life. There is abundant evidence

of the former existence of extensive lakes in the surrounding

country, where now there is only marsh or dry land. Others of these

extinct animals were arboreal; and from the remains of leaves and

branches, together with bones, not to mention other evidence, there

is no doubt that much of what is now open down and bare hill was

formerly covered with forest. There was therefore appropriate habitat

for them all; and their needs, whether in water or on the trees,

would be met by the former conditions of the country. It seems highly

probable that the physical changes of the interior have been the

chief cause of the extinction of so many living creatures, although

the advent of man upon the scene may have hastened the process.[23]

[Sidenote: PHYSICAL CHANGES]

As this chapter necessarily touches less on popular and more on

scientific matters than the rest of this book, a few more words may

be added on the palæontology and geology of Madagascar. Besides those

extinct creatures already spoken of, remains of gigantic tortoises

have been discovered; also species of swine and river-hog; an ox

differing from the existing cattle of the country, and a large rail

and a goose exceeding in size any living species. All these belonged

to the Quaternary and Recent geological epochs. But far back in

the period of the Secondary rocks a species of sloth lived in the

forests, old forms of crocodile lived in the rivers; and there were

three at least of those gigantic lizards which were the largest

of all known land animals, and were the master existences of the

Jurassic period.

To sum up in a sentence or two the salient features of Madagascar

geology, it may be said that the whole eastern part of the island

from north to south, comprising probably about three-fifths of the

entire area, is composed of crystalline rocks—gneiss, granite,

mica-schist, etc. But the western two-fifths of its surface consists

chiefly of Secondary strata, including chalk and sandstones and

limestones of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, periods, as well as a

smaller area of rocks of the Eocene and Oligocene eras. A fringe of

Quaternary deposits is also found along a great part of the west

coast. It is evident, therefore, that the western side of the island

has been repeatedly under the sea during the geological periods

just mentioned, leaving the upper highland of ancient rocks as an

island not half the extent of the present Madagascar. It has quite

recently been found that a narrow edging of chalk rock extends for

about one hundred and twenty miles on the central part of the east

coast.[24] Plutonic rocks are found in several places in both the

great geological divisions of the island, and also many outflows of

volcanic rocks, of a much more recent date.

We have already spoken of the two principal groups of extinct

craters which exist in the central portion of Madagascar. In the

more southerly of these groups, Dr Mullens speaks of an ascent of

Ivòko, one of the finest old volcanoes, which is eleven hundred and

thirty feet high. This, he says, “was a vast crater, a quarter of a

mile across; the encircling wall was complete except at the south,

where the opening was fifty feet wide. Beneath us, half-a-mile to the

east, was another crater, Iatsìfitra, second only to Ivòko, with its

opening to the north. On the north-west shoulder of Ivòko were two

other large craters, overhanging the village of Bétàfo, two more were

close by to the north-east, and others were conspicuous ten miles

to the north. On the south again were several others, the horseshoe

shape being very marked in them all. Descending to the crater of

Iatsìfitra, we observed that the lava rocks which had issued from it

were black, sharp and fresh, as if they had been broken yesterday.

On the plain I counted thirty greater piles of lava, like ruined

fortresses, and numberless smaller ones. It was clear that like

the Phlegræan fields in Italy, the entire plain had at some time

been on fire; and that a hundred jets of flame and molten lava had

spurted from its surface, hurling their blazing rockets into the sky.

Altogether, in our journey to the west and south-west of the capital,

we counted a hundred extinct craters, extending over an arc of ninety

miles.”

[Sidenote: A VOLCANIC BELT]

Madagascar appears, therefore, to be the extinct central portion of

a volcanic belt which extends from Great Comoro to the north-west,

through the other islands of the group, Nòsibé and northern and

central Madagascar, to Réunion to the east, a distance of thirteen

hundred and sixty miles. And it is noteworthy that at each extremity

of this belt there is a still active volcano—viz. Piton de Fournaise,

in Réunion, and one eighty-five hundred feet high in Great Comoro.

