seen it 
 
 By Jame$ Sibree-
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 

 
 PICTURE MAP 
 
 MADAGASCAR
 
 THINGS SEEN IN 
 MADAGASCAR 
 
 ' By JAMES SIBREE, D.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 For fifty-one years LM S. Missionary to Madagascar, 
 Author of "A Naturalist in Madagascar," 
 "Madagascar Ornithology," etc. 
 
 With numerous Illustrations and Pictorial Map 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE LIVINGSTONE PRESS (L.M.S.) 
 
 48, BROADWAY, S.W.I.
 
 lift* 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Chameleon - - 7 
 
 The Aye-Aye - - 10 
 
 The Great African Island - 12 
 
 Nature's Disguises - 15 
 
 Vanished Creatures : the Gigantic 
 
 Extinct Birds - - - - 18 
 
 Some Queer Spiders - -21 
 
 The Traveller's-Tree - 25 
 
 The Lace-Leaf Plant - 28 
 
 The Rofia Palm - 30 
 
 Rice, the Malagasy "Staff of Life" - 32 
 
 Ants and Bees - - * - 36 
 
 The Solitary Wasps/and their Cells - 39 
 
 About the Crocodile^ - - - 42 
 
 About the Lemurs - - 45 
 
 PACK 
 
 The Foosa or Malagasy Puma - - 48 
 
 Snakes and Lizards - - 50 
 
 Flying and Climbing Frogs - - 54 
 
 Tortoises and Turtles - 56 
 
 Ball-Insects and Others - - 58 
 
 Crows and Cuckoos - - 6l 
 
 Fine Feathers and Queer Skulls - 64 
 
 Butterflies and Moths, as well as 
 other Insects - 
 
 Hawks and Owls 
 
 Some " Odd Fish " - 
 
 The Ox of Madagascar - 
 
 A Madagascar Forest 
 
 The Malagasy " Old Moore " - 
 
 - 68 
 
 - 74 
 
 - 77 
 
 - 81 
 
 -85 
 
 - 88 
 
 Human Inhabitants of Madagascar - 91
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 Most of the chapters in this little volume were contributed to the monthly 
 magazine News from Afar, issued by the London Missionary Society. I have 
 had the pleasure of finding that these papers have interested many boys and 
 girls, and I hope that as they are now re-issued in a more permanent form, 
 together with some additional chapters, they may be re-read, and also give 
 pleasure to others who have not previously seen them. Possibly, even, they 
 may also interest " children of a larger growth." 
 
 All the things described are found in the great island of Madagascar, 
 where I have had the privilege of being a missionary during more than fifty-one 
 years. I want my readers to feel that the " works of the Lord are great, 
 sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." If this little book helps 
 them in any way to do this, and especially to take more interest in the 
 country which is so often referred to in these pages, I shall not have written 
 them in vain. 
 
 I have to thank Mr. Service, of Seeley, Service & Co., for kindly allowing 
 the use of several illustrations taken from my book, A Naturalist in Madagascar. 
 
 J. S.
 
 THE CHAMELEON 
 
 AN ANIMAL WHICH CHANGES COLOUR 
 
 MANY boys and girls, I expect, have learnt, or at any rate have read, 
 a story in poetry about two men who were warmly disputing 
 together about the colour of the chameleon. One of them insisted 
 that it was blue, and the other was positive that it was green. 
 While they were almost quarrelling about it, a third person appeared, and 
 they agreed to abide by his verdict on the matter, but he had a different 
 opinion about it from either of them, and told them that he had seen one last 
 night, and that it was neither blue nor green, but black ! and more than that, 
 he had caught the chameleon and put it in a box which 
 he had then hi his pocket, and, said he, "If it is not 
 black, I'll eat him ! " He immediately opened his box, 
 and lo and behold, it was not blue, nor green, nor black, 
 but white ! The moral of the story, of course, is that 
 one ought not to be too positive in one's own opinions, 
 but believe that other people may be right as well as 
 ourselves. 
 
 I have lived many years in Madagascar, and as that 
 great island is one of the chief homes of the chameleon, 
 I have seen them times innumerable. More than twenty 
 species of these little animals inhabit the country, some 
 of them more than a foot long, while the majority are 
 from four to six or seven inches. 
 
 I cannot say that I have seen quite 
 the changes of colour spoken of in the 
 story, and yet there are very remarkable 
 variations] of tint in the skin of the 
 chameleon. Their usual colour is green, 
 but there are also patches of yellow, red 
 and black ; and their colour does change 
 very quickly according to the place they 
 are clinging to, whether a green leaf, or 
 a dark brown branch, and also according 
 to the light to which they are exposed. 
 While staying at our L.M.S. Sana- 
 torium about 1913, I noticed on one of 
 the paths near the woods something 
 
 The Chameleon 
 
 From a "A H.tuig* *** * permission yery unusual) and on looking c l OSe ly at
 
 8 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 it, I saw that a pretty little snake, very common in the country, had caught 
 a chameleon, and had coiled round it two or three times, and was evidently 
 just preparing to swallow it, although it seemed impossible for so small a 
 throat to take so bulky a mouthful. 
 
 As we all pity the weaker side, I uncoiled the snake with the point of my 
 sun-umbrella and drove it away. But it was this fact that struck me as very 
 curious ; the chameleon was perfectly white ! white evidently with terror 
 in the clutch of its enemy. I carefully placed it on a bush, and in a few 
 minutes it gradually regained its usual colouring of green and yellow and 
 black, as its fears passed away. (Some of my friends ask me : " But what 
 about the snake ? was it fair to deprive him of his lawful prey ? " Well, I 
 will leave you to answer this question.) 
 
 Many of the Madagascar chameleons have very strangely shaped heads ; 
 some are covered with a kind of shield ; others look as if they had two long 
 noses like spikes ; and others have curious horns. Some of the larger kinds 
 have the ridge of the back serrated like a saw ; while the eyes each move 
 separately, as if quite independent of each other. 
 
 But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the chameleon is its tongue ; 
 this is nearly twice as long as its body, and it is shot out with such rapidity 
 that the eye cannot follow it as it darts out to catch a fly which seems far 
 enough away to be quite out of danger. But at its tip there is some sticky 
 substance, with which master fly is caught. This rapid movement of the 
 tongue makes up for the slow and deliberate movement of the chameleon's 
 body, as it steps slowly and cautiously along the twigs and branches of the 
 trees. This slow progress of the little creature has attracted the attention 
 of the Malagasy, who have a proverb which (translated into English) says : 
 " Act like the stepping of the chameleon : look where you are going ; look 
 back the way you have come ; " thus advising foresight and retrospect. 
 
 Like all the reptiles, the chameleon lays eggs, and these are like a small 
 bean in size, and are enclosed in a leathery skin or shell. I have seen them 
 digging holes in the pathway to deposit these eggs, which are hatched by the 
 heat of the sun, and while engaged in this work the chameleons are reddish- 
 brown hi colour, so as to be very like the red soil in which the holes are dug ; 
 the reason of this is no doubt that they may escape the notice of their enemies, 
 the hawks flying overhead, or the little snakes that glide out of the grass. 
 
 A baby chameleon, about an inch long, such as I have seen in our garden 
 at Antananarivo, is a very pretty little creature ; its long tail, coiled round a 
 twig, seems to serve it like a fifth hand. Naughty little native boys are fond 
 of making the male chameleons fight together, and it is curious to see how 
 widely the red mouth is opened at such times.
 
 THE CHAMELEON 9 
 
 We cannot, of course, give any blame to the Chameleon for using, in self- 
 defence and concealment, the power of changing his colour according to his 
 surroundings. He has no weapon in the shape of claws, or teeth, or sting, as 
 many living creatures have, and so he has been provided with this means of 
 protection. But in certain respects we, as human beings, should not be like 
 him in changing our words or our minds so as to be just like the company we 
 are in. Don't you remember how honest John "Bunyan described such 
 characters when he speaks in the " Pilgrim's Progress " about " my Lord 
 Turnabout, my Lord Timeserver, Mr. Two-tongues, and Mr. Anything " ? 
 We must not be afraid to hold our own opinion, for fear of offending others, 
 when our conscience tells us we are in the right. We must not say, " Do at 
 Rome as the Romans do."
 
 THE AYE-AYE 
 
 jj 
 
 AND ITS WONDERFUL HAND 
 
 THE great island of Madagascar contains many animals and birds, and 
 insects also, which are found nowhere else in the world. Among 
 these rare creatures there is perhaps no one more curious in its habits 
 and structure than that called the Aye-aye. This animal's name, it 
 is said, is taken from an exclamation of surprise used by the forest dwellers 
 when they see its manner of obtaining its food. It belongs to the quadrumana 
 or four-handed animals, in which class are included the monkeys, the apes, 
 
 the chimpanzees, and the gorillas. 
 We have none of these living in 
 Madagascar, but the island is the home 
 of the pretty, gentle lemurs, of which 
 there are about forty species, some of 
 them being as big as a large dog, while 
 others are no larger than a rat, but are 
 the prettiest little creatures you ever 
 saw, with large and brilliant eyes. 
 
 A near relative of these lemurs is 
 the animal I want to tell you about, 
 but it is very different from them all, as 
 we shall see. 
 
 The aye-aye somewhat resembles a 
 large cat in size, being about three feet 
 in total length, of which its large bushy 
 tail forms quite half. Its colour is dark 
 brown, the throat being yellowish-grey, 
 while a silvery grey appearance is given 
 by many white hairs on the back. 
 Its structure presents very interesting 
 illustrations of the way in which limbs, 
 eyes, ears, and teeth are all modified to 
 serve special ends. 
 
 The food of the aye-aye consists 
 of wood-boring larvae or grubs, which 
 tunnel into the wood of certain trees. 
 To obtain these the animal is fur- 
 nished with most powerful chisel-shaped 
 incisor teeth, with which it cuts away 
 
 The Aye- Aye. 
 
 Some of thetMalagasy believe that the spirits] 
 aatpf their ancestors dwell ia this animal.; 
 
 10
 
 THE AYE-AYE n 
 
 the wood and bark. As, however, the grub retreats to the far end of its 
 hole, one of the fingers of the aye-aye's hands is slightly lengthened, but much 
 diminished in thickness, and is furnished with a hook-like claw. 
 
 Thus provided, the finger is used as a probe, inserted in the tunnel, and 
 the dainty morsel is drawn forth from its hiding-place. 
 
 There are also other modifications of structure, all tending to the more 
 perfect accomplishment of the purposes of its creation : the eyes being very 
 large, so that it may easily see at dusk or by night ; the ears widely expanded, 
 so as to catch the faint sound of the grub at work inside the tree ; and the 
 thumbs of the feet, or hinder hands, being large and strong, so as to enable the 
 animal to take a firm hold of the tree while using its teeth to cut into the 
 wood. 
 
 Careful observations were made for several months of an aye-aye which 
 was brought alive to England, and lived for some time in the Regent's Park 
 Zoological Gardens. The probe finger was used as a scoop when the aye-aye 
 drank water ; it was carried from the water to the mouth so quickly, that the 
 liquid seemed to pass in a continuous stream. A remarkable fact has been 
 pointed out in the structure of the lower jaw, namely, that the two sides are 
 only joined together by a strong ligament, and do not, as in other animals, 
 form one connected half-circle of bone. This partly accounts for the 
 prodigious power of gnawing that the aye-aye possesses ; it was seen to cut 
 through a strip of tin-plate nailed to the door of its cage. 
 
 The animal, though not scarce, is difficult to obtain, as it comes out from 
 its retreat only at night ; besides which, the forest people have a superstitious 
 fear of it, so that even a large reward is often insufficient to induce them to 
 attempt its capture. 
 
 The aye-aye constructs true nests, about two and a half feet in diameter, 
 which are found on trees in the dense parts of the forest. Near the coast 
 these are composed of rolled-up leaves of the travellers'-tree, and are lined 
 with twigs and dry leaves. The opening of the nest is at the side, and a small 
 white insect called andaitra, probably the larva of some beetle, forms the 
 animal's chief food. It is said to be very savage, and strikes rapidly with its 
 hands. The coast people believe it to be an embodiment of the spirit of their 
 forefathers, and so will not touch it, much less do it an injury, and if they 
 attempt to entrap it, they think they would surely die in consequence ; and 
 their superstition extends even to its nest.
 
 THE GREAT AFRICAN ISLAND 
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT THE COUNTRY 
 
 IN the two papers you have already read I have told you about some of 
 the interesting animals which are to be found in Madagascar ; but 
 before you go further into the contents of this little book, I think it will 
 be well to say something about the country where these creatures live, 
 so that you may understand more clearly their surroundings. And if you 
 will also study attentively the map which is given herewith, that will still 
 further help you to realise what the great island of Madagascar is like. 
 
 First then, remember that it is the third largest island in the world, New 
 Guinea being the first in size, then Borneo, and then Madagascar. People 
 are often surprised to hear that it is just a thousand miles long, about 250- 
 miles in average breadth, and is nearly four times as large as England and 
 Wales. I was once asked whether it was not about as large as the Isle of 
 Wight ! And the reason of such mistaken notions about it is, no doubt, that 
 on maps of the world or of Africa, it seems so small compared with the great 
 " dark continent," with its five or six thousand miles of length and breadth. 
 But if we put beside it a map of our own country to the same scale as you see 
 on the next page, we realise how large it really is. 
 
 There are three or four noteworthy facts in the physical geography of 
 Madagascar which it will be well to keep in mind. The first of these is that 
 all round the island there is a belt of forest, which you must cross from the 
 coast to get into the interior. This forest-covered country is densest on the 
 eastern side ; at one part, towards the north, it is forty miles across, but it 
 is much less further south, and for four or five hundred miles it divides into 
 two lines, of which the lower one is the widest. On the western side of the 
 island the woods are not nearly so dense ; for over a considerable extent of 
 the coast plains it is rather a wooded country, with scattered clumps of trees,, 
 and among them groups of fan-palms, tamarind-trees, baobabs, and the 
 Madagascar spice-tree, of which the leaves, the bark, and the fruit are all 
 fragrant. 
 
 A great part of the interior provinces of Madagascar is of bare, moorland 
 country, rather uninteresting in appearance, but with many pretty spots in 
 the river valleys, and often with grand masses of granite rocks rising up, 
 which are sometimes like great castles, and in other places like a huge cathedral. 
 These granite masses are very often like immense " bosses " of rounded rock. 
 In the interior districts of Imerina and of Betsileo, which are the London 
 Missionary Society's chief fields, we are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the 
 sea, so that, although we are within the tropics, we have a very pleasant 
 
 V 
 
 12
 
 ENGLAND & 
 
 WALES 
 on same scale 
 
 gnjourvb. fc .jgplWtave 
 
 OCEAN 
 
 H t * r 
 
 St Augustine gv :i; .^ 
 
 MADAGASCAR
 
 14 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 temperate climate, with no extremes of heat or cold. I have never seen snow 
 or ice in Madagascar, although heavy hail-storms are frequent at certain times 
 of the year. The highest mountains are about 9,000 feet in height above the sea. 
 
 Another noticeable fact in the physical geography is the presence of a large 
 number of extinct volcanoes. Happily, these are now quiescent, but we are 
 reminded occasionally by slight shocks of earthquake that there are still 
 tremendous forces underground ; and the numerous hot-springs also tell us of 
 great heat far below the surface. Madagascar is the centre of a belt of vol- 
 canoes, at the two extremities of which there is still an active volcano. These 
 points are Great Comoro to the north-west, and Reunion, 450 miles away to 
 the east. 
 
 You will notice on the map that there is a remarkably straight line of coast 
 on the eastern side of Madagascar, which extends for about 740 miles. The 
 north-western coast, on the contrary, you see is broken up by a number of deep 
 bays and gulfs, forming good harbours. On the eastern coast there is a line 
 of lagoons extending for about 280 miles. These lagoons are very varied 
 in breadth, sometimes appearing like a straight river or a very broad canal, 
 and at other points widening out into extensive lakes several miles long. The 
 narrow belt of land between the lagoons and the sea is like a piece of park or 
 shrubbery with luxuriant tropical vegetation and green sward, with tall firs, 
 coco-nut palms, pandanus, and magnificent white orchid flowers. Travelling 
 along in the old-fashioned style of palanquin with bearers, as in pre-conquest 
 times, one caught frequent glimpses of the lake-like lagoons on the one hand, 
 and of the wide expanse and constant roar of the waves of the Indian Ocean 
 on the other, so that I have a delightful recollection of many journeys along 
 this tract of land between the lagoons and the sea. The journey to the interior 
 as one turned westward was a much more difficult and fatiguing one. There 
 was no road, only a narrow footpath, through the dense forest ; up and down 
 long slopes slippery with mud, through marshes, and over rocks, and fording 
 streams and rivers But now the journey, which took me nine or ten days 
 in 1863, is accomplished by railway to-day in about as many hours, for we 
 leave Tamatave in the morning, and reach Antananarivo* in the evening. 
 
 I can only add one more striking feature of Madagascar, and that is, the 
 purity and clearness of the air. We have no great smoky towns, and nothing 
 like our English fogs, so that mountain tops, thirty and even forty miles 
 distant, stand out clear and sharp against the blue sky in a wonderfully distinct 
 way. You will not wonder, therefore, that those who have lived long in the 
 country desire to go and live there again, especially if they are missionaries ; 
 for they cannot help loving the people, and desiring to do all they can to 
 help them. 
 
 * Th* capital is now called Tananarive, the French 4 orm of its earlier name.
 
 NATURE'S DISGUISES 
 
 HOW INSECTS HIDE FROM THEIR ENEMIES 
 
 I DARE say that you have often read hi fairy tales about certain things 
 which were believed to render their owners invisible, so that they 
 could go anywhere and could see people, and yet not be seen by anyone 
 themselves. Of course these stories, are fables ; yet there are many 
 facts in natural history which are quite as wonderful as any fairy tales, and I 
 want hi this paper to describe some of those which I have often seen in 
 Madagascar. 
 
 Let us suppose we are taking a walk in the outskirts of the great forest, 
 
 and as we stroll along the narrow path 
 among the trees and bushes, a large 
 insect flies past us with bright scarlet 
 wings; we follow it quickly, and with a 
 butterfly-net try to capture it as a 
 specimen. Yet, although we saw exactly 
 where it settled, lo and behold, it has 
 disappeared, and there are only green 
 leaves to be seen. But after careful 
 inspection of the spot, we see at last 
 that there is an insect there, a species 
 of mantis, but its whig-cases and legs 
 are so like green leaves that it is difficult 
 to detect its presence, for its bright 
 scarlet wings are quite folded up and 
 hidden under its wing-cases as it rests 
 on the bush. 
 
 As we walk over the open moory 
 hills in the interior of the great island 
 during the warmer months of the year, 
 every step we take through the grass 
 arouses a score or two of grasshoppers 
 and other insects, which fly up as we 
 pass along. Here, among many others, 
 is a grasshopper which resembles in all 
 
 PMO] iwa,d. its parts dry grass, just like that which 
 
 Mamtis carnivorous insects covers the ground towards the end of 
 resembling leaves. the *? season - Its le g s ar e quite like 
 
 grass stalks ; its wings exactly resemble 
 
 Four of them are shown, the lowest one with its Yi j t j , \-,.-i 
 
 wings expanded. blades of dry grass ; its little antennae
 
 i6 
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 or feelers are like minute tufts ; and its eyes are as like little brown seeds 
 as it is possible to imagine. It must be difficult indeed for any bird to see 
 such an insect, its resemblance to dry grass is so perfect. 
 
 But here again, leaping up from the moor, is another grasshopper, and 
 all its parts are just as much like green grass as the other one was like dry 
 grass. Legs and wings, head, body and feelers, are all bright green, and 
 
 when it settles on a bush, it is hard indeed to 
 see which is insect and which is leaf. You 
 will agree with me, I am sure, that both 
 brown and green grasshoppers have " pro- 
 tective resemblances." 
 
 Other insects also have various means 
 of protecting themselves. Butterflies, for 
 instance, you have noticed, almost always 
 have the under side of their wings of duller 
 colours than those on the upper side. And 
 you will have seen that when the butterfly is 
 at rest, the wings are very often closed 
 together, so as to be almost invisible when 
 seen from above ; while, if looked at side- 
 ways, only dull grey or brown tints and dots 
 or eyes are to be seen. We have many 
 examples of butterflies with such habits and 
 colours in Madagascar ; and in some cases 
 the under sides of the wings are so much 
 like brown or withered leaves that it is very 
 difficult to detect them as they settle on a 
 branch among the bushes. 
 