[Sidenote: EARTHQUAKES]

As a country showing numerous traces of volcanic disturbance,

Madagascar is almost every year visited by shocks of earthquake.

Happily these are not of a severe character, and little damage is

usually done; although often a strange subterranean roar accompanies

them and a tremor of several seconds’ duration. The Malagasy still

remember a rather severe earthquake which happened many years ago and

detached a large mass of rock from the cliffs on the precipitous west

side of the ridge on which Antanànarìvo is built. In September 1879 a

severe shock, felt most in the Vònizòngo district, was experienced,

and lasted for at least thirty seconds; this was accompanied by a

loud rumbling sound, as of violent thunder, and in places the ground

was split up by the shaking. In the year 1897, again, slight shocks

were very numerous, and on some days and nights the earth appeared

to have been in a constant state of tremor. These earth movements

were felt more especially in the region of old volcanic disturbance

about Lake Itàsy, where hundreds of slight shocks were experienced

during seven or eight months. On the night of 2nd November four or

five sharp movements occurred, one of which was more violent than

anything remembered by the Malagasy, and wakened the whole population

of the capital and around it in alarm. Chimney-stacks were thrown

down, walls were cracked and ceilings damaged. This earthquake

appears to have been felt over a very wide extent of country, from

Tamatave and the east coast to Mèvatanàna away north-west, and as far

as the Bétsiléo province in the south. It had the effect of stopping

temporarily the mineral spring at Antsìrabé, which is so exactly

like Vichy water; although, curiously enough, the hot-water springs,

within a few yards of the other, were not affected. In the Ifànja

marsh, a few miles from Itàsy, a small mud geyser is said to have

appeared.

I will conclude this chapter, in which much has been said of extinct

forms of existence, by a glimpse at the ancient animal life of the

island. Let us try to sum up these in a few sentences.

[Sidenote: GLIMPSES OF THE PAST]

It seems probable that Madagascar, when the first representatives

of mankind occupied it, was a country much more fully covered by

lakes and marshes, and also by forest, than it is at present. In

these waters, amid vast cane-brakes and swamps of papyrus and sedge,

wallowed and snorted herds of hippopotami; huge tortoises crawled

over the low lands on their margins; tall ostrich-like birds, some

over ten feet high, and others no larger than bustards, stalked

over the marshy valleys; great rails hooted and croaked among the

reeds, and clouds of large geese and other water-fowl flew screaming

over the lakes; on the sand-banks crocodiles lay by scores basking

in the sun; great ape-like lemurs climbed the trees and caught the

birds; troops of river-hogs swam the streams and dug up roots among

the woods; and herds of slender-legged zebu-oxen grazed on the open

downs. These were the animals which the first wild men hunted with

their palm-bark spears, and shot with their arrows tipped with burnt

clay or stone.[25]

And as we look further back through long-past geological ages,

when the clays and sandstones of the oolite, and the white masses

of the chalk were being deposited in the coral-studded tropic seas

and archipelagoes of Europe and other parts of the world, and when

Madagascar was probably no island, but a peninsula of Eastern Africa,

the mist opens for a moment, and we see vast reptile forms dimly

through the haze; great slender-snouted gavials in the streams and

lakes, sloths moving slowly along the branches of the trees, and

huge dinosaurs, sixty to eighty feet long, crawling over the wooded

plains, and tearing down whole trees with their powerful arms.

Such are some glimpses of the Madagascar of the past which the study

of its rocks and fossils already opens to the mental eye. We may

confidently look for further light upon the dim and distant bygone

ages as we learn more of the geology of the country. The thick

curtain which at present shrouds the old-world times will be yet more

fully lifted, and we shall probably, ere many more years have passed,

be able to draw many more mental pictures of the extinct animal life

of the great African island.

[23] See “Recherches sur les Lémuriens disparus et en particulier

sur ceux qui vivaient à Madagascar.” Par G. Grandidier. _Nouv.

Arch. du Muséum_, 4e série, tome vii., 144 pp. 1905. Also “On

Recently Discovered Subfossil Primates from Madagascar.” By Herbert

F. Standing, D.Sc. _Trans. Zool. Soc._, vol. xviii., pt. ii., pp.

59-217. May 1908.

These extinct lemuroids have been classed in the following

genera:—_Megaladapis_ (3 sp.), _Lemur_ (2 sp.), _Palæopropithecus_ (4

sp.), _Archæolemur_ (2 sp.), _Poradylemur_ (1 sp.), _Hadropithecus_

(1 sp.), _Mesopropithecus_ (1 sp.), and _Archæoindris_ (1 sp.).

[24] No rocks of the Primary formations have been discovered in

Madagascar, nor does it seem probable that any exist.

[Sidenote: THE VAZÌMBA]

[25] The Vazìmba, the supposed earliest inhabitants of the interior,

are said to have not known the use of iron, but to have had spears

made of the hard, wiry bark of the Anìvona palm, and to have employed

arrow-heads made of burnt clay. No flint weapons have yet been

discovered in Madagascar.

CHAPTER XVIII

SOUTHWARDS TO BÉTSILÉO AND THE SOUTH-EAST COAST

A few years ago I was invited by the Friends’ Foreign Missionary

Association to accompany one of their missionaries, Mr Louis Street,

on a journey to some of the southern portions of Madagascar. The

object of this journey was twofold: firstly, to visit the scattered

Christian congregations connected with the London Missionary Society,

and to preach to and teach the people; and secondly, to gain some

more accurate information as to the geography and physical features

of the south-eastern provinces, and the dialects and customs of the

different tribes inhabiting those parts of the great island. At that

period (in the seventies) Madagascar was still unmapped and only

very partially explored. A very large proportion of the country was

still a _terra incognita_; so that missionary journeys away from

the neighbourhood of the capital had all the charm of novelty and

exploration. Its physical geography, its geology, and its botany and

natural history were all practically unknown; so I looked forward

with intense interest to seeing new provinces and new people; nor was

I disappointed in this expectation.

Like all journeys in Madagascar until about twelve years ago, this

one was made by the native conveyance, the _filanjàna_ or light

palanquin (see Chapters II. and III.), and also, as will be seen,

by frequent voyages in canoes. And although _filanjàna_ travelling,

like all sublunary things, had its drawbacks, I always enjoyed that

mode of getting over the ground. But in setting off on a journey

which was to last for several weeks, it was not always easy to get

started. You might engage your men for two or three weeks beforehand;

you might advance money to keep a hold on them; you might even induce

them to deposit a small sum with you as security; but one was never

quite sure that every man had arrived, and was going along with

you, until one had got clear away at least half-a-day’s journey.

All sorts of excuses would be made, or no reason at all be given,

especially if the journey was to be through a part of the island not

often traversed. The bearers were easily hired, but not so easily

_secured_. One man not turning up, another would go to seek for him,

and he, in turn, would have to be hunted for by his companions.

[Sidenote: TRAVELLING IN MADAGASCAR]

Travelling in Madagascar, at least by the main lines of road, is fast

losing its former characteristics. Along the easy gradients, the

bridged streams, and the embankment-crossed swamps traversed now by

good highroads, one is apt to forget how our bearers used to climb up

steep and rugged ascents, ford rivers, sometimes up to their necks in

rushing waters, and flounder through morasses. In fact, the bearers

are becoming somewhat demoralised by these easy and smooth roads, and

we now need to take a ride “across country” to realise what our early

experiences here were.[26] Mr Street and I, however, managed to get a

number of men, about fifty in all, to start with us; and as we were

not at all sure of finding native huts to stay in all through our

route, we took a tent with us, as well as provisions and clothes, and

books to give away to the people who could read them. Towards the end

of May we left the capital for our southern journey.