 In Madagascar, as in many tropical 
 countries, there are several kinds of what 
 are called " stick-insects." In these most 
 curious creatures the bodies and legs and 
 feelers are all exactly like dry sticks, and the 
 wings are hardly visible. Unless these 
 
 insects move it is almost impossible to discover them, they are so wonder- 
 fully like dry twigs or sticks. They vary in length from an inch or so up to 
 ten or twelve inches long. 
 
 Several species of spider also change their colours, so as to be exactly 
 like the place they live in or upon, and thus escape observation both from their 
 enemies and their prey. There is a small kind, which takes up its home inside 
 the large white flowers of a species of lily. And in these, if you look closely, 
 you will see a small spider, which is also perfectly white, so that it may lurk 
 
 Photo] {Ward. 
 
 Stick Insects. 
 
 There are four insects in the picture.
 
 NATURE'S DISGUISES 17 
 
 in the flower and be almost unseen, as it waits for an unwary fly or bee, which 
 may be probing for honey among its stamens. I was one day noticing the 
 habits of a peculiar species of ant which lives under the bark of certain trees, 
 and happened to take hold of a rough piece, as I thought, of the bark, when 
 it came loose and dropped to the ground. Presently, the little brown lump 
 developed four pairs of legs and scuttled off to a hiding-place, showing it to be 
 a species of spider, which thus mimicked the bark of a tree, so as to hide com- 
 pletely its real character. There is another kind of spider which resembles a 
 curious shell as it rests on the branch of a tree. 
 
 Some few years ago we were staying for our Christmas holidays at the 
 Sanatorium near the upper belt of forest, and as I sat one day at an open 
 window writing a Natural History for Malagasy readers, some native boys 
 came up and pushed through the window a piece of stick broken off from a 
 tree. Like almost every part of trees in these forests, this was thickly covered 
 with tiny mosses and lichens, green and white, brown and grey, hi colour. I 
 looked at this stick, and saw nothing peculiar about it, and so I asked what 
 they had brought it to me for. " Look at it," they said. So I looked again, 
 and could see nothing but a piece of stick. Still they said, " Look at it," and 
 so, bringing the end of the stick close to me, I detected a slight movement, and 
 then I saw that there was a tree-lizard, about six inches long, clinging to the 
 wood. But the scales of the brown body of this little creature were so mottled 
 with colours exactly resembling the mosses and lichens on the stick that it 
 was almost impossible to detect it unless it moved. I never saw anything so 
 remarkable in " protective resemblance." 
 
 This power of changing colour, you see, is not confined to insects, for those 
 of you who read the first chapter on " The Chameleon " hi this book will 
 remember what I told you about it. Many fishes have also this power, and 
 their colours rapidly alter according to the water they swim in, whether clear 
 or muddy, or the river bottom they swim over, whether mud or sand. Most 
 of the animals that live in dry, sandy deserts are pale brown in colour ; the 
 lion, for instance, and many species of antelope, and also the giraffe and others, 
 so that they are not easily seen in their usual surroundings. Sportsmen say, 
 too, that even the stripes, black and pale brown, of the tiger make it difficult 
 to detect that savage creature among the bright lights and deep shadows of an 
 Indian jungle. 
 
 We have in Madagascar striking examples of quite an opposite kind of 
 thing to " protective resemblances," namely, insects so brightly coloured that 
 they are very conspicuous, they cannot but be seen. There is a large species of 
 locust, which has green, yellow, blue and red tints, and scarlet wings. But 
 it has a vile smell and probably a nauseous taste, so it seems to say, 
 " Hands off ; don't touch me, or you will repent it," and therefore its bright 
 colours are called " warning colours," and it fears no enemy. 
 
 B
 
 VANISHED CREATURES 
 
 THE GIGANTIC EXTINCT BIRDS 
 
 1WANT to tell you something about creatures that no longer live in the 
 island of Madagascar, or anywhere else, but who lived there many 
 thousand years ago, and some of them probably millions of years ago 
 in the dim past ages of the world. 
 
 It is only within the past fifty years or so that these extinct creatures 
 have become known, by their bones, which have been dug up in various places. 
 
 Guillemot 
 
 Swan 
 
 The sizes of some eggs compared 
 
 In the case of some of the birds who lived in Madagascar in ancient 
 times, their eggs were first found, or portions of them. 
 
 You have seen ostrich eggs and know how large they are ; but these 
 eggs are far larger, more than six times the size of ostrich eggs, for they are 
 more than fourteen inches long ; and if we take a number of hens' eggs and 
 break them into the shell of one of these big eggs, it would take 160 of them 
 to fill it. What a pity we cannot get such an egg for breakfast nowadays ! 
 Hard boiled, it might be carved into a sufficient meal for a very large family ! 
 
 18
 
 VANISHED CREATURES 
 
 But what sort of a bird was it, you will say, which produced such an 
 
 enormous egg ? Its bones show it to have been a bird that had no wings at 
 
 all, not even the rudiments of them, but had very massive and powerful leg 
 
 .'bones, by which no doubt, it could run at a great speed over the plains and 
 
 downs of Madagascar. 
 
 It was, however, nearly twice as tall as the ostrich, for it measured about 
 ten feet in height, the tallest of all known birds, either living or extinct. It 
 
 roust have existed in considerable 
 quantity of its bones that have 
 huge creature has been named 
 yof ages,.'' from its long-past 
 And what, perhaps, you will 
 greai v birds to disappear ? We 
 answer Ko this '^question, but one 
 appearance of mankind upon the 
 I '. scene^^or many of the great leg 
 ; bones ileem to have been cut 
 across with a sharp instrument 
 sueh^.s no wild animal could make 
 or use, and these cuts were doubt- 
 less made to extract the marrow 
 after the flesh had been 
 cooked. There appear to 
 ,^have been several species of 
 " these big birds^soine of them 
 only as large as an ostrich, 
 ^ jwhile the smallest was no 
 Caller than a bustard. 
 
 Other ancient creatures 
 /" formerly inhabiting Mada- 
 gascar were several species of 
 ."lemur. You may, ( perhaps, 
 know that that island is now 
 the head-quarters and chief 
 home of the lemur, animals 
 chiefly inhabiting the tall 
 trees of the forests, in which 
 they make nests, seldom 
 , ''coming to the ground except 
 to drink, ^nd leaping from 
 
 tree to.tree at a tremendous 
 J^E 
 
 numbers, judging from the 
 
 been discovered. This 
 
 " ^Epyornis," i.e. " the bird 
 
 antiquity. 
 
 ask again, caused these 
 
 cannot give a complete 
 
 cause probably was the 
 
 The skeleton of the /Cpyorais. 
 
 B2
 
 20 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 Recent researches in Madagascar show that the lemurs now living in the 
 island are much smaller than those formerly inhabiting it, for the bones of 
 many extinct kinds have been dug up, which were from four to five times 
 the size of the largest existing lemurs. Some of these must have been for- 
 midable-looking creatures, more like a gorilla than any animal now living in 
 Madagascar ; while others, by the form of their heads, appear to have largely 
 or frequently lived in the waters of the lakes and streams. 
 
 The remains of many other now extinct animals have been discovered, 
 together with those of the gigantic birds and lemurs just described. Among 
 these were great tortoises, whose horny shells were about six feet long by as 
 many broad. These are now no longer found hi Madagascar, but they still 
 exist on a coral island called Aldabra, which is about 300 miles N.W. from 
 Madagascar. 
 
 They were no doubt found to be so good to eat, that the earliest men 
 coming to the great island gradually killed them off. 
 
 Another ancient inhabitant of Madagascar was a small species of hippo- 
 potamus, which formerly wallowed in the rivers and swamps of the interior, 
 just as the larger kinds still do by scores together hi the African lakes and 
 rivers. Here again, that great destroyer, man, probably helped to exter- 
 minate the slow-moving and somewhat helpless beasts. 
 
 There were also then living great species of rails and also of geese, for 
 most former animals seem to have been much larger then than their descend- 
 ants are now ; crowds 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 numerous animals, far more in variety as well as in 
 numbers than there are at present existing in the island, and which were 
 hunted by the first wild men with their palm-bark spears, and were shot at 
 with arrows tipped with burnt clay or stone. These early inhabitants of 
 Madagascar did not know the use of Iron ; iron and iron working were intro- 
 duced by the Malayan ancestors of the present Malagasy people at a com- 
 paratively recent date. 
 
 What a different island it was then to what we can travel about in now ! 
 Far earlier than any of the creatures just described, great long-snouted 
 crocodiles might have been seen in the lakes and lagoons ; huge sloths moved 
 slowly along the branches of the trees, and immense land-lizards, from sixty 
 to eighty feet long, crawled over the wooded plains, tearing down whole trees 
 with their powerful arms and claws. They must have been fearful monsters 
 to meet with on a morning's walk !
 
 SOME QUEER SPIDERS 
 
 CATCHING BIRDS IN COBWEBS 
 
 MOST boys and girls, I fancy, think that spiders are unpleasant creatures 
 to have to do with ; and certainly the webs they make about odd 
 corners of our houses, catching the dust and dirt, are not very 
 attractive, nor are the makers of them, here in England at least, 
 much more agreeable in appearance. But in tropical countries spiders are 
 often very beautifully coloured, and they are, without doubt, well worth 
 studying for their curious habits and the great variety of ways in which they 
 
 obtain their food. 
 
 A large proportion of all known 
 spiders spin webs or nets, while 
 many other kinds obtain their prey 
 by hunting it on foot. But all 
 spiders appear to have the power of 
 producing fine threads of silk, with 
 which they make their homes, and 
 line the tunnels made by certain 
 species, and spin nets or gauzy 
 sheets of fine material by which they 
 catch various insects. 
 
 All over the ulterior of Mada- 
 gascar a large species of spider is 
 seen hi great numbers, and cannot 
 escape observation by any one. It is 
 about an inch and a half long, but its 
 legs spread over six or seven inches. 
 It is handsomely marked with 
 red and black and golden colour, and 
 
 may be seen by scores sitting in the centre of its great geometric net which 
 it spreads between the branches of neighbouring trees, especially hi the mango 
 orchards. From the considerable distances spanned by the main guys and 
 supports of its net, this spider is called by the Malagasy, Mampita-hddy, or 
 " fosse-crosser," and spaces of twenty feet or more are crossed by its lines. 
 How does it get across such a great distance ? you will say. 
 
 Probably it darts out threads which are carried by the wind over the 
 open space. I remember one afternoon seeing a deep valley, about a quarter 
 of a mile broad, hi which the air seemed filled with floating spiders' lines, 
 made visible by the sun shining on them. The main cords of these webs are 
 
 21
 
 22 
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 strong enough to entangle small birds, for a cardinal-bird and a kingfisher 
 have been found caught by them. 
 
 Probably some of you know that the thread which spiders make is used 
 here in England and in other countries for marking the exact centre of the 
 lenses fixed in telescopes, especially the large ones employed by astronomers, 
 because these spider lines are much finer than any thread that can be made 
 in a cotton or silk mill. 
 
 In Madagascar, however, as well, of course, as in other tropical countries, 
 many spiders are larger than those living in England, and they make silken 
 threads which are very stout and strong. In passing 
 along the forest paths I have often felt how strong and 
 difficult to break these spider's lines are, especially 
 those which are stretched across from branch to branch 
 of the trees, and which form the framework, so to 
 speak, the guys and principal lines on which the web or 
 net is fixed. 
 
 These threads being so strong and being a kind of 
 true silk, it has occurred to many people to try and use 
 them for making silken fabrics, and in Madagascar the 
 French have succeeded in obtaining from this spider, 
 silk which has been woven into silk cloth. This is of a 
 golden-yellow colour, and makes a good-looking article. 
 
 But I must add that it is not at all likely that silk 
 from spiders will take the place of that which is obtained 
 from the chrysalis of the silkworm moth. These insects 
 are much more easily reared and are more reliable ; for 
 spiders are uncertain in temper and are more difficult to 
 handle and to manage than the dead cocoons of the 
 moth. 
 
 Another species of spider, which has a satiny dark- 
 grey abdomen as large as a big nut, spins no net, but 
 makes an inverted cup-shaped house of strong web in 
 which she hides herself. She is no doubt a huntress, and catches any unwary 
 insect which approaches too near her castle. Here is another kind which, 
 when settled in the middle of its web, draws up its legs so as to resemble a 
 small lump of earth or a stone. This is doubtless an instance of what we 
 talked about in a previous chapter, namely, " protective resemblance." 
 
 As we look about in the bushes for wild flowers and fruit, we come across 
 a geometric web, and in the centre is a spider (Gasteracantha) , which is a good 
 deal broader than it is long, and is armed with strong spines 
 
 Here, in our houses in Antananarivo, is a rather large kind of ( spider, 
 light brown in colour, but its peculiarity is that it is extremely thin and flat
 
 SOME QUEER SPIDERS 
 
 a case almost of extension without thickness, as it is hardly thicker than a 
 piece of stout paper, so it is enabled to wait for its prey hidden in narrow 
 and almost imperceptible cracks. 
 
 It is a hunting spider, and apparently makes no nest or web, and it is 
 amusing to see the adroit way in which it will cautiously approach the edge 
 of a crack in a board and sweep off an unwary fly. 
 
 There is another curious spider, which has a very small body, hardly 
 larger than a big pin's head, but it has extraordinary long thread-like legs, 
 covering a very wide area when compared with its minute body. 
 
 You have no doubt heard of spiders which live in holes in the ground 
 which are closed at the top by a small door. We have one or more kinds 
 
 of these " trap-door spiders " in Mada- 
 gascar ; these clever little creatures line 
 their tubes with a silky web, and at the 
 top is a round door, about as large as a 
 sixpence, with a hinge of silk like a strong 
 spring, so that it shuts of itself when its 
 owner goes out or in. 
 
 The outside of the door is covered with 
 roughish clay, so that it is impossible to 
 see it when closed, so exactly does it 
 resemble the ground around it. 
 
 Several species of Madagascar spiders 
 bite very dangerously and are greatly 
 dreaded by the Malagasy, as they say that 
 fatal consequences often follow a bite. One 
 of these is like a shining black marble, but 
 with a small red spot on its abdomen ; and 
 I remember that when one of my bearers 
 brought a specimen for me to examine, he 
 carefully got it on the end of a long stick 
 and kept as far from it as possible ! 
 
 Then you see pictures here of two other spiders which have sharp thorns 
 all round them, a very unpleasant morsel they would surely be for any bird 
 or animal attempting to swallow them. They are appropriately called Gas- 
 teracantha, i.e. " thorn-stomached." The third one (Thomisus) is said to be 
 very venomous, even causing death if remedies are not quickly applied. 
 
 Another kind is more like a minute crab than a spider, with unpleasant- 
 looking crab-like claws. Its bite is followed by swelling, which spreads from 
 the wounded part throughout the whole body. 
 
 I have spoken of the strange shapes which some of the Madagascar spiders 
 possess ; but the illustrations given herewith will give a better idea than any
 
 24 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 mere description of them can do. The largest figure shows an Epeira of extra- 
 ordinary shape ; it will be seen that the abdomen is like a set of three cones 
 fixed into one another, and terminated by a sharp point. A still queerer 
 appearance is presented by another species, as it crouches, fixed close to a 
 branch or twig ; whether viewed from the back or front or side, it is equally 
 " uncanny " in its looks (see figure of Epeira mitralis) ; in fact, until it moves, 
 it would not be taken for a spider at all, for it is more like some curiously 
 marked shell. 
 
 Male Female 
 
 Nephila Madagascariensis 
 
 Many curious facts I could also tell you about other spiders in the great 
 island ; how, for instance, on a cold morning in the dry season, one sees 
 thousands upon thousands of little webs scattered over the bare moory downs 
 of the ulterior ; some of these are beautiful little geometric nets, but the 
 larger number are a fine gauzy web, from six inches to a foot in diameter, 
 spread horizontally over the grass stalks. In the centre of each is a funnel- 
 shaped tube, and if you look down this tube you will see a little brown 
 spider, waiting for any insect that may come her way. But the curious thing 
 is, that it is only during early morning, while the dew is fresh, that you can 
 see these nets and webs ; as soon as the sun gains power, and the dew is 
 dried up, they are all invisible ! They are there all the time, it is only the 
 dew that makes them seen.
 
 THE TRAVELLER'S TREE 
 
 HOUSE, TABLECLOTH AND WATER FROM ONE TREE 
 
 AS we have already noticed, the central parts of Madagascar are sur- 
 rounded by an almost continuous belt of forest, thinner and more 
 scattered on the west side, but broader and denser on the eastern 
 side of the island. For several hundred miles this forest is divided 
 into two belts of wood, with a few miles of bare plain between them ; so that 
 if we go up to the interior from the east coast, we must pass through thick 
 forest, which in one part is forty miles across, but is generally about half that 
 distance. 
 
 Spearing the Traveller's Tree for Water 
 
 25
 
 26 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 What a wonderful place this forest region is ! There is a crowd of trees 
 with tall trunks, all soaring aloft to get up to the light and heat of the sun. 
 Every tree-trunk is the home of a crowd of smaller plants ferns and mosses, 
 orchids and climbing palms, and creepers of all kinds, so that sometimes you 
 cannot tell which are the leaves of the tree, and which are those of the plants 
 which use it to clamber up into the sunlight. 
 
 Besides this, the trees are all connected together with lianas or climbing 
 plants, which are sometimes hundreds of feet long, some of them as thick and 
 strong as a ship's cable, down to smaller ropes and cords, until you find fine 
 lines like thread, but strong as iron wire. These ropes and cords cross and 
 twist and twine in all directions in utter confusion, sometimes like great 
 serpents ascending the loftiest trees, so that often when a tree is cut down 
 at the base, it cannot fall, because these rope-like plants still hold it up among 
 its neighbours. 
 
 It would require a large book to describe fully only a few of these Mada- 
 gascar forest trees and plants, as well as their properties and various uses ; 
 but I want here to tell you about one which is called " The Traveller's Tree." 
 This is found all along the coast region and up to about 2,000 feet above the sea, 
 where it becomes too cold for it, for it is a tropical tree and loves the warmth. 
 
 On the coast it grows together with many other kinds, but a few miles 
 inland it is the chief thing growing there, and it covers the hills and valleys 
 in countless numbers. The accompanying picture will give you a clearer 
 idea of the Traveller's Tree than I can describe in words, and you will see 
 that on the top of a moderately tall trunk, there is a great semi-circular 
 group of long and broad green leaves, some twenty to thirty in number, and 
 arranged, not as in almost every other tree, round the trunk, but in one plane, 
 and in the form of a gigantic fan. 
 
 These leaves grow up from the centre with very long leaf -stalks, and the 
 outermost ones on either side gradually wither and hang down. Between the 
 leaf-stalks, near the base, shoot out three or four clusters of the fruits, in 
 sheaths not unlike short and stout bullock's horns ; and if you can get hold 
 of one of the fruit-pods, you will see that in each of these there are six rows 
 of seeds like beans, and that each seed is wrapped up in what looks exactly 
 like a piece of blue silk. 
 
 But why, you will say, is it called " The Traveller's Tree " ? Because if 
 you take a spear or a sharp-pointed stick and pierce the base of the leaf- 
 stalks, where they all grow wrapped round each other at the top of the trunk, 
 a stream of pure cool water gushes out. I know this to be a fact, for some 
 years ago I took a long journey into the south-eastern parts of Madagascar, 
 and one day we were hot and thirsty, and could see no water but the stagnant 
 and brackish water of the lagoon. So I said to my companion, " Let us try 
 the Traveller's Tree."
 
 THE TRAVELLER'S TREE 27 
 
 We called one of our bearers to bring his spear, and one of us pushed it 
 in the base of the leaf-stalks, while the other held up a tin ladle ; and sure 
 enough we immediately had more than we could drink of cool refreshing 
 water. 
 
 On examining a section of one of the stalks, a hollow channel about half 
 an inch in diameter is seen running down the inner side of it ; the large cool 
 surface of the leaf appears to collect the water condensed from the air, and 
 this is conducted by the little channel down to the base of the stalk. The 
 leaf-stalks are also all full of cells filled with water, hence the plentiful supply 
 of it. 
 