One more word of preface to this chapter. Like the tour around the

Antsihànaka province, already described, this journey was, first

of all, a missionary one; and although I shall not trouble my

readers with details of this kind, it must be understood that my

companions and I took every opportunity we had of speaking, not only

to congregations, but also to any small gathering of people we came

across, of the great and glad truths of the Gospel, of which we were

the messengers.

I shall not describe here the route between Antanànarìvo and

Fianàrantsòa: the elevated tract of bare table-land, more than six

thousand feet above the sea; the cultivated valleys of the three

or four chief rivers; the green pleasant basins of Ambòsitra and

Ambòhinàmboàrina; the enormous rocks of Angàvo, and the belt of

grey-lichened forest above Nàndihìzana. There were, however, three

points which struck me in the Bétsiléo province as being very

different from what we see in Imèrina. First, was the much bolder

and grander scenery; the mountains are higher in the south, and the

gneiss and granite rocks rise up in stupendous masses of stone, such

as we do not often see in the northern province.

Then there was the elaborate system of rice cultivation, far

surpassing anything that can be seen in Imèrina. This was noticeable

after four days’ journey, but it appeared to be carried to the

highest point of perfection in the wide valley south of Ambòsitra.

Not only are the valleys and hollows terraced, as in Imèrina—the

_concave_ portions of the low hills and lower slopes of the

high hills—but the _convex_ portions also are stepped up like a

gigantic staircase for a great height. It was a pleasant sight

to see, speaking of industry and skill and practical knowledge

of hydrostatics; for how water could be brought to some of the

lower elevations surrounded by lower ground was more than we could

discover. Many of these were terraced up to their highest point, the

narrow lines of rice-plot running round them in concentric circles,

so that there was not a square yard of ground left unproductive.

[Sidenote: ORNAMENTAL TOMBS]

The third particular in which the Bétsiléo country differs—although

the _past_ tense would be now more appropriate—from Imèrina is in the

variety and ornamental character of the tombs and other memorials of

the dead. Leaving out of consideration the modern stone tombs erected

in the vicinity of the capital, it is a remarkable fact that there is

no native Hova style of carving or ornamentation. Neither in their

dwellings nor their tombs, neither in their household utensils nor

their weapons, does there ever seem to have existed among the natives

of Imèrina anything like indigenous art. But in Bétsiléo there is

carving both in the houses and the tombs; the central posts of the

former are elaborately ornamented, and also portions of the exterior

woodwork; and the curious massive timber posts, with framework for

holding the skulls and horns of bullocks killed at funerals, have a

variety of decoration which is well worthy of study.

[Illustration: HIDE-BEARERS RESTING BY THE ROADSIDE

Ambàtovòry rock and wood are in the distance]

[Illustration: BÉTSILÉO TOMBS WITH THE HORNS OF OXEN KILLED AT THE

FUNERAL]

The first thing that attracted my attention in travelling south,

after four or five days’ journey, was that the upright stones placed

near graves were not the rough undressed slabs common in Imèrina, but

were finely dressed and squared and ornamented with carving. Coming

after that to Ambòsitra, I first met with one of the memorial posts

just mentioned. This was a piece of timber, seven or eight inches

square and about ten feet high, with pieces of wood projecting from

a little below the top, so as to form a kind of stage. Each face

of the post was elaborately carved with different patterns arranged

in squares. Some of these were concentric circles, a large one in the

centre, with smaller ones filling up the angles; others had a circle

with a number of little bosses on them; others had a kind of leaf

ornament, and in others parallel lines were arranged in different

directions. The narrow spaces dividing these squares from each other

had in some cases an ornament like the Norman cheiron, and in others,

something similar to the Greek wave-like scroll. The whole erection

with its ornamentation bore a strong resemblance to the old runic

stones, or the manorial crosses of Ireland and the Scottish highlands.