 We afterwards found in a village not far away that small water-pots 
 were placed in a hollow cut in the base of the leaves of this tree, so as to collect 
 water for drinking and for household use. 
 
 But although the Traveller's Tree is its name, this beautiful tree might 
 almost as appropriately be called " The Builder's Tree," for it supplies almost 
 all the materials the coast tribes need for making their houses. 
 
 These are made of a strong framework of light poles, and the bark of the 
 tree is stripped off, pressed flat, and thus forms a firm flooring. A number 
 of the leaf-stalks, which are from 7 to 10 feet long, are placed together and 
 fastened with a fine cane or a strip of bamboo, so as to form large sheets of 
 light material, and these fill up the spaces between the upright poles and so 
 make the walling of the house. And they are also used as mattresses. Then 
 the leaves make an excellent thatch for the roofs, and keep out securely the 
 sun and rain ; so that all parts of the tree are of service. Besides this, the 
 fresh green leaves serve as dishes for rice and other food, and also are used 
 as a table-cloth as well ; and these need not be washed, but are thrown away 
 and fresh ones taken instead, for there is an unlimited supply of them. 
 
 In former times, before the French conquest, when we were invited to 
 the New Year's festival at the palace, the rice was always served on pieces 
 of Traveller's Tree leaf ; while for spoons, a piece of leaf neatly tied up with 
 a fine tendril of some climbing plant, was provided for each guest. The idea 
 of all this was, I suppose, to keep in memory primitive times, when the 
 ancestors of the Hova people were very simple in their habits, just as the 
 forest tribes of coast -dwelling Malagasy still are. 
 
 So you see that, besides being beautiful to look at, the Traveller's Tree 
 is most useful to the different peoples living on the coasts of Madagascar.
 
 THE LACE-LEAF PLANT 
 
 I 
 
 A LIVING SKELETON 
 
 N the last chapter I told you about a remarkable tree we have growing 
 in Madagascar, the Traveller's or Builder's Tree, and now I want to 
 say something about a plant which grows in the water. 
 
 In the rivers and streams 
 of Madagascar you may 
 frequently see a flower 
 divided into two little tufts, 
 pinkish white in colour, and 
 rising an inch or two above 
 the surface of the water. 
 
 This is the top end of a 
 long stalk which goes down 
 into the mud, and is the 
 flower of what is called the 
 " Lace-leaf Plant." And if 
 you will wade into the 
 stream, you can easily pull 
 up the whole plant, with 
 perhaps a dozen of the 
 leaves, which are about a 
 foot long and a couple of 
 inches or more broad. These 
 leaves are worthy of notice, 
 for they are very like those 
 you may see in herbariums 
 labelled " skeleton leaves," 
 from which all the green 
 skin of the leaf has been 
 removed, leaving only the 
 veining or framework. 
 
 Take a leaf and lay it 
 upon a piece of paper, and 
 you will see that it is really 
 very like a piece of lace, 
 there being no skin, but 
 only the framework of the 
 leaf, like a fine netting. The 
 accompanying illustration 
 
 The Lace-Leaf Plant of Madagascar
 
 THE LACE-LEAF PLANT 29 
 
 will show you this quite clearly, and you will agree that it is rightly called 
 the " Lace-leaf Plant." The veining is somewhat like that of a lily leaf, 
 the longitudinal fibres running through the whole length and crossed at 
 regular intervals by the transverse veins, which are like fine thread. 
 
 The specific name, fenestralis, i.e. "windowed," conveys this idea of a 
 regular arrangement of structure, like a glass window with very small panes. 
 
 Each plant has ten or a dozen leaves branching from the root, which 
 resembles a small potato, and can be eaten, for it is a species of yam, a very 
 useful kind of root which grows in most tropical countries and is a valuable 
 food. The plant grows hi running water and thrives best in warm situations. 
 Few objects can be imagined more beautiful for a small aquarium than the 
 Lace-leaf Plant, which Sir W. J. Hooker termed " one of the most curious 
 of Nature's vegetable productions." 
 
 The leaves in their various stages of growth pass through different shades 
 of colour, from pale yellow to dark olive-green. The Rev. William Ellis, the 
 well-known missionary to Madagascar, was the first to bring specimens of 
 this interesting plant to England, and from those he brought other plants 
 have grown, and are now to be seen in the gardens at Kew and Chiswick, 
 and in the Crystal Palace and other places. The next time you go to Kew, 
 be sure and look out for the Lace-leaf Plant. 
 
 While speaking of the lace-leaf plant, I cannot but remember lace itself, 
 which for many years past has been made in considerable quantities in Mada- 
 gascar, and provides a pleasant employment for a great number of Malagasy 
 women and girls. This beautiful handicraft is one of the many arts of civilised 
 life which the Malagasy owe to English missionaries. This lace is made both 
 in silk and in thread, and resembles that made in Honiton and also in Malta, 
 and is much admired by all lovers of beautiful lace. It is made to form hand- 
 kerchief borders, collars of all kinds, fichus, cuffs, and for the trimming of 
 ladies' dresses, and a good deal is purchased to send to Europe. But the 
 Malagasy women are not content to copy designs derived from European 
 models only, for many of their husbands and brothers design fresh patterns 
 for them, and native flowers and leaves, butterflies, birds, and even portraits of 
 famous people, may be seen in some of the lace which they produce. In the 
 girls' high schools lace-making forms a part of the instruction given to the 
 scholars ; and it appears to be an employment well fitted for the clever fingers 
 of native women and girls in Madagascar. The introduction of this beautiful 
 art in Imerina was due to Mrs. Wills, who was the first to teach it to Malagasy 
 women : and Mrs. A. S. Huckett did the same in Betsileo.
 
 THE ROFIA PALM 
 
 THE WEAVER'S STOREHOUSE 
 
 IN all the warmer parts of Madagascar, that is, from sea-level up to about 
 2,000 feet above the sea, one finds growing thousands of a species of 
 palm called Rofia. From the picture given herewith you can see clearly 
 that it has a moderately high trunk, all rough and rugged from the 
 remains of the old leaf-stalks, which die off as the tree grows upwards. And 
 you will notice that the leaves are very few, but enormously long, indeed 
 they are from twenty to thirty feet in length, and that they rise up and bend 
 over in a very graceful fashion, like immense plumes of feathers. 
 
 When travelling from the east coast of Madagascar to the interior high- 
 land, one comes, after two or three days' journey (that is, in the old style of 
 travelling by palanquin) to a belt of country where this palm is the most 
 abundant tree, growing in large groves. It loves the damp and swampy 
 places, and I remember one spot where, until the French conquest, the main 
 
 .' 
 
 A group of Rofia palms 
 
 3
 
 THE ROFIA PALM 31 
 
 road to the capital was through a swamp, with a foot or more of water, and 
 where all around you were scores and scores of the tall trunks of the Rofia 
 palm ; a very pretty scene it was, indeed it was like the interior of some 
 great temple, with hundreds of columns, reflected in the water, and with the 
 bright sunshine glancing through the leaves. 
 
 The leaf -stalks at and some way from the base are from four to five 
 inches in diameter, and are very light but very tough and strong. They are 
 employed for many purposes by the Malagasy, for of them they make the 
 long poles of ladders ; they are used for the poles of ladies' palanquins, and 
 also for the rafters of house roofs, etc. There is a fine specimen of this plain 
 in the Palm House at Kew Gardens. 
 
 But perhaps the most useful parts of the Rofia palm are the fine pinnate 
 leaves, which grow by hundreds on each side of the long leaf-stalks or midrib 
 of the leaf. These are from two to three feet long, and are from an inch to 
 an inch and a half wide. 
 
 From the inner fibre of these leaves, while they are still young, the people 
 prepare a material which they weave into a variety of cloths, both coarse 
 and fine. 
 
 The fibre is divided by a kind of comb into different widths, according 
 to the fineness or otherwise of the material to be made, and is of a beautiful 
 straw colour ; but the Malagasy also dye the fibre with a variety of tints 
 made from indigo, turmeric, and various earths and ochres. 
 
 Some of the cloths they weave are very fine and are sometimes mixed with 
 silk or cotton, so as to be suitable for the finest ladies' dresses ; while others 
 are very coarse, and are used for sugar bags and sacking. In former times, 
 when we used to be carried in light palanquins, our bearers had a light sleeveless 
 jacket of this coarse rofia cloth, and it is also largely used for covering mattresses. 
 
 Great clusters of seeds, which are enclosed in a shiny brown skin, hang 
 down from the top of the trunk of the Rofia palm. These are really very 
 pretty little objects, and are used as boxes to hold small articles, such as 
 rings and brooches and other jewellery. 
 
 The Malagasy women of the ulterior and the eastern provinces are very 
 clever in spinning and weaving, and they make handsome cloths of silk, cotton, 
 hemp, and several other vegetable fibres, yet they do all this with the simplest 
 and rudest kind of looms and spindles, and all, of course, are hand-made. 
 
 In some parts of the island they call a girl zdza ampela, i.e. " the spindle 
 child," because all girls are taught to handle the spindle and loom. This 
 reminds us of the old English word " spinster," which tells us of former times 
 when here hi England women used to spin linen thread for household use. 
 
 The rofia fibre is very strong, and is the common substitute for string 
 in Madagascar ; it is also imported into this country, and is much used by 
 gardeners for tying up plants.
 
 RICE 
 
 THE MALAGASY "STAFF OF LIFE " 
 
 SOME months before the end of the Great War there were placards to 
 be seen everywhere with the words : " Eat less Bread." It would 
 be of little use to put up such notices in Madagascar, because the 
 great majority of the people there do not eat bread at all, for their 
 staple food is rice. So while the Malagasy have not much interest in some 
 of the trees and plants I have told you about in these pages the Lace-leaf 
 Plant, for instance they all have the greatest interest in the plant from 
 which they get their chief food, rice, or, as they call it, vary ; and a large 
 part of their time and labour and conversation is devoted to rice and its 
 cultivation. 
 
 Boiled rice then is the chief article of their daily meals, that is, of the 
 two which the poorer classes take, namely, an early dinner in the forenoon 
 and a supper about sunset, which is not much before or after six o'clock in 
 the evening all the year round. You would think this was rather monotonous 
 fare, but it is not so to them, any more than bread-and-butter is to ourselves ; 
 and, of course, they always have something else as an accompaniment or 
 relish to the rice different kinds of greens or vegetables, sometimes small 
 shrimps, or dried locusts, or a small quantity of pork or stewed meat and 
 gravy but rice is the chief item. 
 
 In the central provinces of Imerina and Betsileo almost all the rice pro- 
 duced has two stages in its growth, and is not reaped where it has been sown, 
 as our wheat and barley is ; for at the sides of the rivers and streams, as well 
 as at the edges of the larger rice-fields, and up the valleys, are small strips 
 of ground where the seed rice is sown broadcast, and in these it grows like 
 thick grass until it is from six to eight inches high. These smaller rice patches 
 are called the ketsa grounds, and are of a brilliant green colour. The rice is 
 then pulled up, plant by plant, tied in small bundles, and is planted out in 
 the larger rice-fields in the broad valleys and plains. It must be remembered 
 that rice is grown under water, from being sown to being reaped, so that every 
 rice-field or rice-plot, large or small, must be perfectly level ; and as the 
 innumerable valleys rising steeply up between the hills are also employed, 
 these are terraced from the lowest to the highest points to which water can 
 be brought, and are divided, one stage from another, above or below, by low 
 banks of earth. 
 
 Before, however, the larger rice-fields can be planted, a good deal of work 
 has to be done in them. First, they have to be dug over with the long heavy- 
 handled spade used by the Malagasy, two men often working together as 
 they turn up the large clods as well as the stubble from the last year's crop. A
 
 At work in the Rice Field 
 
 From a Malagasy Drawing 
 
 A Malagasy is digging the dry stubble field with the long handled spade. The old grandfather is sitting on the bank 
 encouraging the women who are transplanting the young rice plants into soft mud and water. Above, to the right, is a man 
 on a bamboo raft in the river ; under the umbrella at the left, is a roadside seller of food. 
 
 c
 
 34 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 considerable quantity of these clods is piled up in lines, so as to expose them 
 for some time to the sun and air. Then water is conveyed by small channels 
 from the upper part of the valleys near by, until the earth is fairly soft. After 
 this, a number of cattle are brought to the rice-field and are driven backwards 
 and forwards by men and boys, with much shouting and chivvying them 
 over the field, so as to trample the soil into soft mud, the poor beasts being 
 generally splashed up to the eyes during the process. The whole is then 
 worked over by the spade, so as to be fairly level. Now conies the women's 
 and girls' share in the work. A number of them, in their worst and coarsest 
 dresses, take the bundles of ketsa or rice plants in one hand, and with the other 
 they rapidly stick each plant into the soft mud, leaving a space round each 
 for the different stalks which will spring from it, they themselves standing 
 more than ankle-deep in the mud and water. It must be very fatiguing and 
 back-aching work in the hot sun, yet this is the way in which the greatest 
 part of the rice grown hi the central provinces of Madagascar is produced 
 year after year. 
 
 From this " wet culture " of rice there comes a Malagasy saying about things 
 that are inseparable, that " they are like rice and water." For the seed rice 
 is soaked in water before being sown ; it is sown hi water ; it grows there 
 in water ; it is transplanted hi water ; it ripens until it is reaped, still in 
 water ; it is carried in small canoes along little streams and channels of water 
 to the threshing-floor ; it is boiled hi water, and the water in which it has 
 been cooked, and a portion left, slightly burned, is made into a kind of coffee 
 to be drunk after the evening meal ; and so it is " rice and water " from 
 beginning to end. 
 
 From the summit of the long and lofty ridge of rock, two miles in length 
 from north to south, on which the capital of Madagascar is built, one sees 
 a very extensive rice-plain from the south-east to the north-west, stretching 
 away for miles in some directions. It is a beautiful sight to see this great 
 expanse of bright-green rice soon after planting, for it is like a vast meadow, 
 or a green lake, from which the low red clay hills on which the villages are 
 mostly built rise like islands out of the water. This great rice-plain was 
 no doubt a lake in ancient times, and then an immense marsh, which has 
 been gradually reclaimed and brought under culture, as the population has 
 increased. And perhaps the view from the capital is equally beautiful at 
 harvest time, when the rice has turned a golden tint, much like an English 
 cornfield. 
 
 The Malagasy are very skilful in bringing little streams of water, often 
 from a considerable distance, to supply the necessary moisture for rice culti- 
 vation. These are led round the sides of hills and banked up to keep the 
 valuable liquid from waste on the road. But while the Hova are clever 
 enough in this way, one must go to the Betsileo province to see the most
 
 RICE 35 
 
 skilful methods of rice culture, for there they have an elaborate system far 
 surpassing what can be seen in Imerina. Not only are the valleys and hollows 
 between the hills terraced the concave portions of the low hills and lower 
 slopes of the high hills but the convex portions are also stepped and terraced 
 up like an immense staircase for a great height, the narrow lines of rice-plot 
 running round them in concentric circles. These terraces are often from 
 forty to sixty in number, and I remember at one place they were even as 
 many as ninety green steps up the valley. 
 
 When taken from the rice-pit in their house-yards, or from the huge 
 basket made from a great straw mat and stored in their houses, rice must, 
 of course, be husked and the hard outer skin removed. For our wheat and 
 barley, this is done in mills of some kind wind, or water, or steam mills but 
 the Malagasy pound their rice in a large wooden mortar with wooden pestles, 
 two or three women or girls working together. It is then placed in a large 
 flat wooden dish, and the contents are tossed up in the air, so that the wind 
 may drive away the chaff. And if you stay the night in a village hi the 
 country you cannot help hearing in the morning and the evening the " thump, 
 thump " of rice-pounding in the house-yards all around. This Malagasy 
 custom reminds us of a verse in the first Psalm, in which the ungodly are 
 said to be " like the chaff which the wind driveth away." And here I may 
 say that numerous passages hi the Bible are clearer to the Malagasy than 
 they are to us English people, for many of their habits and customs are much 
 more like those of the people mentioned hi the Bible than are our own customs 
 and surroundings. So it is also in sowing rice ; for, as I have watched a 
 sower casting the rice, literally, " on the water " of the ketsa grounds, I have 
 recalled the words : " Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find 
 it after many days " (Eccles. xi. i). 
 
 From what I have here told you, you will not be surprised that the time 
 and thought and talk of the Malagasy people is much occupied with rice and 
 rice cultivation. They r.hink no meal complete without a great heaped-up plate 
 of rice, and sometimes, when we have invited a few of our native friends to 
 a meal prepared in English fashion and have given them what we usually 
 eat ourselves, they will ask : " Aiza ny vdry ? " " Where is the rice ? " 
 For, as I have already said, rice is their " staff of life," and is the foundation 
 and the chief constituent of every meal.
 
 ANTS AND BEES 
 
 ANTS EAT SERPENTS AND MOTHS RAID HIVES 
 
 IN adagascar, the Ants are everywhere, especially in the woods. As we 
 travel through the two great forest belts, we cannot help noticing, high 
 up in many of the trees, a large dark-looking ball, which is not a bird's 
 nest ; and if you ask a Malagasy what this is, he will reply, tranom-batsika, 
 that is, an " ants' house." And if one of these is procured not an easy 
 matter, for the little inhabitants rush out and attack the intruder, and dig 
 their jaws into one's flesh in a way to make one jump it will be seen on open- 
 ing the nest vertically, that there are a number of thin floors about half an 
 inch apart and supported by pillars. These are all made, as is also the out- 
 side, of cowdung, or of earthy and vegetable matter, forming a coarse papery 
 substance, and the whole is as large as a football. 
 
 The ants run about frantically, their chief care being to carry the white 
 eggs and pupae to a place of safety, if they can find one. And it will be ob- 
 served that besides the hundreds in fact, thousands of black ants, there are 
 to be seen a number of very small but handsome beetles (about one-eighth of an 
 inch long), perhaps in the proportion of about one to a hundred of the ants. 
 
 What purpose do these entirely different insects serve in the home-life 
 of the ants ? They must of course be of some use, but no one seems to be 
 able to throw any light on this point. 
 
 Besides these large and conspicuous nests, containing probably thousands 
 of ants, other nests of all sizes from about that of a nut to an orange and 
 upwards may be seen. These are the hamlets, villages and small towns of 
 the ant -world, while the large nests are the great cities of their commonwealth. 
 
 It is difficult to see what these little creatures, so numerous and active, 
 can live upon, so high up in the trees, for they can hardly descend for food 
 every day fifty or sixty feet to the ground. 
 
 A very different kind of ants' nest is seen in the more open and sunny 
 forest paths, and also in the bare ulterior country. These have the form of a 
 low circular mound, from eighteen inches or more in diameter, and perhaps 
 eight to ten inches high, with a large opening at the top a miniature crater. 
 
 This mound consists of fine grains of earth and sand brought up and 
 thrown out by the little workers in excavating their underground dwelling. 
 These ants are larger insects than the tree-dwelling ants ; they are about three- 
 eighths of an inch long, and seem to exist in great numbers in their homes, the 
 entrance being like a crowded street, with passengers going to and fro. They 
 may be met with all round their nests, often at a considerable distance from 
 
 36
 
 ANTS AND BEES 37 
 
 them, frequently tugging along pieces of sugar-cane, or portions of dead 
 insects, enormous in size compared with themselves. 
 
 The ants are the scavengers of the country ; no beetle, or worm, or grub, 
 or animal matter of any kind, can be many minutes on the ground before it 
 is detected by some ant, who immediately makes it known to her fellows, and 
 they at once fall on the spoil, cut it in pieces and convey it to their stronghold. 
 It is astonishing to see the heavy loads that two or three ants will stagger 
 along with for the common good. So we see that among these little creatures 
 there is co-operation, and mutual help, and often self-sacrifice for others ; 
 well may they have been called by the observant king of Israel, although " a 
 small folk," yet " exceeding wise." 
 
 Another species of ant does not appear to make a nest, but inhabits the 
 crevices and under the bark of trees ; it is rather conspicuous from a small 
 cushion of pale-brown velvet on the upper side of its body, and a smaller 
 one on the thorax (the part to which its six legs are attached). Its eggs and 
 pupae are carefully hidden away behind pieces of the bark which have become 
 partially detached ; and if you pull away a piece, what a hurry-scurry there 
 is to hide away these precious treasures ! 
 
 On the coast plains of Madagascar, there are numbers of earthen mounds 
 from two to three feet high, to be seen dotting over the open downs. These 
 are the nests of a large white ant ; and these are said to feed a small serpent 
 which makes its home in the lower part of the anthill, and when it is fat enough, 
 they kill it for food for themselves. 
 
 This, I believe, is not " a traveller's tale," but is said to be a fact by 
 Malagasy in many different parts of the great island. 
 
 Now let me tell you something about the Bees of Madagascar, at least 
 about one kind, for there are said to be many score different species found 
 in the country, and this is the bee from which we get excellent honey. When 
 we used to go occasionally for our Christmas holiday at the Mission Resthouse 
 close to the great forest, our children and we elders too always looked for- 
 ward to getting honey from the woodmen. 
 
 This was generally brought to us in a round wooden box made from a 
 trunk of a small tree, and sometimes with the honey and the wax-comb all 
 broken up together. But we often got the honey in large flakes of white or 
 yellowish comb, with each beautiful six-sided cell full of the sweet liquid. 
 
 In walking through the woods one sometimes becomes conscious of a 
 sickly sweet smell somewhere near us. This proceeds from a hive of bees not 
 very far away, generally in the hollow of a tree. The honey is usually ex- 
 cellent, although sometimes a little bitter, through being obtained from the 
 flowers of certain trees. 
 
 The Madagascar bee differs but little hi appearance from the English 
 species, although it is somewhat smaller, darker, and more gentle when handled
 
 38 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 than our own kind. Like those in European hives, so in Madagascar, the 
 drones are idle insects and are killed off at certain times of the year. The 
 bees continue to store honey during the winter months, although that is the 
 dry season, with few flowers, and they will work in all weathers, even during 
 a heavy thunderstorm. 
 
 The enemies of the Madagascar bee are rats, ants, wasps, and especially 
 the death's-head moth. He enters the hive fearlessly, for although the bees 
 crowd around him, they have no power to stop him, as their stings cannot 
 pierce that downy body, with its tough skin, but merely slip along it harm- 
 lessly. As soon as he is within, he keeps his wings vibrating with a low hum- 
 ming noise and leisurely sucks his fill a very long fill. 
 
 The damage he does is immense, for he gobbles up honey, wax, and young 
 bees ; hives have been found sucked dry, with not a drop of honey left, so the 
 poor bees are obliged to go away and make another home for themselves. 
 
 Another enemy is the wasp, which seizes the bees when returning to the 
 hive for the sake of their laden honey-bag, and it also kills them outright 
 with wonderful quickness.
 
 THE SOLITARY WASPS 
 
 AND THEIR CELLS 
 
 PEOPLE who live in Madagascar often notice a small, longish lump 
 of light-coloured clay stuck under the eaves of the house, or on the 
 side of a window, or, in fact, in any sheltered place. If we break 
 off a piece of it, we shall find that this lump of clay contains a 
 number of cells, half a dozen or more all filled with caterpillars or spiders in 
 a numbed and half-lifeless condition. 
 
 c*.U. 
 
 The Solitary Wasps of Madagascar and their Cells 
 
 In centre is the nest of the wasp in Fig. I. 
 
 The marks I, 2, 3, 4, to 8, show the progress Of cell building. 
 
 Fig. V. is the finished nest. 
 
 The maker of these cells is a black wasp about an inch long, with russet 
 wings, and as one sits in the veranda of one's house one may often hear a 
 shrill buzz somewhere up in the rafters, and there the little worker is busy 
 bringing in little pellets of clay with which she builds up the walls of her cell, 
 just as a bricklayer adds bricks to build up a house. 
 
 39
 
 4 o THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 Presently she is off again for another load to the banks of a little stream, 
 where she has her brickfield. Kneading the reddish earth with her jaws, she 
 quickly forms it into a little pellet of clay about the size of a pea, which she 
 dexterously picks up and flies away back to the veranda. This pellet is placed 
 on the layer already laid, carefully smoothed and joined on to the rest ; and 
 so she goes on until the cell is finished. (See Figure i in illustration.) 
 
 A friend of mine, who was a careful observer of animal and insect life, 
 found that about twenty-six journeys finish one cell, and that on a fine day 
 it takes about forty to fifty minutes to complete it. 
 
 This is only one, however, out of many cells placed on the top of each 
 other. 
 
 My friend also found that in storing these cells with food for the grubs of 
 the wasp, the number of spiders enclosed in eleven cells varied from eight to 
 nineteen. These are caught by the wasp, stung so as to be insensible so it 
 is not cruel, as it at first sight seems but not killed, so that when the eggs are 
 hatched, the grub finds itself in the midst of food. (See Figures 4 and 5.) 
 
 Another species of these solitary wasps is a much larger insect, about two 
 inches long, and she makes nests, which are extremely hard, and are like little 
 native waterpots, and arranged regularly one above the other. Unlike the 
 wasp just mentioned, this one does not fetch the clay for her pottery from 
 the banks of a stream, but carries the water to the dry earth, which she then 
 damps and kneads up into balls. The cells are stocked with caterpillars, which 
 are stung and numbed in the same way as the spiders are treated by the first- 
 named wasp. There are usually three caterpillars placed in each cell. (See 
 Figure 2 in illustration.) 
 
 Another wasp, also very common, does not build cells, but digs a burrow 
 in the ground, even in pretty hard places like a well-trodden road. 
 
 Some of these use caterpillars for stocking their burrows, some large 
 spiders, and some crickets, but all drag or carry their prey on foot. One small 
 wasp, when carrying a spider, first cuts off all its legs and then slings the body 
 beneath her. The burrows of the larger wasp are deep in comparison with 
 the size of the insect, being frequently a foot or more in depth. 
 
 There is one very small wasp, which makes no cell or burrow but chooses 
 a long hole in a piece of wood, or, a small bamboo, or a hollow rush, for the 
 rearing of its young. Each kind of wasp seems to have its peculiar way of 
 hunting : some run it down on foot by scent for long distances : some dash 
 down violently into the web of a spider, and catch him as he drops from out 
 of it ; while others again, especially the social wasps, seize their prey upon the 
 wing. The males of all the different kinds are lazy and do no work. 
 
 It will be seen that these solitary wasps do good service by reducing the 
 number of caterpillars and other insects which destroy vegetation and eat up 
 the leaves of useful plants. There are of course many species of wasps which
 
 THE SOLITARY WASPS 41 
 
 live in communities and do common work, and have a large nest where they 
 live together. Some of these make pretty six-sided cells, very like those in a 
 bee-hive, but they are made of a grey paper, and not of wax. 
 
 I heard a lecture some time ago about paper-making, and how, long 
 before the people of Europe could make paper, it was made by the Egyptians 
 and the Chinese and other ancient peoples. But ages before that, these little 
 wasps were paper-makers, and, as I have shown hi preceding paragraphs, 
 wasps were also brickmakers and builders and potters long before men learned 
 these useful arts.
 
 ABOUT THE CROCODILE 
 
 A DREADED MONSTER 
 
 MADAGASCAR, as already mentioned in these pages, is remarkably 
 free from the large and fierce animals found in most tropical coun- 
 tries, such as lions and tigers, and wolves and leopards. But there 
 are in the waters of the great island, in all its rivers and lakes, any 
 number of a very dangerous reptile, viz., the crocodile. 
 
 Before the conquest of Madagascar by the French in 1895, we had no roads ; 
 and when rivers had to be crossed by the people, they were mostly forded, if 
 not too deep, or the passengers were ferried over in a native canoe. But on 
 account of the fewness of the canoes and the rude and rough bridges which 
 were occasionally made over the streams, the people usually waded through the 
 waters with their cattle, and were often seized by these hungry crocodiles. 
 
 In order to frighten away the crocodiles, the people, when crossing the 
 rivers, used to go over in a body, with loud shouts and beating the water with 
 sticks, and making all the noise they could. I have watched them going over 
 a river in this way, and have been amused to see them tuck up their clothes 
 and plunge into the stream. 
 
 On one occasion I was waiting for a few minutes while my baggage and 
 my bearers were ferried across a very small but rather deep river ; and walking 
 a little way from the ferry, I was startled to come across a good-sized crocodile 
 in the long grass on the bank. However, he was as much surprised as I was, 
 and immediately shuffled off into the water with a big splash ! Soon after 
 this, a large party of Malagasy forded this same river, and I felt that their 
 shouting and noise was quite necessary with such an unpleasant creature not 
 far away. 
 
 Among the many charms which all Malagasy formerly believed in, and in 
 which all the heathen tribes still believe, was the bdy mdmba, or charm against 
 crocodiles. 
 
 Some years ago, while taking a long journey of nearly three months, my 
 companion and I were frequently travelling by canoes on the rivers of the 
 south-east coast ; and on one of the largest of these we found that at every 
 village on the banks there was a place enclosed by strong stakes, so that the 
 women and children going to draw water might not be seized by a crocodile, 
 or swept off by a stroke of its powerful tail ; for cattle and sheep are often 
 carried off in this way, and not infrequently women and children also, who 
 incautiously go into or even near the water. 
 
 The Malagasy have a superstitious dread of these monsters, which pre- 
 vents them from attempting to kill them. They rather try to propitiate the 
 
 42
 
 ABOUT THE CROCODILE 
 
 43 
 
 creatures by prayers and offerings thrown into the water, and by acknow- 
 ledging their supremacy in their own element. 
 
 At Itasy, a lake fifty miles west of the Capital, the people believe that if a 
 crocodile be killed, a human life will, within a very short time, be exacted by 
 the animal's companions as an atonement for his death. 
 
 Two or three French travellers once shot a crocodile in this lake, and such 
 was the people's consternation and dread of the consequences that their 
 visitors found it well to leave the neighbourhood as quickly as possible. The 
 eggs of the crocodile are collected and sold for food in the markets, and are 
 said to be perfectly good, but I confess I never brought myself to try one. 
 They are larger than a duck's egg, but have a very rough shell. 
 
 The Crocodile 
 
 The Malagasy have two names for the crocodile : one is mdmba, a word 
 derived from the African Swahili language, and the other is vody, a Malayan 
 word, altered from its original form of body. 
 
 As might be expected, they have many fables and many proverbs about 
 this dangerous reptile. One of these latter is : " An angler carried off by a 
 crocodile ; each one takes what he likes " : i.e. the fisher takes the fishes, and 
 the crocodile takes him \ Another is : "A dog hunted a crocodile, and then 
 the crocodile had his turn." An unfortunate person who is in the power of a 
 hard-hearted creditor is said to be like one in the grasp of a crocodile, for he 
 will never get free : " Once in the jaws of a crocodile, there's no getting 
 out." 
 
 When returning to England on furlough many years ago, we had to travel 
 part of the way to the north-west coast by canoe, and for four days we sailed 
 down one of the large rivers. We saw about twenty to thirty crocodiles each 
 day, some on the sandy islands in the middle of the stream, and some basking 
 hi the sunshine on the banks, and near enough to be splashed by the paddles 
 of the rowers as we passed along. They were generally lying with their jaws 
 wide open ; and most of them were light grey in colour, but others slatey, and 
 others again spotted with black ; they varied in length from seven or eight 
 to fourteen or fifteen feet. The head is rather small, and the back and tail 
 is serrated like a great pit-saw.
 
 44 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 In Mr. Houlder's interesting and amusing book, " Among the Malagasy," 
 he tells a story of Moosa, one of his servants, who used to go every morning 
 to a marsh to gather a land of arum. One day, while busy over his work, 
 his foot was suddenly seized by a crocodile, fortunately a small one. Finding 
 that it was no use punching the creature's head, he caught hold of one of his 
 claws, and then commenced a real tug-of-war. The crocodile pulled for his 
 dinner, but Moosa pulled for his life ; and being a big strong man, exerting all 
 his strength, he began to prevail. Then the crocodile, in his astonishment, 
 opened his mouth wide and allowed the poor fellow to escape ; a very rare 
 thing for any one to accomplish. The incident is illustrated on the cover of 
 this book. 
 
 The above story confirms what another traveller says, namely, that even 
 in small pieces of water, not knee deep, these destructive reptiles are often 
 found lurking, so that in many parts of Madagascar great caution is necessary 
 in crossing quite small streams. 
 
 A crocodile's tooth used to be worn as an amulet or charm, and silver 
 ornaments made in that shape formed part of the adornment of the Malagasy 
 in former times ; while a golden crocodile's tooth was the central ornament 
 in the royal crown. And among the Tanala, or forest people, there was (per- 
 haps still is) an " ordeal by crocodile." In this test, the person suspected of 
 wrong-doing was taken to a river known to be full of these reptiles. Before 
 the people assembled to see the proceedings, a man stood behind the accused 
 and struck the water thrice, and addressing the crocodiles, he begged them 
 to show whether the accused was guilty or innocent. He was then made to 
 swim a certain distance and back again, and if he accomplished this and took 
 no harm, the accuser was fined four oxen : of these, the swimmer got two, the 
 king one, and his councillors one. Probably few people escaped this ordeal 
 with life. We may be thankful that the rivers and lakes of England contain 
 none of these dangerous creatures.
 
 ABOUT THE LEMURS 
 
 ANIMALS WHICH STORE FOOD IN THEIR TAILS 
 
 MADAGASCAR is the headquarters of the Lemurs, or four-handed 
 forest animals, for although there are half a dozen kinds of small 
 creatures which are somewhat like them distant cousins, in fact 
 found in Africa and hi Asia, the true lemurs are only found in 
 Madagascar, and there are nearly forty different species of them. 
 
 But you will perhaps ask, " What are these lemurs like ? " They belong 
 to the large class of animals called Quadrumana, or " four-handed," because 
 their feet take hold of the branches of the trees in which they live as easily 
 as do their hands. Almost all of them live in the dense forests which extend 
 for hundreds of miles all along the eastern side of Madagascar, and they make 
 their home in the loftiest trees. 
 
 The lemurs have not the often 
 comical and half-human look of 
 the monkeys, nor are they savage 
 creatures like many of the apes 
 and baboons, for they are mostly 
 gentle and timid hi then: ways. 
 The largest species are about three 
 feet in height, while the smaller 
 kinds are, some of them, only nine 
 inches long, and the smallest of 
 all is only four inches in length, 
 but it has a tail six inches long. 
 Most of these animals sleep by 
 day, but are very active during 
 the night, as their eyes are large and 
 brilliant, the pupil expanding widely in the dusk to receive the faintest ray of 
 light, and contracting again in the daytime like those of a cat. From these habits 
 comes their name of lemur, which is from the Latin word lemures or " ghosts." 
 The larger species of lemur differ very much in colouring : some are 
 entirely white, except for a black patch on the head just like a cap ; others 
 are black or dark brown ; others are reddish brown ; and others again are 
 grey in colour. One species, which is perhaps the best known of all some 
 examples were formerly, if not at present, in the Zoo is called the Ring- 
 tailed Lemur, because its tail is ringed with black and white bands; this 
 animal lives not much hi the woods, but chiefly on bare rocks. Those 
 lemurs whose home is in the trees hardly ever come to the ground, except 
 very occasionally to drink water. 
 
 45 
 
 The Ruffed Lemur (about i/20th full size).
 
 46 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 Many of the lemurs live together in small companies of four or five to 
 ten in number ; and as I have travelled many times through the forests, I 
 have frequently heard their long-drawn-out melancholy cries, a wailing sound 
 as of people in distress, or children crying. Yet it was always a pleasant 
 sound to me as a sign of life, and probably of enjoyment, in these active and 
 harmless dwellers in the woods. They are not easily seen, as they keep at 
 a great height near the top of the trees ; but I remember once seeing a pair 
 of beautiful brown lemurs pass through the forest close by me, and they 
 leaped with wonderful quickness from tree to tree, so that I can quite believe 
 what hunters say, that it is more easy to shoot a bird on the wing than a 
 lemur darting through the woods. 
 
 From the nocturnal habits of the lemurs, several of the Malagasy tribes 
 regard them with superstitious fear and honour ; one of these tribes, called 
 Be-tani-mena, should they find one of the kind called the Short -tailed Indris 
 in captivity, always set it at liberty ; and if they happen to come across one 
 that has been killed, they will reverently bury it. They believe that their 
 ancestors, after death, change into a species of lemur, which they call Bdba- 
 kbto (that is, "Father-child," or " boy "), and so they think that the trees 
 where these animals live supply charms which are infallible remedies against 
 otherwise incurable diseases. It is this species whose cries are frequently 
 heard in the woods on the road from Tamatave to Antananarivo. 
 
 There are six or seven kinds of the animals which are called Dwarf and 
 Mouse Lemurs, from their very small size, and they are perhaps the most 
 attractive of them all, and are really the most pretty little creatures that can 
 be imagined. They have very large and resplendent eyes, and these admit 
 so much light at dusk that quite a remarkable brilliance is produced. Day- 
 light appears to be painful to them, so they sleep during the day, but are 
 extremely active during the night. In the cooler winter months they also 
 sleep, having previously stored up in their bodies, especially hi their long 
 tails, a good supply of fat ; they then retire to their nests in hollow trees, 
 and, curling themselves snugly up, sleep away several weeks until the hot 
 weather returns again. The fat is slowly absorbed, so that when the animal 
 arouses from its slumber, it is thin and lean, and the tailis quite small. These 
 little lemurs make a globular nest, exactly resembling those made by birds, 
 with a quantity of dried leaves. 
 
 While some of the living lemurs, as we have seen, are so small, in former 
 times there was a kind of lemur inhabiting Madagascar which was very much 
 larger than any existing species, for it was three times the size of any of those 
 now living. In the Government Museum at Antananarivo, the bones of 
 this extinct animal have been put together, so that it can be seen how 
 very different a creature it was from any now found in the great African 
 island.
 
 ABOUT THE LEMURS 
 
 47 
 
 Besides this largest species, many other kinds of extinct lemur (fourteen 
 or fifteen in number) have been recently discovered, that is, their bones, some 
 of them forming links between this family of animals and the monkeys. 
 Some of these byegone creatures appear from the position of their nostrils, 
 eyes, and ears all in a line to have lived mostly in the water, as the 
 hippopotamus still does. 
 
 
 Vil 
 
 qs. 
 - 1 
 
 ford f
 
 THE FOOSA 
 
 THE MADAGASCAR PUMA 
 
 I DARE say some readers have been asking what fierce and dangerous 
 animals are to be met with in Madagascar ; and have perhaps been 
 surprised that I have said nothing about lions and tigers, or wolves 
 and bears. 
 
 The fact is, we have none of these large and savage animals in Madagascar, 
 neither have we any venomous snakes ; so that we can go into the forest, 
 hunting for ferns and wild flowers and mosses, without any fear of danger. 
 
 There is, however, a small but very ferocious animal of the cat kind, 
 called the Foosa (or, as the Malagasy write it, Fosa), about which I will teU 
 you a little. 
 
 The ferocious Foosa 
 
 This Foosa, whose long and rather awkward scientific name is Cryptoprocta 
 ferox, belongs to the great order of animals called the Carnivora or flesh-eaters, 
 and is of the same family as our household cat and the lion, the tiger, and 
 the leopard. 
 
 From the picture you can see clearly what it is like ; it has a long and 
 lithe body, which is about two feet and a half in length, and a tail nearly as 
 long, and it stands about fifteen inches high. In its structure it resembles 
 the jaguar, and in its colouring the puma of South America. 
 
 It is, indeed, a very handsome creature, being covered with thick glossy 
 fur of a tawny-brown colour, but it is very much smaller than either of those 
 beautiful but dangerous animals. But although so small it is very ferocious, 
 as its scientific name implies (ferox = fierce), and, for its size, is very strong. 
 
 48
 
 THE FOOSA 49 
 
 It is not dangerous to man, however, unless it is attacked, and is wounded, 
 but it is very destructive to poultry and small animals. The Malagasy will 
 always get out of its way if they see one coming towards them. 
 
 Mr. Pollen says : " One day my hunter Zoudza, while engaged in hunting 
 lemurs in the neighbourhood of our camp, perceived, all at once, when coming 
 up from a hollow, a foosa approaching him, panting at the time. The poor 
 man, trembling with fear, flung down his musket and saved himself by climb- 
 ing a tree, where he remained until the animal disappeared among the bushes." 
 The same Dutch traveller and naturalist tells of a foosa he killed, which was 
 a destroyer of the first rank, for in a very short time he had carried off two 
 turkeys, three geese, and twenty fowls ; and the people also said that he had 
 seized young pigs and other domestic animals. 
 