A day or two’s journey farther south brought us to a tract of country

where there was a profusion of carved memorials scattered along

the roadside, and in all directions visible on either hand. And on

reaching a rounded green hill west of the road, the old and deserted

village of Ikangàra, we saw that there was a large number of tombs

and memorial posts close together, so we went to inspect them more

minutely. Within a short distance were some forty or fifty tombs, and

on further examination there appeared to be at least half-a-dozen

different kinds:

(1) The largest tombs—there were two of them—were of small flat

stones, built in a square of some twenty to twenty-five feet, and

about five feet high. But all around them was a railing of posts and

rails, all elaborately carved with the patterns just described.

(2) Another kind of tomb was formed by a square stone structure,

about twelve feet each way and four or five feet high, but on the top

was an enclosure of carved posts and lintels about eight feet high,

with a single carved post in the centre.

(3) A third kind of monument was a massive block of granite about

ten feet high, with carved posts at the corners and touching them,

and connected by cross-pieces; on these the skulls and horns of the

bullocks killed at the funeral of the person commemorated were fixed.

(4) Another kind of memorial was a massive square post of wood, about

twenty feet high and fifteen inches square, carved on all four sides

from top to bottom. There were four or five of these enormous posts

here; and in one case there was a pair of them, as if to form a kind

of gateway.

(5) Still another kind was a great block of dressed granite, with

iron hooping round the top, in which were fixed a dozen or more pairs

of slender _iron_ horns.

[Sidenote: ELABORATE CARVING]

All the way along the road to Ambòhinàmboàrina we came across

different combinations of memorial posts, and of dressed fine white

granite in upright blocks, in many cases arranged in couples, so

that they were very conspicuous all over the surrounding country.

Before leaving the subject of ornamentation among the Bétsiléo, I may

notice that the window shutters of their houses, the wooden fixed

bedstead—looking more like a cupboard than a sleeping-place—and other

portions of the interior, are (or were) elaborately carved with the

patterns already mentioned and other designs.[27]

In the early part of June we left the Bétsiléo capital for the

south, intending if possible to make our way through the forest

to the south-east coast, and thence travel to Fort Dauphine, the

southernmost Hova military station. The route south from Fianàrantsòa

is for many miles through a valley between lofty hills; and there one

gradually ascends to a point where the valley ends, and at a place

called Ivàtoàvo (“high rock”) one gets a most extensive prospect,

of a comparatively level plain stretching away for many miles, and

dotted all over with the green ring-shaped _vàla_ or homesteads of

the Bétsiléo. This plain is surrounded with the grandest and boldest

mountains, many of them rising sheer from the level in many hundred

feet of bare gneiss rock, and in the most picturesque outlines. To

the north-west one lofty spire of rock has a flat-topped head, much

resembling the Pieter Botha mountain in Mauritius. I was afterwards

told that it was formerly obligatory on a young man wishing to marry

a girl from the district that he should carry his bride on his back

to the summit of this rock, and bring her down again. It appeared

as if one might almost as well attempt to scale a church spire; but

probably there are crevices and hollows which would make such a feat

not altogether impossible.

Our Sunday at a village on the plain was employed in our usual way,

preaching there, and visiting other places. After speaking at a short

service myself, I left my companion at midday to go to Iàritsèna,

a village about five hundred feet above the level; but it really

looked insignificant compared with the towering rocks beyond it.

The grand and varied forms of the mountains all around this plain

filled me with an exultant kind of delight. To the south were a

crowd of mountain-tops, peak beyond peak, with the greatest variety

of outline: one had the appearance of a colossal truncated spire;

another had a jagged saw-like ridge, another was like a pyramid with

huge steps, and another was like an enormous dome; but the varieties

were endless, and, as I passed along, the combinations of the giant

masses of bare rock changed every minute. Their summits were never

long free from clouds, and the changing effects of sunlight and cloud

shadow could only have been caught by the rapid use of a camera. The

summits of many of the peaks must be at least three thousand feet

above the plain. These “everlasting hills,” these “strong foundations

of the earth,” recalled passages in the Psalms and the Prophets,

speaking of Him whose “righteousness is like the great mountains.”