 The foosa also climbs trees in pursuit of the lemurs, which live hi the 
 forests. So if the natives happen to catch one in a trap, they do not fail to 
 kill it with their spears in a rather cruel fashion. 
 
 You have no doubt heard of an animal living in South America called 
 the skunk, which, when attacked, emits a most nauseous and sickening smell, 
 which cannot be got rid of, even for years. The foosa has the same most 
 disagreeable kind of habit, although happily it is not such a powerful and 
 enduring smell as that produced by the skunk. The foosa lives chiefly in 
 the warmer parts of Madagascar, on the extensive plains to the west, but 
 it is also found hi the eastern forests. I once saw a specimen which was 
 entirely of a glossy black colour, possibly a distinct species from those which 
 have dark-brown fur. 
 
 There is this also to be said about the foosa, viz. : that it is one of many 
 living creatures which are found in no other country but Madagascar, so 
 that there are no other animals like it in any other part of the world ; it has 
 no near relatives anywhere else. And I may just say here that Madagascar 
 is a kind of museum of both birds and animals and insects, which are not 
 now found on the continents, but only hi the great island. No doubt there 
 were such creatures both in Africa and Asia in former times, but other more 
 powerful birds and animals came upon the scene and gradually destroyed 
 them, while in the island they have had few enemies and so have held 
 their own. 
 
 To see them in their real habit of life, one must watch them in their home 
 in the Madagascar forests ; for there, from their mode of attack, they appear 
 like a small puma, or perhaps more like an immense weasel, attacking not 
 poultry only, but large animals, such as the wild boar, and even oxen. One 
 may be thankful that this beautiful but fierce little creature is not found 
 in our British woods.
 
 SNAKES AND LIZARDS 
 
 SUCKER FEET FOR WALKING ON CEILINGS 
 
 DID any of you ever see a book upon Ireland and its inhabitants ? 
 There are several chapters in this book, and one of them is entitled 
 " On the Snakes in Ireland " ; but it is the shortest chapter of all, 
 for all it says is, " There are no snakes in Ireland " (!). Now, I am 
 not going to say there are no snakes in Madagascar, but I am happy to tell 
 you that there are no deadly snakes in that great island ; that is, there are 
 no kinds whose bite causes death. It is, you know, very different in most 
 tropical countries. In India, thousands of people are killed every year by 
 snake-bite ; and I remember that when I lived there some years ago for 
 six months, how we were warned not to go into our own garden at night 
 without a lantern or a torch, lest we should be bitten by a snake, and were 
 told also not to lean against a stone wall at any time, because in the crevices 
 
 between the stones, cobras 
 and other snakes are almost 
 always hidden. And even 
 in this England of ours we 
 have an adder or viper 
 whose bite is sometimes 
 fatal, unless strong remedies 
 are immediately applied. 
 
 There are a good many 
 species of snake in Mada- 
 gascar, but most of these 
 we see in the cool ulterior 
 provinces are small, only a 
 couple of feet long, or less, 
 and are pretty harmless 
 creatures, slatey-brown hi 
 colour, and striped with fine 
 white lines along their whole 
 length. Their chief food is 
 frogs and small lizards, and 
 occasionally a chameleon, as 
 I told you in the first section 
 of this book. There are 
 some larger species than 
 The Serpent these, and one which was
 
 SNAKES AND LIZARDS 51 
 
 from three to four feet long once got into the bedroom of our house at the 
 capital, and it was difficult to dislodge it, as our servants were afraid to touch 
 it. Indeed, the Malagasy are very unwilling to kill a snake, and will much 
 rather drive it off into the bushes than injure it in any way, as they believe 
 some harm would come to themselves if they did it harm. 
 
 In former times, when Madagascar was almost entirely heathen, one of 
 the chief idols was called Rd-mdha-vdly, that is, " One able to answer," or 
 " Able to avenge," and it was supposed to be the patron of serpents. When 
 the idol was carried in procession on public occasions the idol-keeper and 
 its attendants used to carry a live snake in their hands, its twisting and twining 
 about being looked upon with fear by the people. The English representative 
 at the capital in 1827, a Mr. Lyall, happened in some way to offend the perse- 
 cuting Queen Ranavalona I ; and so, no doubt by her directions, the idol- 
 keepers let loose in the courtyard of his house a large number of snakes, as 
 a sign of the idol's anger. And although these reptiles were non-poisonous, 
 it must have been sufficiently annoying to have a number of them squirming 
 and wriggling about one's premises and probably getting into one's house 
 as well. 
 
 In the warmer coast regions of Madagascar, snakes are larger and more 
 numerous. Travelling one day to Tamatave along the coast, on the grassy 
 plains between the lagoons and the sea, I saw on the grass a large and beauti- 
 fully-marked serpent ; so I got down from my palanquin and followed it 
 to observe its ways and admire its handsome colouring. But it turned and 
 raised its head and came towards me, as if angry ; and as their bite, although 
 not deadly, often inflicts a painful wound which is difficult to heal, I 
 thought it safest to beat a hasty retreat. On the same day I saw a 
 beautiful small snake, but of great length, and of a bright green colour, 
 twined round the trunk of a tree ; this colour was no doubt a " protective 
 resemblance." 
 
 My friend the Rev. John A. Houlder gives an account of another kind 
 of serpent which he met with on the north-east coast. This kind is 
 called Akbma, and is a species of boa, killing fowls, rats, and other creatures 
 by crushing them in its folds, and then covering them with saliva before 
 swallowing them. At a village where he stayed he found the people much 
 excited about a large serpent seen in their neighbourhood. Sending out 
 his men to find it, "at last the creature was seen, a villainous-looking 
 monster, coiled up among the bushes, with his great flat head in the middle 
 of the circle. Advancing to within a couple of yards or so, I raised the gun. 
 Bang ! Away went the onlookers for their lives. Peering through the smoke, 
 I could just see the head coming toward me. Enough ! I bolted, too ! But 
 it was a groundless alarm. The serpent was incapable of doing serious injury, 
 and no other shot was necessary." Mr. Houlder did not get the dead reptile 
 
 D 2
 
 52 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 into the house without difficulty, owing to the terror of the bearers, even 
 when it had been killed. " It was a medium-sized specimen, about nine feet 
 long and about as thick round the middle as the calf of a man's leg. On each 
 side of the body was a long yellow, black, and reddish chain-like marking on 
 a brown ground, and near the extremity of its tail were two abortive claws." 
 
 Although neither belonging to the snakes or lizards, but to a much lower 
 class of animals hi the scale of created life, I will add here a few words about 
 the earth-worms which are seen on the Imerina downs and hi the outskirts 
 of the forest. These are about four times the size, both in length and thick- 
 ness, of those we see in England ; and when I first saw a small group of them 
 they looked more like small snakes than worms. Mr. Darwin's researches 
 on the part played by earth-worms in the constant renewal of the soil have 
 shown us what a valuable work these humble creatures do for our benefit ; 
 and on a morning after the rain has fallen in Imerina, the grass is sometimes 
 almost covered by the innumerable little mounds of fresh earth brought up 
 by worms, thus confirming what he has told us, and that what worms do in 
 England they do also in Madagascar. 
 
 The Lizards of Madagascar are small animals ; the largest one that I 
 have seen is an unpleasant-looking creature, nearly two feet long, of which 
 the tail is about one foot. 
 
 But a much smaller and prettier kind is not uncommon, with delicate 
 markings. Other species in the south-west region vary in length from six 
 to nine inches. And in the woods, on the fleshy leaves of an aloe, we may 
 see, basking in the hot sunshine, a beautiful little bright-green lizard, or 
 darting over the surface with such a rapid movement that it is difficult to 
 observe it closely. Its colour is so exactly like its habitat that it is doubtless 
 a " protective resemblance." In the coast houses small lizards are often seen 
 running on the under surface of the ceilings, darting after flies ; and although 
 their feet are like a boy's leather " sucker," by which stones can be lifted 
 up, they frequently lose their hold and fall down on the table. When this 
 is the case, their tail often drops off, and continues wriggling about for some 
 time afterwards. 
 
 While staying at our Sanatorium one holiday time, a very curious tree- 
 lizard was brought to me by some boys. But as I have already described 
 this creature in the section on " Protective Resemblances " (see p. 17), it 
 need not be repeated here. 
 
 The most interesting point about this lizard was the wonderful resemblance 
 of its colouring to the bark of a tree. The minute scales of its skin were 
 mottled with brown, grey, green, and white, so as to exactly resemble tree 
 bark, with the usual clothing of moss and lichen, and precisely the same hi 
 colour, so that until examined minutely one could hardly believe that the 
 small patches of colour on the animal's skin were not also due to vegetable
 
 SNAKES AND LIZARDS 
 
 53 
 
 growths. It was difficult at a few inches distance to see where the lizard 
 began and the wood ended ; and in the forest it would be impossible to dis- 
 tinguish it from the branch to which it clings. It proved, on being sent to 
 England, to form a new genus of lizard. 
 
 ri 
 
 .->,;: ' i 
 
 ^ a-fc *iffe' M ""' 1 ~^'~ 
 
 Village and Forest in Madagascar.
 
 FLYING AND CLIMBING FROGS 
 
 AND A FROGS' CHORUS 
 
 THE majority of the species of frogs in Madagascar are not very different 
 in colouring or size from those we see in England ; in their pretty 
 markings of green and grey and brown tints, they are extremely 
 numerous, for, in addition to the marshes and small streams, every 
 rice-field is, during a great part of the year, under water (see p. 36), 
 so that there is plenty of space for them to live their half-dry-land and half- 
 watery life. As one walks along the low earthen banks which separate the 
 rice-fields, and which form the footpaths in every direction, the frogs basking 
 in the warm sunshine jump off and " plop " into the water at every step 
 one takes. Whether " froggie would a-wooing go " at such times, I am 
 unable to say. 
 
 In the early morning, after a rainy night, the noise of their croaking is 
 very loud, almost deafening, even at some distance away from the marsh or 
 rice-field, for the frogs apparently find the increased depth of the water very 
 much to their liking. But for the number of their enemies, in the shape of 
 small snakes and birds, especially the white Egret, which lives all day in the 
 rice-fields, the number of the frogs would soon so increase that they would 
 become like one of the " Plagues of Egypt." 
 
 The tree-frogs are very pretty little creatures, their light-green colour 
 exactly matching that of the leaves on which they live, so that it is very 
 difficult to detect their presence, except by close inspection, or unless they 
 move while you are watching for them. Their toes end, not in claws, but hi 
 small discs or suckers, so as to adhere closely to the smooth surface of the 
 leaves. Another species of frog, a rather large one, is of a beautiful golden- 
 bronze colour, and is found on the immense leaves of the great arum lily, 
 which grows by millions along the lagoons and river estuaries of Madagascar. 
 A flying-frog is also said to be found in the island. In this pretty little frog 
 the toes of each of its four feet are very long, so that the thin membrane 
 connecting them has a very large surface, larger indeed than that of their 
 entire body ; so that, while they are not able to rise high in the air, there is 
 quite sufficient in the membrane connecting the toes to sustain them in 
 passing over a considerable distance in the air, in a gentle descent from one 
 tree to another. 
 
 While speaking of this membrane between the toes of a frog's foot, did 
 anyone ever show you a portion of one under a good microscope ? The skin 
 is so thin that the innumerable veins can be seen quite plainly ; and along 
 these, the red and the white corpuscles in the blood can be observed passing 
 
 54
 
 FLYING AND CLIMBING FROGS 55 
 
 in great numbers, like people in a crowded street, or in fewer numbers in the 
 smaller vein's, like those in a narrow lane. These minute globes are bringing 
 food to the body, and taking away the waste material in it. It is no cruelty 
 to the little frog to examine him thus, only a little inconvenience to him for 
 a few minutes, while he is put into a damp bag and two of his toes are tied 
 with thread to keep the thin skin stretched tight. And so it is all over our 
 own bodies ; in every vein and artery the blood is constantly bringing food 
 to keep us alive and strong, and removing the worn-out portions of our flesh. 
 
 During a walk in the forest one day, not very far away from our 
 Sanatorium, I was fortunate enough to see a rather rare frog which is peculiar 
 to Madagascar. This little creature is only an inch long, as regards its body, 
 but on that, and its hind legs, there are oval patches of bright red on a black 
 ground, so that it is very conspicuous in the clear water, or when basking 
 in the sunshine. There is also a much larger frog, quite a giant among frogs, 
 for it is three inches in length, and the hind legs five inches long ; this great 
 fellow appears to be also a tree-frog as well as a water-frog, for he also has 
 little discs at his toes instead of claws. 
 
 One more among these interesting little Madagascar frogs must be men- 
 tioned, namely, one which makes a nest and covered ways to it. These 
 frogs construct regular passages under the grass during the dry season ; their 
 paths are made as exactly as those of a mole by the little creatures pressing 
 down the short grass near the earth, and drawing together the longer blades, 
 so as to make themselves invisible. The nests are from eight to ten inches 
 in diameter by four in height, and made ingeniously by weaving the layers 
 of grass together. When frightened, these frogs throw out a limpid stream 
 of water, which has been stored up in time of need, as in very dry weather,, 
 and this is distributed over the body so as to keep the whole of it moist. So- 
 much for what I have seen and heard about our Madagascar frogs. 
 
 Do you know how to make a " Frogs' Chorus " ? It is great fun if you 
 have plenty of players in the game. Get them to sit in a row. The first 
 must say, " Red wine, red wine, red wine," and the second must say, " White 
 wine, white wine, white wine," over and over again as soon as the signal to 
 start the chorus is given. All along the row the players must be saying either 
 " Red wine " or " White wine," and they must say it loudly. When they 
 are all taking their parts you will really know the noise that the frogs make 
 when they rejoice over the rain !
 
 TORTOISES AND TURTLES 
 
 AND TURTLE CATCHING 
 
 MOST English boys and girls know what kind of animal a Tortoise is ; 
 for the small ones, which are brought to this country from the shores 
 of the Mediterranean, are often bought as pets and allowed to creep 
 about in the garden. These are, however, little creatures, only a 
 few inches in length, and are small compared with several species which live 
 in Madagascar. During a voyage of four days I took some years ago down 
 one of the large rivers, we saw these large tortoises very frequently on the 
 sand-banks and islands, enjoying the warmth of the hot sun, for they are 
 cold-blooded animals. The carapace or upper shell of these tortoises is 
 divided into large hexagons, beautifully marked and of various shades of 
 
 Geometric Tortoise 
 
 brown and grey and yellow. The upper and lower shells of one I afterwards 
 procured on the coast were about eighteen inches in length. 
 
 In former times the lakes and marshes of Madagascar were inhabited by 
 an immense species of tortoise, whose remains have been found, together with 
 those of the huge birds about which I told you in a former chapter.* They are 
 now extinct on the mainland of the great island, but seem to have survived in 
 the small islands of Mauritius and Reunion until a very recent date ; but they 
 are still living and are numerous in the little island of Aldabra, which is about 
 260 miles north-west of Cape Ambro. And if you go to the Zoo, you will 
 
 * The ^Epyornis, see p. 18-20, ante. 
 56
 
 TORTOISES AND TURTLES 57 
 
 see two living specimens of these huge creatures. The male tortoise is five 
 feet five inches in length and five feet nine inches broad. It is believed to 
 be able to carry a ton weight on its back ! It is now more than one hundred 
 and fifty years old, but is still young and is likely to grow to a much greater 
 size. 
 
 In the sea off the west coast of Madagascar a large species of Turtle is 
 fairly abundant, and the Sakalava, who live in that region, are very clever 
 in catching them. Turtle soup, you know, is considered a great delicacy, and 
 forms a standard dish at great feasts hi England ; and the Malagasy are no 
 less fond of its flesh. The turtles come up to the surface of the sea in the 
 early morning, when there is little wind and the water is smooth, and there 
 they take a morning nap, enjoying the heat of the sun. The natives go out 
 to sea in canoes and have to be very quiet and cautious in approaching the 
 sleeping turtles, for the slightest noise alarms them, and they immediately 
 plunge below the water. 
 
 If, however, the hunters manage to get close to the sleeping turtle without 
 arousing it, one of them strikes it with his harpoon, to which a long cord is 
 fastened. Of course the animal immediately dives deep down into the sea, 
 and the hunter must keep fast hold of the line ; should the line be too short, 
 he still holds fast and dives down with it, until the turtle comes up again. It 
 is extraordinary to see how clever these Sakalava men are in diving and the 
 long time they can remain under the water without much apparent difficulty 
 or harm. 
 
 When the turtle is secured and taken on shore, the people of the nearest 
 village gather together to receive the hunters, and carry them in the canoe, to 
 some distance from the sea. Everyone is called upon to partake of the turtle 
 feast, and these are the curious customs they must observe : Nothing is 
 allowed to be brought from a house to the place where the turtle is cooked. 
 It has to be cut into pieces for cooking with knives belonging to the canoe ; 
 it is cooked in sea water in the shell of the turtle itself, and served in scoops 
 or other vessels from the canoe, or in pieces of turtle-shell. None of the 
 flesh must be brought into a house to be cooked or eaten there, and other 
 food must not be eaten together with it. Even the everyday Idmba, or outer 
 dress, has to be taken off and laid aside when going to a turtle-feast. 
 
 All this, they say, is lUin-drdza commands of the ancestors and must 
 be strictly observed, or the turtles, they believe, would disappear from that 
 part of the coast.
 
 BALL-INSECTS AND OTHERS 
 
 SOME IN SHINING ARMOUR 
 
 DID you ever spend an hour or two in the Tower of London ? If you 
 have done so, you would see, among a hundred other things, a large 
 number of suits of ancient armour, and figures of men on horseback 
 and on foot covered with plates of steel to protect them when fighting 
 in battle. We do not make much use of armour nowadays, and yet in the 
 great war, now happily at an end, our brave soldiers have had their heads 
 covered with steel caps to give them protection from the bullets of the enemy. 
 And you have heard of, and probably most of you have seen, the armoured 
 cars or " Tanks." And if you are a Londoner, and can take a walk along 
 Whitehall, you will see at the Horse Guards two cavalry soldiers on horse- 
 back, and with steel plates protecting both back and breast, as well as their 
 helmets of brass. 
 
 But long ages ago, before men or steel plates were known in this world, 
 many living creatures were fitted with suits of armour to protect them from 
 their enemies. One of the most beautiful of such defensive coverings is 
 that worn by the lobsters and the crayfish, and even by the prawn and the 
 shrimp. And while we have these armoured creatures both in England and 
 Madagascar, there are also in the last-named country several kinds of a many- 
 footed and armour-covered insect, about which I want to tell you a little in 
 this chapter. 
 
 These insects are called by scientific folks, who give long names to all 
 sorts of animals, Sphcerotherium, or " Ball-insects," and of these there are 
 several different kinds in Madagascar. They are wingless, but have instead 
 about ten pabs of short legs, and are called Ball-insects because they have 
 the power of instantaneously rolling themselves into a perfect sphere, which 
 form they retain as long as any danger threatens them ; and no force, short 
 of pulling them to pieces, can make them unroll. 
 
 The creature is formed of nine or ten segments, each with a pair of legs 
 and covered with a plate of armour ; while the head and tail are defended 
 by larger plates, each of which fits exactly into the other, and makes with 
 the other nine pieces a more perfectly-fitting suit of armour than was ever 
 worn by mediaeval knight. 
 
 There are at least six species of these pretty and curious creatures already 
 known in Madagascar, and others probably still await further research. The 
 most common kind in the interior is one which forms a ball about an inch in 
 diameter and shining black in colour. Another kind, more rarely seen in 
 the open country of Imerina, but common enough in the upper belt of forest, 
 
 58
 
 BALL-INSECTS AND OTHERS 
 
 59 
 
 from above 
 
 is of a beautiful brown colour like russia leather, and is quite double the size 
 of the shining black one just mentioned. In passing through the broader 
 forest belt a few years ago, we came suddenly one day to a part of the road 
 
 which was so thickly covered by 
 such a great number of these ball- 
 insects that my bearers could not 
 avoid trampling on many of them. 
 These were bronze-green in colour, 
 evidently a still different species, 
 and were more than three inches in 
 length, making when rolled up a 
 ball about two inches hi diameter. 
 Other species of these creatures are 
 found in Africa, Asia, Australia and 
 some of the neighbouring islands. 
 The Malagasy call them Tain- 
 kintana, or " Star-droppings." I 
 am sure you would like to see 
 them, and to find how rapidly they 
 make a ball of themselves, and 
 how fast they keep that shape. 
 
 Another many-footed and wing- 
 less creature is common enough in 
 the upper forest, for we often found 
 it on the upper veranda of the 
 house where we used to stay ; this 
 is a shining black Millipede (i.e. 
 " Thousand-legs "), about a foot hi 
 length, and three-quarters of an 
 inch in thickness. It is called by 
 the natives Kbdikbdy, and its very 
 numerous reddish legs, not far short 
 of a thousand in number, have a 
 curious effect of successive waves as 
 it moves along. And each of its 
 two or three hundred segments is 
 
 when rotted up. 
 
 BALL-INSECT 
 
 --?- . Y -WJ \Ji LiJJ.CC IIU-IIUJLCVJ. aCglilCllLS 13 
 
 (Sphcerothenum acteonj also covere d with a plate of shining 
 (full size) black armour. Although not very 
 
 inviting in appearance, it is quite 
 
 harmless and is a vegetable feeder. There is also a different species, which 
 is marked along its whole length with black and red lines. 
 
 More unpleasant by far is another many-legged creature common in
 
 60 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 Madagascar, the Centipede (i.e. " Hundred-legs "), whose sting is exceedingly 
 painful, resembling the puncture of a hot iron, and which is not uncommon 
 in the interior as well as in the forest. The mere touch of its minute claws, 
 if it happens to crawl over one, is said to produce pain and inflammation. 
 I have turned small centipedes out of the hole in a window-sill where the 
 bolt would fall, and once killed a large one marching across our bedroom 
 floor. Happily, these, which are among the few noxious creatures we have 
 in Madagascar, very seldom do harm to a European, and we may be glad that 
 they are unknown to us here in England. 
 
 We must remember, however, that all these creatures have their use in 
 God's great plan of creation, whether we know what that is or not ; for they 
 probably feed upon substances or other living things that would do harm, 
 were there not these checks upon their too great abundance.
 
 CROWS AND CUCKOOS 
 
 HOW A BIRD SAVED A MAN'S LIFE 
 
 IN the preceding chapters I have said little about any of the birds of the 
 country, except one of those huge birds which are now no longer living, 
 and are known only by their immense bones and enormous eggs. 
 
 And yet there are many beautiful feathered creatures hi the woods 
 of Madagascar, several of them with curious habits, and about whom the 
 Malagasy have many proverbs, and who figure in a number of their fables 
 and songs. And I want here to tell you a little about the Crows. 
 
 We all know what an English crow is like ; a rather large bird, shining 
 black in colour, whose " Caw-caw " is frequently heard in the fields. The 
 Madagascar crow is much the same size and shape as our English bird, but 
 instead of being all black, it has a collar and breast of pure white, so that it 
 
 has a very clerical appearance. 
 It is called by the Malagasy 
 Goaika, a name nearly imitating 
 its harsh croak, and is very 
 common everywhere, being 
 often seen in large numbers, 
 especially near the great open- 
 air markets, where it picks 
 up a living from the refuse 
 and the scattered rice. He is a 
 bold and rather impudent bird, 
 often fighting with the smaller 
 hawks, who seem to delight 
 to " mob " him, if they can get the chance. One day, walking with a friend 
 near our mission station, we came upon a large flock of crows, and, wishing to 
 obtain a specimen, my friend fired and shot one of them. For a moment or 
 two there was a dead silence, but after a few seconds the whole flock set up 
 an angry scream of rage and defiance and, flying swiftly backwards and for- 
 wards, came so close to our faces that I feared they would strike at our eyes. 
 Their anger at the death of their comrade was unmistakably shown in their 
 behaviour. 
 
 This crow is occasionally kept by the Malagasy as a pet bird, and is 
 sometimes trained to scare the fowls away from the rice, which is laid on 
 mats to dry in the sun. Its nest is placed on trees or rocks, and is defended 
 fiercely from all enemies. Many Malagasy proverbs refer to the crow, three 
 or four of which may be quoted here, thus : " Like a crow's coat finished 
 while it's young " that is, it never changes its fashion in clothes ; " Many 
 
 61 
 
 A very clerical appearance
 
 62 
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 are the crows but one can't tell the cock-bird from the hen, for both have 
 white necks " ; and another says : " Don't be lustrous outside only, like a 
 crow " a warning not to trust in appearances ; and, again, " Although many 
 birds' were there, it was the crow that ate the earth-nuts," he only was the 
 
 sinner and the thief. 
 
 Of Cuckoos in Madagascar there are fourteen different kinds. The one 
 we know best and hear most frequently is called the Kankdfotra ; but he is 
 not with us in the interior and cooler regions of the country all the year, but, 
 like our English cuckoo, he comes up to us only when the hot season com- 
 mences, and after five or six months goes down again to the warmer forests 
 and coast plains. Do you know the old rhymes about the cuckoo ? 
 
 ' In April, Come he will ; 
 In May, He sings all day ; 
 In June, He alters his tune ; 
 In July, He prepares to fly ; 
 Come August, Go he must." 
 
 That is something like the 
 habits of the Kankdfotra, although 
 it keeps the same note, with only 
 slight variations. In spring and 
 summer here in England, we con- 
 stantly hear the call, " Cuckoo, 
 cuckoo " ; but the Madagascar bird's 
 call is " Kow-kow, kow, koo," re- 
 peated several times; and if two 
 birds are near together, one will 
 answer the other's call until it be- 
 comes rather wearisome. Like the cuckoos in other parts of the world, the 
 Kankdfotra laysits single egg in the nest of other and smaller birds (or carries 
 it to those nests) ; and as soon as the young cuckoo is hatched, he begins to 
 shoulder out of the nest the little chicks, the offspring of the proper owner of 
 the nest, and shoves them out altogether, so that they fall to the ground 
 and perish miserably. Yet the little wretch is still fed by the birds whose 
 young ones he has treated so abominably until he can feed himself. So we 
 cannot take the cuckoo as a model of right behaviour, either old or young. 
 
 Another cuckoo which also comes up into the interior in the warm season, 
 but is far less common than the Kankdfotra, is called the Toloho. This native 
 name is probably imitative of its mellow flute-like call, which consists of 
 several notes running down the scale. Some have compared it to the sound 
 of water gurgling out of a bottle, but it is a most pleasing sound. This cuckoo 
 builds its own nest, which is ball-shaped, with a very small opening at one 
 side. 
 
 Madagascar Cuckoo (Kankafotra)
 
 CROWS AND CUCKOOS 63 
 
 The Tolbho is considered a sacred bird by some of the west -coast Malagasy. 
 M. Grandidier says that having on one occasion shot one near the sea, he was 
 obliged, hi order not to grieve the family living near, to leave the body of the 
 bird, which was immediately reverently buried. The reason of this extreme 
 respect for the Toloho is as follows : One of their ancestors, who was swimming 
 across a large river, was caught on the way by a crocodile. These reptiles 
 do not devour their prey on shore, but carry it to their lurking-places under 
 or close to the water, to be eaten later on. Our hero was carried quite sense- 
 less to a large hole on the bank of the river, and which the ebbing tide had 
 left partly dry, fortunately with his head just above the surface of the water. 
 Suddenly he was roused from his torpor by the repeated cry of a Toloho. 
 Starting out of his lethargy, it was not long before he realised that he was 
 not buried rery deeply, and so, not staying for the return of the crocodile, 
 which was waiting at the entrance of the cave, he used his hands to such 
 effect that in a little tune he saw daylight. He was saved ; and in recog- 
 nition of the service, all unconscious as it was, which the bird had rendered 
 to their ancestor, his children and grandchildren vowed that neither they nor 
 their descendants would ever kill a Toloho.
 
 FINE FEATHERS & QUEER SKULLS 
 
 A BIRD WITH A HELMET 
 
 THE last chapter was about Crows and the Cuckoos, and presently we shall 
 hear about the Hawks and the Owls. Here I want to say something 
 about other birds of the great African island which are worthy of notice 
 from their attractive colouring, and others from their unusual form. 
 
 Although it is true that we have not in Madagascar some of the most 
 gorgeously coloured tropical birds, such as the cockatoos and paradise-birds 
 of New Guinea, or the toucans and humming-birds of South America, we 
 have some species of a bird which, in their metallic and constantly changing 
 colours, rival the humming-birds in beauty. These are the Sun-birds, whose 
 feathers are like gems and glow like rubies and emeralds, sapphires and 
 amethysts, especially when the sunlight falls upon them at different angles. 
 If you go to the South Kensington Natural History Museum you may see 
 specimens of these lovely Sun-birds, and you cannot help noticing the numerous 
 glass cases containing Mr. Gould's great collection of humming-birds. Who 
 can look at such exquisitely beautiful little feathered creatures without wonder 
 and delight ? 
 
 One of the most noticeable birds seen in the central provinces of Mada- 
 gascar is the Cardinal-bird, which is not much larger than an English sparrow, 
 nor unlike it hi colour during half the year ; but when the warm season 
 advances and the mating-time comes, its colour changes to a brilliant scarlet, 
 as its name implies, so that as it darts about in the sunlight it looks like a 
 living flame. It is, however, only the cock-bird which is thus coloured, the 
 hen-bird remains in a sober brown dress all the year round. At the nesting- 
 time, that is in October and November, the male birds often fight furiously 
 with each other, sometimes falling from high above the trees to the ground, 
 and still fighting as they fall. These birds are often seen in large flocks in 
 the rice-fields, where they do much damage to the crops. 
 
 Being so plentiful and conspicuous in colour, the Cardinal-bird, or Fbdy 
 (pronounced Foody) as the people call it, has long attracted the attention 
 of the Malagasy, and it is frequently alluded to in their proverbs and folk-tales 
 and children's games. In one of these last-named, after a short dialogue, the 
 leaders cry out, lifting up their arms with hands joined as in a country dance, 
 
 " It's the Cardinal-bird's house " ; 
 to which the whole troop of children cry out, as they pass under, 
 
 " It's a red house." 
 
 One may often hear this play-song going on among the children on a bright 
 moonlight night.
 
 FINE FEATHERS AND QUEER SKULLS 65 
 
 Other species of this bird, which inhabit the forests, are called the " Crafty 
 fody," from their skill in making their nests. These are in the form of a 
 retort, that is, a globular nest, where the eggs are laid, with a long neck, or 
 entrance, a foot or more in length, hanging downwards. This nest is fixed 
 at the end of a branch and often over a running stream, so that it must be 
 very difficult for a snake or a lemur to steal the eggs or the nestlings. It is 
 wonderful how the beak and claws of such little birds can weave together 
 such beautiful and secure nests to protect their young. 
 
 In the numerous streams and canals which bring water to the rice- 
 grounds, one may often see a bird like a bluish-purple flash of colour sweeping 
 over the surface in pursuit of its food. This is a species of Kingfisher, whose 
 general tint is a rich blue or purple, with a breast of warm brown, and not 
 unlike the kingfisher which lives in our own country. Another Madagascar 
 kingfisher is only seen along the forest streams, and is yellowish-red hi colour. 
 
 But perhaps there is no bird more noticeable from its numbers and its col- 
 ouring than the White Egret, which is often seen in flocks of from two or three 
 hundred or more feeding in the rice-fields. These beautiful birds are pure 
 white in colour, except for a plume of pale yellow at the back of the head. 
 When we lived at Ambohimanga, our first station, we used to notice hi the 
 dry and cold season that a large flock of these egrets used to settle towards 
 sunset on an open piece of ground opposite our house. After resting there 
 for a short time, one of them would rise, as if to give the signal, and then the 
 whole flock would fly slowly away and settle on the trees at the north-west 
 side of the hill of Ambohimanga, so as to be sheltered from the strong south- 
 east winds. Here they showed very plainly from a long distance as a great 
 patch of white. It was amusing to see how numbers of them flew about 
 from tree to tree, before settling down for the night, as if popping in for a 
 little gossip with their friends about the events of the day. 
 
 These egrets are called by the Malagasy Vbrompbtsy, i.e. " White-bird," 
 but by several tribes they are also named Vbron-tian-bmby, i.e. " Birds liked 
 by cattle," because they are constantly seen following the herds of oxen, 
 often perched on their backs and shoulders, where they free the animals from 
 certain ticks and other insects which torment them. On this account these 
 birds are greatly valued by the Malagasy, and they greatly dislike to see them 
 shot by Europeans. 
 
 There are eighteen species of Heron and Stork in Madagascar, and one 
 of them especially attracts the attention of all who travel about in the country, 
 from the enormous nest which it constructs. This stork is called by the people 
 Takatra, and its nest, being from four and a half to six feet in diameter, is 
 visible from a considerable distance, and might be mistaken sometimes for 
 a load of hay fixed on the fork of a large tree. It is dome-shaped, with an 
 entrance at the side, and is divided into three chambers, in one of which its 
 
 E
 
 66 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 two large eggs are laid. The entrance is by a narrow tunnel, and is difficult 
 ofjaccess. Probably from this conspicuous nest, as well as from the grave 
 and sedate way in which the Takatra marches about seeking for its food, 
 many native superstitions have gathered about the bird, one of which is that 
 those who destroy its nest will become lepers. And while the central tribes 
 were still idolators, it was believed that it was very unlucky should a Takatra 
 fly across the path along which the idols were being carried ; in such case 
 they were immediately taken back to their dwelling-house. 
 
 In many tropical countries Parrots, Cockatoos, and Macaws are very 
 numerous and very conspicuous from their brilliant colours. In Madagascar 
 we*have two species of Parrots, but they 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 and to whistle a tune. 
 Their long whistling cry, as if going up the gamut, may be frequently heard 
 in the woods. Both species do not make much use of their claws to convey 
 food to the mouth. A black parrot lived for fifty-four years at the Zoological 
 Gardens in London, and died apparently merely of old age. 
 
 The Helmet-bird's head and skull bones 
 
 But there is a Madagascar Parrakeet, which is a lively and brightly 
 coloured little bird, light green in colour, with greyish-white head. These are 
 found in considerable numbers all over the island, for they go in large flocks, 
 often as many as a hundred together, all ceaselessly chirping during their 
 rapid flight. The two sexes show great affection for each other, the pair 
 sitting close together on the same perch, from which habit they are often 
 called Love-birds. My friend Mr. Baron says : " A flock of them settling on 
 a bare tree gives it the appearance of being covered with foliage. On one or 
 two occasions what we thought the leaves of trees suddenly disappeared, 
 leaving the branches entirely bare. The ' leaves ' turned out to be parrakeets." 
 
 The last bird to be noticed here is a very curious and interesting one 
 from its very peculiar shape, and also because there is no bird at all like it 
 anywhere else in the world. It is called the Helmet -bird (Euryceros), and 
 is remarkable for a beak formed like a very capacious helmet, which is pro- 
 longed just as far as the eyes ; this is terminated by a sharp hook. The
 
 FINE FEATHERS AND QUEER SKULLS 67 
 
 extraordinary form is seen best in the skeleton, in which the beak is seen to 
 be considerably larger than the skull. The bird is as large as a starling, 
 velvety-black in colour, with a saddle-shaped patch of light -brown on the 
 back. The large beak is steely-blue in colour. 
 
 Such, very briefly described, are a few of the two hundred and more 
 kinds of birds we meet with in Madagascar, especially in the central provinces. 
 There are, of course, many others whose appearance and habits are well 
 worth notice ; and very numerous are the proverbs and stories and legends, 
 which have gathered about them, and show that the Malagasy are not un- 
 observant of the living things in their island home. Were all these collected 
 together they would form a good-sized book ; indeed, I have myself made a 
 small collection of such facts in a work of eighty pages from observations 
 made during many years' residence in Madagascar. (Madagascar Ornithology).
 
 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 
 
 AS WELL AS OTHER INSECTS 
 
 AS is the case in all tropical countries, Madagascar possesses a large 
 variety of insect life, and among these are a considerable number of the 
 most beautiful of all insects, Butterflies. The greatest number of 
 species are of course found in the lower and hottest regions of the 
 island, but there are a good many also in the upper and central provinces. 
 Hovering over the surface of a small river which we had to cross by the rude 
 bridges of former times, I have seen hundreds of a large blue and black papilio 
 butterfly, so that they were very conspicuous even from some distance. As 
 one comes near a patch of damp sand at the edge of the stream, a little cloud 
 of small butterflies, blue, white, buff and yellow, is often seen drinking up 
 the moisture, or gambolling in the air. Dr. Vinson, a French naturalist, 
 who came up to the capital some years ago, said : " In the misty mornings 
 in the Madagascar cold season every insect sleeps or hides itself under the 
 damp foliage, but as soon as the sun shines out, the footpaths through the 
 forest and the beds of the torrents are peopled with bright-coloured and 
 light-flying butterflies. They give themselves up to all kinds of frolic with a 
 wanton joy ; they court, they pursue, they fly, interlacing and eddying in 
 then* flight hi the air like the brilliant flakes of a coloured snow." 
 
 In travelling up through the eastern forest, I was struck with the number 
 and variety of the butterflies which crossed our path. There was the rather 
 common one of greyish-green with dark markings, the dark-brown one with 
 two large blue spots, the widely-distributed warm-brown one with black- 
 edged wings, the pure white one, the white with orange edges, the white with 
 black edges, the white with small black spots near the edge of the wings, 
 the small yellow species, the small buff one, the white with crimped edges, and 
 many others. 
 
 In our own garden at the capital, three or four butterflies were constant 
 visitors to our flower-beds. One of these was chocolate-brown, with three 
 large white spots on each whig ; another was metallic-blue, with little eye- 
 like spots, the wings flashing in the sunlight ; and another, a large insect 
 of warm-brown, used to lay its eggs just under a leaf. One day I was curious 
 to see what these eggs were like under the microscope, and found that each 
 egg was a lovely object thus magnified, of beautiful shape, and sculptured 
 and fluted like a Greek vase. And then the caterpillars of many of these 
 butterflies are also very beautifully coloured. We had a small oleander tree 
 in our garden which used to be almost stripped of its leaves by large green 
 caterpillars from four to five inches long, and these were most handsomely 
 marked with lines of red and white. In some species, a large spot near the 
 
 68
 
 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 
 
 69 
 
 head on each side is like an eye, and when the caterpillar raises up its head 
 it has a most threatening appearance, although, of course, it is perfectly unable 
 to do any harm ; an instance, it might be called, of " warning resemblance." 
 But the most beautiful of all the Madagascar butterflies is called Urania, 
 and is a lovely insect with golden-green, crimson and black markings, and 
 edged all round its wings and its half-dozen "tails" to the wings, with pure 
 white, like a delicate fringe. During 1899 this butterfly was unusually 
 abundant, while hi some seasons it is very scarce. In the mission garden at 
 Ambohimanga they appeared to be intoxicated with the strong flavour of 
 the nectar from the loquat trees, then in flower, so that almost any quantity 
 of them could have been captured in the early morning, for the flowers have 
 a powerful scent of prussic acid. The Malagasy call, it Andrlandblo, i.e. 
 " King-butterfly," no doubt admiring its lovely colours. 
 
 King-butterfly (Urania ripheus) 
 
 The Moths are, of course, seen chiefly at dusk, and some of these are 
 very large and handsome, especially the one from whose cocoons silk is pro- 
 duced. This moth is a beautiful insect, with shades of buff and brown and 
 yellow, and a large eye-like spot on the hind wings. Another moth, some- 
 what like the silk-producing one hi colouring, has an extraordinary develop- 
 ment of the hind wings, which have long delicate tail-like appendages, narrow 
 in the shaft, and enlarged at the ends, and these have also two spiral twists. 
 This insect is about eight inches long and as much broad across the wings. 
 Some species of moth, dark-brown in colour, and yet beautifully marked and 
 shaded, often fly into our houses at night, the female being much larger 
 (5^ inches) than the male (3! inches). The Malagasy are afraid of seeing these 
 very dark-looking insects, which they call Lblom-paty, i.e. " Death-moths," in
 
 70 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 their houses, as they think them presages of evil and death. Another moth, 
 with death's-head marking on its thorax, is also often seen. 
 
 There are several other moths, from three to four inches across the wings, 
 whose fat bodies are cross-striped with red and brown, and which come out 
 
 just at sunset and dart about the 
 flowers, inserting their long tongues 
 into the nectaries to suck up the sweet 
 liquid. These tongues, which have a 
 double tube, are hardly finer than a 
 stout horsehair, and are more than 
 four inches long, so the moth hovers 
 at a little distance from the flower it is probing for 
 the honey. 
 