At my little village congregation this afternoon, many of the girls

and women wore a circular ornament suspended from their necks; this

was formed of the end of a _conus_ shell ground down and generally

with a red bead in the centre. This kind of decoration, called

_félana_, is also worn by men among the Sàkalàva, but on the side of

their temples, and by the Bàra people on the crown of their heads.

[Sidenote: PARAKEETS]

Until taking this journey I had not seen in any number the pretty

little parakeet of which Madagascar possesses a peculiar species

(_Psittacula madagascariensis_). But we noticed a large flock of

these birds one day; and their light green plumage, with whitish

breasts and greyish-white heads, render them rather conspicuous.

They go in large flocks, often as many as a hundred together, and

sometimes do considerable damage to the rice crops. The two sexes of

this parakeet show great affection for each other, the pair sitting

close together on their perch, from which habit they are often called

love-birds.

Two species of parrot are among the denizens of the Malagasy woods

almost all over the country. These parrots are both of sober plumage,

one being dark grey in colour, and the other slaty-black. But they

are both intelligent birds, and can easily be taught to speak a few

words and to whistle a tune. Their long whistling cry, as if going up

the gamut, may be frequently heard in the outskirts of the woods.

The grey species (_Coracopsis obscura_), which is the larger of the

two, is _fàdy_ or sacred with the chiefs of the Vèzo Sàkalàva, as

they say that one of their ancestors was saved from death by hearing

the shrill piercing cries of a flock of these birds. The black

species (_Coracopsis nigra_) is about a third less in size. Both

kinds are more terrestrial and less arboreal in their habits than

most parrots, nor do they make much use of their claws to convey food

to the mouth.

[Sidenote: AN AWKWARD CROSSING]

The following day, passing over a river close by Ambòhimandròso, we

had a most awkward bridge to cross. The native engineer had made it

in two spans, not, however, in a straight line, but forming almost a

right angle with each other. There were two or three massive balks of

timber; but as these were not on a level, and some had slipped down

three or four feet, the passage over was neither easy nor pleasant.

Many of our bearers hesitated a good deal, as the bridge was sixteen

to eighteen feet above the water, which roared like a mill-race

between the rough pier and the river banks.

All about this neighbourhood we noticed great numbers of ant-hills,

of a much larger size than any we had seen elsewhere. They are

conical mounds of a yard or so high, and are made by a white or

yellowish ant, the one spoken of in a well-known Malagasy nursery

tale. Breaking off a piece of one of the mounds, the ants could

be seen in a state of great excitement, running in and out of the

circular galleries which traverse their city. There are vast numbers

of these ants in one ant-hill; they have a queen, who is nearly an

inch long, while her subjects are not half that size. A serpent is

said to live in many of these ant-nests, and the people maintain that

it is eventually eaten by the inhabitants.

Between the point we had now reached and the sea is a great wooded

and rounded mountain which we could see about twenty miles away, and

which we found was the celebrated Ambòndrombé, the Malagasy Hades,

in which they believed that the souls of their ancestors had their

abode. There are said to be large caves in the mountain, and it is

regarded with much superstitious fear by the people. The mountain

looked dark and gloomy, and has a very regularly curved outline from

north to south, looking like the segment of an immense circle.

[Illustration: MEMORIAL STONE, BÉTSILÉO PROVINCE

The iron horns at the top are in place of bullocks’ horns usually

placed on such memorials]

[Sidenote: “BOUND BY BLOOD”]

About twenty miles to the east of our route, although perfectly

hidden by the intervening rugged country and lines of forest-covered

hills, is a very strongly defended Tanàla town called Ikòngo, a

place which maintained its independence of Hova domination until

the French conquest. With considerable difficulty and some personal

risk, my friend, Mr G. A. Shaw, managed to gain permission to visit

this stronghold and introduce Christian teaching. The native chief,

who became very friendly, wished to become closely allied to him by

the custom of _fàto-drà_, or _fàti-drà_. This is a curious ceremony,

in use among many Malagasy peoples, by which persons of different

tribes or nationalities become bound to one another in the closest

possible fashion. The name for it of _fàto-drà_—_i.e._ “bound by

blood”—denotes that its object is to make those entering into the

covenant to become as brothers, devoted to each other’s welfare, and

ready to make any sacrifice for the other, since they thus become of

one blood.