 // No one can pass along the little narrow banks which 
 
 \jJJj/ divide the rice-fields without noticing the large Dragon- 
 flies which dart over the shallow water. Their colours 
 are very various : a rich crimson, steely-blue, and old- 
 gold are some of them. They are voracious creatures, 
 as their name implies, and not only do they capture and 
 devour other kinds of insects, but weaker ones of their 
 own kind as well, for I saw one, one day, deliberately, 
 and audibly, crunching up a smaller dragon-fly. At 
 another time, however, I noticed a fair-sized one being 
 devoured by a spider, which was barred with lines like 
 
 a zebra, so that a 
 very voracious and 
 powerful insect is 
 occasionally a 
 victim to a crafty 
 insect. 
 
 Whenever one 
 crosses or walks 
 along a stream in 
 the central pro- 
 vinces there are 
 sure to be seen 
 several varieties of 
 Water-beetles dis- 
 porting themselves 
 in mazy circles on 
 
 The home of the Dragonfly
 
 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 71 
 
 the surface of the water. Some of these are called water-boatmen, others 
 water-scorpions, and they, like the dragon-flies, are very voracious creatures. 
 One of these water-beetles, called Tsingdla, causes death if swallowed by 
 cattle or human beings, unless a remedy is promptly applied. 
 
 One of my brother missionaries wrote this account. He says : "I was 
 travelling one very hot day and, passing by a dirty pool, one of my bearers 
 stooped down and drank with his hands and then hastily followed to carry 
 the palanquin. Presently, hearing sounds behind, I turned and discovered 
 that this same man was now in agonies of pain. He stood throwing back his 
 head in a frantic manner, at the same time shrieking most hideously. His 
 companions immediately said : ' He has swallowed a tsingdla.' I immediately 
 got down and went back to the poor fellow ; he was lying on the ground 
 and writhing in agony, and I felt that unless something could be speedily 
 done, the man must die. My other bearers called to the passers-by, but none 
 could give any assistance. Presently a Betsileo was appealed to, and he said 
 that he knew what would cure him, but wanted to know how much money 
 we would give. I said that it was no time for bargaining, but that I would 
 give him sixpence if he relieved the poor man of his sufferings. Off he ran 
 to procure some leaves, with which he returned in about two minutes. He 
 soaked them in water from a stream close by, and then gave the sufferer the 
 infusion to drink. Within a few moments the poor fellow showed signs of 
 relief, and after drinking the infusion several times, he said he was free from 
 pain, but felt very weak and faint. It was some weeks before the man got 
 thoroughly strong again." 
 
 I have said nothing in these chapters about another great class of insects, 
 viz., the Beetle, by which word you must understand that I don't mean 
 those horrid creatures we call " black beetles," but insects which are, in 
 numberless instances, very handsome, as well as curious in their shapes. 
 Thus we have in Madagascar several species of horned-beetles which have 
 large horns something like those of a stag ; others are brilliant with metallic 
 colours of all shades, which change as you turn them over in different lights. 
 Others are very gaudily coloured. Yonder is a bush which is conspicuous 
 from some little distance from the quantity of insects clustered on it ; they 
 are about half-an-inch long, and are most brilliant with scarlet, blue and 
 green. Be careful, however, how you handle them, for their scent is anything 
 but agreeable, and these gaudy tints are no doubt " warning colours," like 
 those of the " dog-locust," about which I told you in the fourth chapter, and 
 they are probably as nauseous to the taste as they are offensive to the smell. 
 
 I should need a number of coloured plates to enable you to realize all 
 the varieties of beetles one may see in and near the forest where we used to 
 take our holidays occasionally. For instance, the most common kind is a 
 broad flat insect, about an inch long and dull brown in colour, which crosses
 
 7 2 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 one's path at every step. Another is seen chiefly on the bushes, a smaller 
 insect but bright shining jet-black. Another, which is shot with brown and 
 green, with very long legs, is constantly taking short flights or running rapidly. 
 You all know the English " ladybird " ; we have many kinds of that pretty 
 little beetle in Madagascar, but the most beautiful one is a species which is 
 simply golden hi colour, so that its wing cases are like a piece of bright gold 
 jewellery. And you have probably, especially if you live in the country, 
 seen the " glow-worm " when walking out of an evening. This insect, I 
 believe, is not found in Madagascar, but we have another kind which gives 
 a much more brilliant light, viz., the Firefly. These insects I have seen 
 scores of times when staying on the coast or travelling along it. When taking 
 a long journey some years ago, we were overtaken by the darkness long before 
 we could find anywhere to stop hi for the night, but several times we thought 
 we saw the lights in a village, or some one coming along with a lantern, but 
 it was only the beautiful little fireflies dancing up and down in the bushes, 
 a " will-o'-the-wisp " which deceived us again and again. These flies do not 
 give out a continuous light, but one which like some lighthouses is quenched 
 every second or two, the interval of darkness being rather longer than the 
 time when the light is visible. 
 
 Speaking of caterpillars, as we did two or three pages back, reminds me 
 of a species which makes a curious home for itself and its companions, for 
 one cannot pass many yards along a forest path without noticing here and 
 there a long white bag hanging on the trees and bushes. These vary hi 
 length from six inches to a foot, or even eighteen inches, and are a long oval 
 in shape. The upper part shines with a silky lustre, and the whole would do 
 so but for its being filled at the lower part with a mass of dark-brown earthy 
 substance, which soils its purity. On cutting open the upper portion of the 
 bag, which is tough and strong, I found it to be filled with a mass of brown 
 caterpillars, about an inch and a half long, all wriggling about when disturbed 
 in their comfortable home. The dark substance was evidently the droppings 
 of the caterpillars, and the small openings at the lower end gave exit and 
 entrance, for generally two or three of the insects were see crawling outside. 
 It would appear, then, that this silken bag is the nest or home spun by the 
 caterpillars, a common habitation in which they undergo the next change 
 before becoming perfect insects. I always noticed that the branches near 
 that on which the bag was suspended were stripped of the leaves, no doubt 
 by its inmates. I also found that a day or two after I had cut open one of 
 these bags a thin film of web had been spun over the opening, so as to close 
 up the entrance I had unceremoniously made into the privacy of the little 
 community. 
 
 During the cool season that is, in July and August several kinds of 
 caterpillars are in a state of torpor. Here, for instance, is a cluster of a dozen
 
 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 73 
 
 or so of brown caterpillars, all clinging closely together around one another 
 on the top of a small twig, and perfectly motionless ; are they not hibernating ? 
 Here, again, is a collection of beautiful little caterpillars, about an inch long, 
 of lovely pale-green and bluish-green colour, with markings of orange dots 
 along the sides, and tufts of yellow hairs on head and tail. They he side 
 by side, half-a-dozen together on a leaf, and also do not move for several 
 days together. Here, again, on a leaf, are about thirty caterpillars, about 
 five-eighths of an inch long. These are striped with dark lines like black 
 velvet, with delicate markings and spots of bright yellow. These insects, 
 like those just mentioned, are motionless and crowded together, as if for 
 warmth. 
 
 Would you not like also to stroll through the forest paths where so many 
 beautiful and curious things are to be seen ?
 
 HAWKS AND OWLS 
 
 AND A FISHING EAGLE 
 
 I TOLD you in a previous section that we had more than two hundred kinds 
 of birds living in Madagascar ; of these two hundred species, a tenth 
 part of them, that is, exactly twenty, belong to that class of birds which 
 prey upon other living things smaller birds, reptiles, insects and fish. 
 The largest of these rapacious birds is the Fishing or Sea-eagle, which 
 inhabits the western coast of Madagascar, and the small islands off the north- 
 west of the mainland. It is a 
 large and handsome bird and 
 keeps watch on a tree or cliff 
 at the edge of the water. Like 
 a flash of lightning it swoops 
 down into the sea after its finny 
 prey, and yet it can stop its 
 downward flight in a moment. 
 If the fish is too large to be 
 carried in its talons, it beats 
 the head with strokes of its 
 powerful wings, and then tows 
 it to shore, the wings acting as 
 sails. 
 
 There are innumerable 
 little bays and inlets on the 
 north-west coast, and where a 
 pair of these eagles takes 
 possession of one of them they 
 will allow no other eagle to 
 encroach on their own domain, 
 and as soon as the young The Fishing Eagle 
 
 eaglets become old enough to 
 
 provide for themselves the parent birds drive them away from the nest and 
 the neighbourhood. The Malagasy call this eagle Ankoay, probably a name 
 imitating its cry of hoai, hoai. 
 
 There are many species of Hawk and Kite and Falcon in Madagascar ; 
 of these, the most common is the Papdngo, or Egyptian Kite, which may be 
 seen every day flying gracefully along in search of the lizards and snakes, 
 and the rats and mice and young birds which form its chief food, and con- 
 tinually swooping down on its prey. I have often observed scores of these 
 birds hovering in the air, or describing great circles at an immense height. 
 
 74
 
 HAWKS AND OWLS 
 
 75 
 
 The country people detest the Papango, for it often darts down on their 
 chickens or pigeons, and is only scared away by their loud cries and execra- 
 tions ; but although it may sometimes carry off the fowls, it is very useful 
 in destroying vermin. Many native proverbs refer to the bird, especially to 
 its boldness and rapacity ; for instance, "Acting like a kite's claws ; not taking 
 gently but greedily." 
 
 Another very widely-spread rapacious bird is the lively and noisy little 
 Kestrel, which is often seen perched on the gable-horns of the houses, or 
 even on the extreme point of the lightning-conductor. It is by no means 
 shy, and one can sometimes approach it quite closely and see its bright fearless 
 eyes before it darts away. It is fond of the same resting-place, and after a 
 noisy chatter with its mate, takes a sweeping flight for a few hundred yards 
 and returns to its former posi- 
 tion. Its name of Hltsikitsika 
 is practically the same all over 
 the island and is probably 
 an imitation of its peculiar 
 querulous cry. Several native 
 proverbs refer to the kestrel's 
 quick restless flight and its 
 habit of hovering aloft, poised 
 almost motionless, with an 
 occasional quivering of the 
 wings, which the Malagasy call 
 " dancing," for the native 
 dances consist chiefly in grace- 
 ful posturing of the hands and 
 arms, with but little move- 
 ment of the feet ; thus, " The 
 kestrel is not dancing without 
 reason, for there below is some- 
 thing (in the way of prey)." 
 
 Among some native families 
 the kestrel is a tabooed or 
 sacred bird. M. Pollen says : 
 " Being one day hunting near 
 the shore I shot one of these 
 kestrels, when a farmer came 
 to meet me, saying I had 
 committed sacrilege hi killing, 
 as he said, a sacred bird. He 
 begged me to leave it to him, so The Barn Owl
 
 7 6 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 that he might bury it in a sacred place. I hesitated, except to grant him the 
 beak of the kestrel, which had been broken by the shot. The good man, 
 accompanied by a slave carrying a load of sugar-canes, and happy to be able 
 to honour any part of the sacred bird, tried to express his gratitude by offering 
 me half of the load." A small piece of the leg or wing of the kestrel was 
 given by the diviners as a charm, and many of the people venerate these 
 birds. 
 
 Six or seven species of Owl are known in Madagascar, one of them, the 
 Barn Owl, being identical with that found here in England, and indeed almost 
 all over the world. As among most other peoples, owls are regarded by the 
 Malagasy as birds of ill-omen, and this is not strange when one thinks of 
 their nocturnal habits, their large staring eyes the uncanny ear-like feathers 
 of some, and especially their unearthly screech as they fly by night. The 
 people call it Vbrondblo, i.e. " Spirit-bird," thinking it an embodiment of the 
 spirits of the wicked, and its screech is believed to be a presage of misfortune 
 to some one. Yet, like the owls in all parts of the world, the Madagascar 
 ones are really public benefactors by keeping down the rats and mice and 
 other vermin, and deserve protection and thanks instead of persecution. 
 
 My wife for several years used to go to several of the larger villages in 
 our mission district to teach the children in the day schools. One day as she 
 went on with a Scripture lesson, she noticed that one of the boys kept fre- 
 quently starting, as if something had hurt him, and at the close of the teaching 
 this boy fetched out from under his Idmba a beautiful owl which he had 
 brought her as a present ! And his starts and slight jumps had been caused 
 by this owl digging his sharp beak now and then into the boy's bare legs 
 and body ! I wonder how many English boys would have patiently borne 
 for an hour or two such an uncomfortable pet in order to give pleasure to 
 their teacher.
 
 SOME "ODD FISH" 
 
 AMONG THEM A FISHING FISH 
 
 IN the interior of the island of Madagascar there are remarkably few kinds 
 of fishes in the rivers and lakes. We have certainly very fine and large 
 eels ; there are great quantities of gold- and silver-fish and other small 
 fry in the marshes and the rice-grounds, which are under water during 
 a large part of the year ; and there is a smaller number of fishes of excellent 
 flavour, one called Mdrakely and another called Tbhovbkoka, not to speak 
 of crustaceans, such as shrimps and crayfish. 
 
 The shrimps are very small, but they are caught in vast numbers and 
 give a relish to the rice, which, as described in a previous chapter, is the chief 
 food of the Malagasy. As soon as the rice has been reaped, the water in 
 which it has grown until harvest -time is frequently dredged by the women 
 and children, not only for fish, but also for all sorts of other small creatures 
 which they use for food. They push before them a large and long basket- 
 dredge or sieve, and every few minutes lift it up to examine what they have 
 caught ; this is thrown into a small basket carried on their head or chest. 
 But not only fish and shrimps are used by the people for food, but a great 
 variety of other things as well, as a relish to their rice. Many of these are 
 very repulsive to our English notions, for instance, snails, locusts, certain 
 grubs and caterpillars, and even, so it is said, some species of beetle and 
 spiders ! Some years ago, as two or three of us were taking a ride through 
 the rice-fields near Ambohimanga, our former mission station, we saw some 
 girls dredging for fish in the shallow water, and thinking we might perhaps 
 buy some to take home, we called to them to bring the basket for us to see. 
 But on inspecting the produce of their labour, we found no fish, but a heap of 
 brown, crawling, wriggling, slimy creatures, most uninviting in appearance, 
 and, in fact, disgusting, considered as possible articles of food. This " water 
 relish," this mass of creeping animal life, consisted of shrimps, water-beetles, 
 tadpoles, and the larvae of many kinds of insects. It is needless to say that 
 we did not purchase any of these tempting delicacies, but I believe they would 
 all go into the pot in some Malagasy house that evening and give a relish to 
 the rice of some native friends. 
 
 In the lower reaches of the large rivers which flow towards the western 
 coast there are, however, many fishes of strange and brilliant colours. These 
 are striped or banded across or obliquely with bright blue and scarlet, or 
 orange and black, so as to be very conspicuous in the clear waters, and are 
 much like some of the gorgeously coloured fishes which are found among 
 coral reefs, feeding upon the living coral polyps. One species might be called 
 
 77
 
 7 8 
 
 the " Leopard-fish," because, as you see from the illustration, it is covered 
 with leopard-like spots, even on its fins. Another fish has its so head thickly 
 covered with sharp spines that it would be a very unpleasant mouthful for 
 any larger fish which attempted to swallow it. 
 
 On the coasts of Madagascar, that is, in the lagoons and river mouths, 
 as well as in the sea itself, there is a large variety of fish. Among these is 
 one called Botdla. These fishes are covered all over with rough prickles, 
 and as soon as they are taken out of the water they inflate their bodies by 
 filling their stomachs with air. If replaced in the water they rest like a 
 blown-up bag ; suddenly, out goes the air, and they are off like a flash. Another 
 
 -LEOPARD FISH 
 
 lus cy/inc/r/cus) 
 
 fish, called Lddintavia, is found in the rivers and is white in colour and covered 
 with a kind of slime, which is thick like soapsuds. It goes in shoals, so that 
 one haul of the net will sometimes bring in hundreds of them, which look as 
 if they were all floating in a thick lather of soap. 
 
 A very excellent fish, called Olbvo, is also a very large one, often reaching 
 seven feet in length and weighing over two hundred pounds. Perhaps the most 
 delicious of all the Madagascar fish is a species of mullet called Zbmpona. The 
 coast Malagasy esteem it highly, and when a person is evidently dying, some 
 outsider is sure to say, " Ah, he (or she) won't eat Zompona again." Several 
 species of large shrimps and prawns are caught on the coast, and these latter 
 especially are considered when curried as a very dainty dish. Large numbers 
 of small red crabs are always seen on the sands of the shore, watching at the
 
 SOME " ODD FISH " 
 
 79 
 
 mouths of their holes, and down which they instantly disappear as we approach 
 them. One or two species of the Madagascar crabs have one of their pincers 
 enormously enlarged, so that it is quite as large as their bodies, while the 
 other claw is very small indeed. This great arm, bright pink in colour, the 
 little creature carries held up in a ludicrous, threatening manner> as if defying 
 all enemies. 
 
 Besides the edible fish just mentioned other well-known oceanic fish are 
 often caught, such as several species of shark, the porpoise, the hammer- 
 headed shark, and the sawfish ; this last is often fourteen feet long. 
 
 On the north-west coast a fish called Hamby is often caught. Its length 
 is about that of a man's arm and its back fin is just like a brush and has a 
 liquid about it sticky like gum, and when it fastens on to another fish from 
 below with this brush, the fish is held fast and secure. On account of this 
 peculiarity of the Hamby, the people use it to fish with ; they confine it in 
 a wooden cage, which they fasten in the sea, and feed it daily with cooked 
 rice, or cassava, or small fish. When they want its services they tie a long 
 string round its tail and let it go, following in a canoe, and as soon as the 
 Hamby fastens on a fish they pull it in and secure the spoil. Not only fish 
 but even turtles, so it is said, are caught in this manner. 
 
 Perhaps the most extraordinary fish found off the coasts of Madagascar 
 is one which, when caught, discharges a large quantity of a substance re- 
 sembling glue, so that if it is placed in a bucket or small vessel, the contents 
 become almost a solid mass and can be turned out hi one large lump. 
 
 CROSS -BARRED F/Sff
 
 8o 
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 It will be seen, then, that not only on the dry land and in the forests 
 of Madagascar are there many living creatures of very interesting and curious 
 shapes and habits, but that in its waters also, both inland and surrounding it, 
 there are many creatures worthy of notice and study, some of whom may 
 truly^be termed very " odd fish." 
 
 Boys Fishing with Traps
 
 THE OX OF MADAGASCAR 
 
 WHOSE HUMP IS HIS LARDER 
 
 IT would not, I think, be right in this little book treating of Malagasy 
 animals, to leave out all notice of the largest and most prominent of 
 them all, namely, the Ox, or, as the people call it, the Omby. This 
 fine beast is not a true aboriginal inhabitant of the great island ; but it 
 is so long ago, probably several centuries, since the first oxen were brought 
 over from the African coast, that they have become perfectly naturalised in 
 Madagascar and are found in large numbers wherever there are human in- 
 habitants. The word bmby is without doubt the same as the Swahili word 
 ngombe. 
 
 These oxen have very long horns and are distinguished from European 
 cattle by having a large hump between the shoulders. In other respects 
 their appearance does not differ much from our English bulls and cows, and 
 the quality and flavour of their flesh is not much inferior to English beef. 
 
 The hump, which consists of a marrow-like fat, is considered a great delicacy 
 by the Malagasy, and when salted and eaten cold is very acceptable to Euro- 
 peans. When the animal is in poor condition the hump is much diminished 
 in size, being, like that of the camel in similar circumstances, apparently 
 absorbed into the system and partly supplying the insufficiency of food. It 
 then droops partly over the shoulders. 
 
 81 F
 
 82 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 A herd of Malagasy oxen is a fine sight, from the variety of colour and 
 beautiful markings of the different beasts. When fattened up, as they used 
 to be in old times, before the national feast at the New Year, many of them 
 were magnificent animals ; and so it is not strange that the word for bull 
 (bmbeldhy) was used frequently in public speeches as an emblem of strength, 
 as it was the largest and most powerful animal known to the Malagasy. In 
 this sense it was always used in certain ceremonies after the birth of a son, 
 and in the songs and various congratulations the boy was hoped to become 
 as strong as a bull, so as to fight bravely and overcome his enemies. The 
 kings were also sometimes called by the same name as an honourable title. 
 