The ceremony consists in taking a small quantity of blood from the

breast or side of each contracting party; this is mixed with other

ingredients, stirred up with a spear-point, and then a little of

the strange mixture is swallowed by each of them. Imprecations are

uttered against those who shall be guilty of violating the solemn

engagement thus entered into. A few Europeans, who have overcome

their natural disgust to the ceremonial, and to whom it has been a

matter of great importance to keep on good terms with some powerful

chief, have occasionally consented to make this covenant. Thus

the celebrated French scientist, M. Alfred Grandidier, became a

brother by blood with Zomèna, a chief of the south-western Tanòsy,

in order to gain his good will and help in proceeding farther into

the interior. But in his case the blood was not taken from the

contracting parties, but from an ox sacrificed for the purpose; the

ceremony is then called _famaké_. In this case, a pinch of salt, a

little soot, a leaden ball, and a gold bead were put into the blood,

which was mixed with water. Sometimes pulverised flint, earth and

gunpowder are added to the mixture. In the case of Count Benyowski,

who in 1770 was made king of a large tribe on the eastern coast, he

and the principal chiefs sucked a little blood from each others’

breasts. The Hova formerly followed a similar custom, but with some

variations; and so lately as 1897 a high French official made a

somewhat similar covenant, with a principal chief in the extreme

south of the island. The _fàto-drà_ has doubtless been observed by

the various tribes in all parts of Madagascar, but there appears to

have been a good deal of difference in the details of the ceremonial

attending it.

[Sidenote: BÉTSILÉO HOUSES]

We spent a day at Imàhazòny, the last Hova military post in this

direction, before plunging into the unknown route across the forest

to the coast. The people from the little _vàla_ (homesteads) came

running out to see us as we went by, most of them having never seen

a white face before. We noticed how different the Bétsiléo dialect

is from the Hova form of Malagasy; the _n_ in the latter is always

nasal (_ng_) in the former; while numerous words are shorter than

their equivalents as spoken in Imèrina; and the consonantal changes

are numerous. Besides this, the vocabulary is very different for many

things and actions. About two hours’ ride on the following morning

brought us to the large village of Ivàlokiànja. We went into a house,

the best in the village, for our lunch; it was the largest there, but

was not so large as our tent (eleven feet square), and the walls were

not six feet high. The door was a small square aperture, one foot

ten inches wide by two feet four inches high, and its threshold two

feet nine inches from the ground; so that getting into most Bétsiléo

houses is quite a gymnastic feat, and it is difficult to understand

how people could put themselves to so much needless inconvenience.

Close to it, at the end of the house, was another door, or window

(it was difficult to say which, as they are all pretty much the same

size!), and opposite were two small openings about a foot and a half

square. The hearth was opposite the door, and the fixed bedstead

was in what is the window corner (north-west) in Hova houses. In

this house was the first example I had seen of decorative carving in

Malagasy houses; the external faces of the main posts being carved

with a simple but effective ornament of squares and diagonals. There

was also other ornamentation, much resembling the English Union Jack.

The gables were filled in with a neat plaited work of split bamboo.

The majority of the houses in this and most of the Bétsiléo villages

are only about ten or twelve feet long by eight or nine feet wide,

and the walls from three to five feet high. Hereabouts, the doors

seem generally to face the north or north-west, and the house runs

nearly east and west. Hova houses of the old style, on the contrary,

are always placed with their length running north and south, and

their single door and window facing the west—that is, on the lee-side

of the house.

[Illustration: TYPES OF CARVED ORNAMENTATION USED BY THE BÉTSILÉO

MALAGASY IN THEIR BURIAL MEMORIALS AND THEIR HOUSES.]

[Illustration: TYPES OF CARVED ORNAMENTATION USED BY THE BÉTSILÉO

MALAGASY IN THEIR BURIAL MEMORIALS AND THEIR HOUSES.]

[Sidenote: AN UNPLEASANT RIDE]

As Ambinàny, the Tanàla[28] chief, whose village we were bound for,

did not make his appearance, we went off in the afternoon to another

village, Iòlomàka, about three or four miles away to the south-east.

It was a cold unpleasant ride in the drizzling rain. We reached the

village, which is situated on a bare hill, in an hour and a quarter,

and with some difficulty found a tolerably level place on which to

pitch the tent, but everything was wet. The rain came down faster

than ever, and began to come through the canvas in some places.

During the afternoon we in our tent formed for the villagers a free,

and evidently popular, exhibition, which might have been entitled,

“The Travelling Foreigners in their Tent.” We and our belongings,

and our most trivial actions, were the subject of intensest interest

to the people. They came peeping in and, uninvited, took their seats

to gaze. I suspect they thought we travelled in a style of Oriental

magnificence, for my companion’s gorgeous striped rug evidently

struck them as being the _ne plus ultra_ of earthly grandeur. But

_we_ did not look upon ourselves this evening quite in that light;

for the slightly higher ground on two sides of the tent led the water

_into_ the structure, and there was soon a respectable-sized pool on

my friend’s side of the tent, above which the boxes had to be raised

by stones and tent-hammers; while the drip upon our beds raised the

probability that we might be able to take our baths in the morning

before getting up. It was our dampest experience hitherto of tent

life.

The following evening found us at Ivòhitròsa, after one of the most

difficult and fatiguing journeys we had ever taken in Madagascar. It

was quite dark when we arrived here, wet, weary, muddy and hungry,

having eaten no food since the morning.

[Sidenote: INTERESTED PUBLIC]

But to begin at the beginning. Bed was so much the most comfortable

place, with a wet tent, a small pond at one end of it, and a mass

of mud at the other, that we did not turn out so early or so

willingly as usual, especially as there was a thick mist and heavy

drizzle, as there had been all night. The general public outside,

however, evidently thought it high time the exhibition opened for a

morning performance; and so, without our intending it, there _was_

a performance, which, if there had been a daily paper at Iòlomàka,

might have been described as consisting of five acts or scenes, as

follows:—_Scene first_: Distinguished foreigners are seen lying in

bed, so comfortably tucked up that they feel most unwilling to get

out on to the wet and muddy floor. Curtains only half drawn (by

an eager public) during this act. _Scene second_: Somewhat of a

misnomer, as D. F. were, by the exercise of some ingenuity, _not_

seen during the operations of bathing and washing. _Scene third_: D.

F. seen by admiring public—who again admitted themselves—in the act

of brushing their hair and performing their toilet. _Scene fourth_:

D. F. seen at their breakfast; the variety of their food, dishes,

plates, etc., a subject of mute amazement. _Scene fifth and last_: D.

F. seen rapidly packing up all their property for their approaching

departure. _N.B._—Probably their last appearance on this stage. We

packed up in the heavy drizzle, and fortunately, just as we were

about to start, three or four Tanàla came up and agreed to be our

guides. We had to wait until they had their rice, but at last we got

away, soon after ten o’clock, rather too late as it turned out.

Our way for more than two hours was through the outskirts of the

forest: a succession of low hills partially covered with wood, and

divided from each other by swampy valleys. In these we had two or

three times to cross deepish streams by bridges of a single round

pole, a foot or two _under_ water, a ticklish proceeding, which all

our luggage bearers did not accomplish successfully. After crossing a

stream by the primitive bridge of a tree which had fallen half over

the water, we entered the real forest, our general direction being to

the south-east.