 The cruel sport of bull-fighting was a favourite amusement of the Malagasy 
 sovereigns ; and in digging the foundations for a new gateway to the palace 
 yard at Antananarivo some years ago, the remains of a bull were discovered, 
 wrapped up in a red silk Idmba, the same style of burial as that employed for 
 rich people. This was the honour paid to a famous fighting bull belonging 
 to the heathen Queen Ranavalona I. In ancient times 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. 
 
 At the New Year's festival, in the times before the French conquest, 
 large numbers of oxen were killed, almost every family having one ; while 
 the sovereign had twenty or thirty in the royal courtyard, where I remember 
 seeing the poor beasts lying with their legs tied together before their slaughter 
 on the following morning. It was no easy matter going about the narrow 
 and rough roads of the capital for a day or two previous to the festival, for 
 in every direction oxen were being driven in from the country to their owners' 
 compounds hi the city. Then, on the new year's morning, Antananarivo 
 was like a vast slaughter-house, and for some days afterwards was very 
 offensive from the blood and remains of the animals killed in every house- 
 yard. 
 
 At funerals also oxen were killed in numbers proportionate to the wealth 
 and rank of the deceased person. So, on one occasion, when a man of very 
 high position died, an ox was killed at every few yards all along the road 
 from the city house he lived in to the country house where the tomb was, 
 a distance of a mile or more. Almost everyone attending a funeral would 
 therefore get a large piece of beef to take home with him. At the new year 
 a fine ox was always sent from the Queen to the English residents in the 
 capital, and its meat was divided out among us all. The chief officers and 
 others of our native friends used also to send us fine joints of beef, this being 
 termed, " Flesh-meat, to hold fast friendship." We had, of course, at such 
 times far more meat than our household could consume, so that we were 
 glad to be able to send a number of joints of beef to our poorer Malagasy 
 friends. When we English missionaries were invited to preach before the
 
 THE OX OF MADAGASCAR 83 
 
 Queen in the Chapel Royal, a large piece of meat was always sent to us on 
 the previous day, presumably to give us strength for the Sunday's duties ! 
 
 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 our forefathers knew well how it should be used, and when 
 they invoked a blessing upon it they said thus : The ox's horns go to the 
 spoon-maker ; its molar teeth to the mat-maker (for smoothing out the 
 zozbro 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." 
 
 Large herds of cattle are to be seen in the Antsihanaka province, for they 
 are there fattened on the luxuriant pastures of that fertile region ; and when 
 travelling there many years ago, I was told of a curious custom formerly 
 practised by people of that province at certain times. 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 rum 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 seriously hurt and some often 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 lands of calamity. 
 
 At certain times in former days, an ox of the largest and finest kind 
 was presented to the sovereign ; but it had to be entirely of one colour, and 
 although handsome and fitting in every respect, if there was even one hair 
 differing from the brown, or the black, or the white of the general colour, 
 it would be rejected as unsuitable. 
 
 Some idea of the important place oxen take in the thoughts and the 
 talk of the Malagasy may be gained by the fact that there are at least seventy 
 to eighty proverbs and popular sayings in which they are referred to, and 
 an interesting article might be written about these alone. 
 
 The ox being so highly esteemed by the Malagasy, it is not strange that 
 its horns, and, indeed, horns in general, are considered also as emblems of 
 power, as we know was and is the case among the Jews and other Eastern 
 peoples. Boys and girls who read their Bibles will recall many passages in 
 the Psalms and the poetical books where horns are referred to ; and so among 
 
 r 2
 
 8 4 
 
 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 the Malagasy the horn was a symbol of protection, for the native army was 
 termed tdndroky ny fanjakana, i.e. "horns of the kingdom." In Imerina the 
 long crossed gable-timbers of old-fashioned native houses were called " house 
 horns " (tdndro-trdno) ; and when travelling among the southern forest people 
 I found that on the gables of their houses these pieces of wood were exactly 
 shaped like ox-horns. And among the Sihanaka people there used to be fixed 
 near the entrance of every village two or three tall straight trunks of trees, 
 and the top of these had the appearance of an enormous pair of horns, for the 
 fork of a tree was fixed to the pole, and each branch sharpened to a fine point. 
 So again, on the memorial posts used by the Betsiteo, on a stage at the top 
 were placed a number of ox-skulls, with the horns of the animals killed at 
 the funeral of the deceased person ; and in the case of a stone memorial pillar 
 ten pairs of iron horns were fixed at the top. All this, you see, confirms 
 what has been said as to the native ideas about horns. 
 
 Malagasy boys often play a game in which one of them fastens a pair 
 of wooden horns to his head and rushes about as if he wanted to gore his 
 companions ; while they, on the other hand, try to throw a loop of rope 
 round his head, much in the same way as an ox is caught and secured before 
 he is made into beef. 
 
 The ox is therefore, you will agree, a very prominent animal in the thoughts 
 and life of the Malagasy, and whether in work, or play, or in their daily speech, 
 is constantly referred to as being among their most valued possessions. 
 
 Herd Boys and Oxen
 
 A MADAGASCAR FOREST 
 
 ITS SIGHTS AND SOUNDS 
 
 COME with me for a stroll in the forest to see a little more of the 
 wonders of the great island. I have spoken of the belt of forest 
 which almost surrounds Madagascar, and is most dense and extensive 
 on its eastern side, and I want here to give you, if possible, some 
 clear idea of what these tropical forests are like. 
 
 You all know the beauty of an English park ; those of you who live in 
 London must have often seen one or more of the beautiful parks which are 
 found in so many parts of the immense capital ; and if you live in any large 
 city, there is sure to be a place of the same kind for you to walk in ; while 
 those who live in the country cannot help seeing parks and park-like scenery 
 in almost every part of England, with their elms and oaks, their chestnuts 
 and limes, their beeches and sycamores and firs, in avenues and in clumps, or 
 in single trees. And there is nothing more beautiful in the world than our 
 English parks. 
 
 Now you will not find woods like these in Madagascar, and yet there 
 is a beauty of a different kind and a grandeur in the forests there that is very 
 impressive. And perhaps the first thing that strikes one is the crowd of 
 tall trunks growing so closely together, and the height to which they soar, 
 for there is a great struggle for life in these woods, and each tree strives to 
 get up to the light and the heat of the sunshine far aloft. You will notice 
 also that in most cases the tree trunks shoot up like tall columns without 
 branches for a considerable distance, for there is no room for them to spread 
 out their arms around them below in the shade. 
 
 Another thing you will observe after you have had time to look carefully 
 at the leaves, namely, that while in English woods you will often see large 
 masses of one kind of tree growing together oaks in one place, elms in another, 
 beeches in another, and pines or firs hi another in a Madagascar forest, on 
 the contrary, you will often see every different kind of tree close together. 
 Here are trees with light delicate leaves, others with broad glossy leaves, others 
 with thick fleshy deeply-indented leaves, and so on ; and a few have their 
 flowers and fruits growing on the trunks, while most have them on the branches 
 and twigs. You will notice also how different are the trunks of the trees : 
 some are smooth and glossy, others rough and rugged, and many have sharp 
 spines and prickles, which wound our hands if we take hold of them. Some 
 kinds have great buttresses spreading out widely near the ground, while a few 
 have the roots above ground as well as below, so that one can almost walk 
 under the main trun^. 
 
 But perhaps that which will strike one hi a Madagascar forest as most 
 different from our English woods is the difficulty of getting through the dense 
 
 85
 
 86 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 vegetation, and this is caused by the great number of creeping and climbing 
 plants in every direction. They cross and twine and bind the trees together 
 in all directions ; some are as large as a ship's cable, others are like ropes of 
 different sizes, and others are like twine and fine thread. So that if one 
 leaves the narrow woodmen's paths and endeavours to make a new way 
 through the trees, it is almost impossible to go far unless one carries a hatchet 
 or a bill-hook to cut through this tangle of vegetation. Some of these climbing 
 plants are hundreds of feet long and mount up to the top of the tallest trees ; 
 in some cases they so surround a tree that they gradually strangle out the 
 life of their host in their deadly embrace, and become a great tree them- 
 selves. Some of them are covered in the hot season with flowers, one especially 
 I remember as bearing a quantity of pale golden-coloured blossoms, which 
 show conspicuously from some distance. 
 
 You will not, however, see many flowers on the forest trees they are 
 high aloft basking in the sunlight ; but you may know of their presence by 
 the ground underneath being strewn with hundreds of petals pink, blue, 
 scarlet, purple or white. In the warmer parts of the forest near the coast 
 you may see numbers of the waxy-white flowers of the orchids on the tree 
 trunks, and the flowers of one species, which has a very long spur or nectary, 
 shine like stars on the dark bark of the trees. You will also notice that every 
 tree has a little world of other plants growing on it. In the forks of the trees, 
 where the branches give a place for a little soil to accumulate, are masses 
 of hart's-tongue or stag's-horn ferns ; while the different kinds of mosses 
 and lichens and minute ferns are innumerable, and give a home to ants and 
 spiders and other insects. 
 
 During the warmer months, the woods are vocal with the notes of birds. 
 Staying near the upper forest one Christmas holiday the hottest tune of the 
 year with us we sat down on the margin of a stream enjoying the beauty of 
 the woods and especially the singing of the birds. Among these was a species 
 of sun-bird, which has metallic or gem-like plumage ; also a shrike, with 
 long forked tail ; the grey parrot, with a long repeated whistle, as if going 
 up the gamut ; one of the roller-birds, with its prolonged note ending in a 
 sudden drop ; one of the warblers, with a creaky little short note, something 
 like a child's rattle ; together with these sounds was the kowkow-kow-koo of 
 the Kankafotra cuckoo, the varied mellow notes of the Tolbho cuckoo, the 
 cooing sound of a wood-pigeon, and also the call of one of the hawks. 
 
 When speaking of the sounds to be heard in the Madagascar forests, 
 there is one which, when once heard, can never be forgotten, and that is the 
 noise made by the cicada, or jorery, as the Malagasy call it. This is a most 
 strident, shrill, penetrating sound, which seems to deafen one, and it is difficult 
 to believe it is made by an insect only an inch and a half long. A friend of 
 mine says : '" The sound it makes is not a buzz-z exactly, and it is not a
 
 A MADAGASCAR FOREST 87 
 
 hum-m-m. It is a deafening, unceasing, rasping, irritating monotone." A 
 Malagasy proverb says : " Don't be like the cicada, whose voice fills the 
 whole valley, though the creature itself is but a mouthful." If two or more 
 cicadas are giving out this sound at the same time, the air seems filled with 
 the uproar they make. 
 
 Then one is sure to hear the wailing cry of the lemurs, a long-drawn-out, 
 rather melancholy sound, as if of people in distress, or children crying ; yet 
 it is no doubt, with these harmless animals, a sign of their enjoyment of life 
 hi the upper world of leafage where they live. Of other living creatures 
 (that is, four-footed ones) one sees and hears hardly anything, although there 
 are frequent signs of the presence of wild-boars in the holes they dig every- 
 where in search of roots. Butterflies are scarce in the woods, except in any 
 cleared spot where they can disport in the sunshine, or over a stream ; here 
 one may often see scores of blue-and-black papilios hovering over the water, 
 while there are clouds of small white or yellow or buff butterflies settling on 
 damp sand and sucking up the moisture. Ants, as I have described more 
 fully in a previous section, are everywhere on the ground, climbing the trees, 
 and dragging other insects, which they have pulled to pieces, to their nests. 
 
 In the lower parts of the greater line of forest the Traveller's Tree is 
 often seen among the crowd of trees, and has here to soar to a great height 
 to get its share of light and heat. And all through the forest region several 
 kinds of palm mingle their graceful fronds with the other foliage ; the most 
 plentiful species hi the higher woods being the bamboo-palm, which is like a 
 bamboo in its slender jointed stem. And the bamboo itself, with its long 
 whip-like curving stem bending over path and stream, is one of the most 
 elegant of all growing things, and with its pale-green clusters of leaves at 
 every joint, gives quite a special character to the scenery hi many places. 
 
 I can only add here, in speaking of the vegetable life of Madagascar, 
 that on the western side of the island, the forest is less dense and the trees are 
 more scattered. Among these are the tamarind, whose wide-spreading 
 branches cover a great circle of ground around it ; the baobab, with a curiously 
 bulky trunk and a very small extent of branch ; the fan-palms, growing in 
 clusters, with their tall grey columns supporting a grand crown of huge fan- 
 like leaves ; the mango, which grows to a great size, compared with what 
 we see in the colder central provinces ; and others which are too numerous 
 to be mentioned in this chapter. 
 
 From what I have here tried to describe, you will not be surprised to 
 know how I have always enjoyed travelling through the forests of Madagascar, 
 and exploring their wonderful variety and beauty. How often have I said 
 as I have looked at tree and fern and bamboo and palm and all the wonders 
 of these great woods : " O Lord, how manifold are Thy works, in wisdom 
 hast Thou made them all, the earth is full of Thy riches."
 
 THE MALAGASY "OLD MOORE" 
 
 NATIVE DIVINERS AND THEIR TRICKS 
 
 DIVINATION, or fortune-telling, was a very important part of Malagasy 
 superstition in former times among the Hovas, and it is probably 
 still practised secretly by many of them who are not real Christians ; 
 and amongst other tribes who are not yet evangelised it is still employed 
 to ascertain future events. 
 
 This divination is called sikidy, and the diviner himself is the mpisikldy, 
 words derived from the Arabs who, many hundred years ago, introduced 
 many good things into Madagascar, and some evil things, of which the sikidy 
 was one. 
 
 But, you will say, How could they tell, or pretend to tell, what was still 
 in the future ? They had a rather elaborate system of columns divided into 
 a good many squares, each of which had a name which denoted some thing 
 or quality or person, such as house, road, village, dog ; or woman, youth, 
 enemy, etc., and by manipulating a number of beans or seeds of a mimosa 
 tree taken at random from a heap before him, and by certain complicated 
 rules he had to follow, the diviner professed to be able to give a true reply 
 to the questions put to him. 
 
 Rakoto visits the Diviner 
 
 88
 
 The old heathen queen of Madagascar, who persecuted the Christian 
 Malagasy so cruelly for a quarter of a century (1836-1861), was a great believer 
 in the sikldy ; and she used to consult it to know the fortunate day and hour 
 and manner of doing almost everything she did. 
 
 If she were going a long or short journey, the day and the hour of starting, 
 the road she was to take, the people who were to follow her, and what she 
 was to do everything, in fact, and the smallest detail of her life all was 
 decided by the divination for her guidance. 
 
 And in the same way it is still consulted by numbers of Malagasy. If 
 they are ill, they ask of it what medicine they shall take, what food 
 they should eat and what they should avoid ; if they are going to do some 
 trading, they ask whether it will bring them profit ; if they have to bury a 
 relative, they ask the day and the hour which will be fortunate, so that the 
 deceased person may rest quietly in his grave, and not return to trouble the 
 living. 
 
 Look at the picture. Here is the diviner in the centre, sitting on the 
 matted floor hi native fashion. 
 
 On the mat before him he has made a number of lines and squares (or 
 possibly he knows them so well that he has no need of marked lines), and 
 in those squares he has placed a number of beans or fdno seeds from a little 
 heap of them close by. On the left of the picture is little Rakoto,* standing 
 or partly sitting on the wooden rice-mortar, in which the rice is pounded 
 every day for the morning and evening meals with the pestle which he is 
 taking hold of. 
 
 On the other side is his father and his sister, who have brought him to 
 ask the diviner what they shall do to make him well ; for the little chap has 
 been poorly for a long time, and nothing they have done for him seems to 
 make him any better. 
 
 They have probably given him some native remedies, which are mostly 
 useless and often harmful ; and now I am afraid that the diviner will prescribe 
 some stupid proceeding, or the giving of some nauseous stuff, which will do 
 poor little Rakoto no good, and possibly may do him much injury. 
 
 What odd ideas the Malagasy often have about medicine ! Mr. Pearse 
 had given some medicine to a person who was ill, and so he called in a few 
 days later to see how the patient was going on, and whether he was getting 
 better. " Did you get the medicine ? " he asked. " Oh, yes," said his wife. 
 " And has it done him good, so that I may send him some more ? " " But 
 he doesn't need any more, for there it is still," said the wife ; and sure enough, 
 hung up in the sacred corner of the house (the north-east, where the idol used 
 to be kept and prayers offered to it) was Mr. Pearse's bottle of medicine, 
 
 * Pronounced Ra-koo-too.
 
 90 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 untouched, because the people thought it was an bdy, or charm, and would 
 do the sick person good if it was merely looked at ! 
 
 On another occasion Mr. Pearse had given some medicine to a sick man, 
 and had instructed the relatives to give it to him so many times a day, weigh- 
 ing it out in the little money-scales with so many grains of rice. Calling in 
 a day or two afterwards to ask the effect of the remedy, he inquired if it had 
 been taken as ordered. " Oh, yes," said the brother, " he has taken the 
 medicine and the weights too ! " Fortunately, the " weights " were harmless, 
 being only unhusked rice grains. Had they been the iron money-weights, 
 the dose might have had more serious effects. 
 
 Dr. Davidson found that a native doctor had been professing to cure 
 some serious complaints by burning round holes, the size of a shilling, on the 
 unfortunate sufferer's body, in a number of places ! The remedy was surely 
 then worse than the disease. 
 
 Let us hope that little Rakoto was sooner or later taken to a good and 
 kind medical missionary, or to a Malagasy who had had a proper medical 
 training, either of whom would give him medicine and advice that would 
 probably soon put him to rights ; and from whom he would most likely hear 
 a few words about Jesus, the Good Physician, and the loving Friend of all 
 children, whether English or Malagasy.
 
 HUMAN INHABITANTS OF 
 MADAGASCAR 
 
 MOST of this book is about the wonderful and very interesting living 
 creatures which inhabit " the Great African Island," as well as some- 
 thing about certain of the more remarkable trees and plants which 
 grow there. As we have seen, these are all well worth our examina- 
 tion and study, because they are all the handiwork of our Father in Heaven ; 
 for every lovely flower, or stately tree, or brilliant insect, or beautiful animal 
 or bird, is " a thought of God." And yet these are not the things about which 
 a missionary spends his chief thoughts, or time, or strength ; his main business 
 is with the people of Madagascar ; to enlighten their minds, to help them to 
 put away evil habits and customs, and, above all, to lead them to the Lord 
 jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer. 
 
 THE MALAGASY : WHO ARE THEY ? AND WHERE DO THEY COME FROM ? 
 
 It is not at all remarkable that in this great island, four times as large as 
 England and Wales, there are many separate tribes, which differ one from the 
 other in many respects, although they speak substantially one language with 
 a variety of dialects and they all come from different islands of the great 
 Pacific Ocean. The tribe of Malagasy we know best are called HOVA, and 
 inhabit the central province of Imerina. Among them the first messengers 
 of the London Missionary Society began their work a hundred years ago ; 
 and among the Hova the Gospel has for long had a greater influence than in 
 any other part of the great island. They are not black people, but are brown 
 in colour, some of them as fair as the people of South Europe, while others 
 are darker. Until the French conquest of Madagascar in 1895, the Hova were 
 the dominant race, and had been so for a hundred years before, their sovereigns 
 claiming to be kings or queens of the whole island. They are still the most 
 civilised, and probably the most intelligent, of all the Malagasy peoples. 
 These Hova and some of the neighbouring tribes came, many hundred years 
 ago, from several of the larger Malayan islands Sumatra, Java, Borneo and 
 others and their language is closely connected with the speech of those islands, 
 as well as with that of the small groups of Eastern Polynesia Samoa, Tahiti, 
 Rarotonga, etc., and also with the language of the Sandwich Islanders and the 
 Maoris of New Zealand. 
 
 91
 
 92 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 THE MALAGASY, WHO ARE THEY? 
 
 But all around the central province of Imerina are other Malagasy tribes, 
 who differ a good deal from the Hova in features and with some exceptions, 
 owing to Arab or European blood in colour, for they are much darker. They 
 have frizzly, not woolly, black hair, while the Hova have straight and smooth 
 hair. These darker tribes are not African in origin, but are connected with 
 the islanders of Western Polynesia, in the New Hebrides, Fiji and Loyalty 
 groups. There are numerous subdivisions, but the principal tribes are the 
 Sdkaldva, all along the western coast of Madagascar ; the Betsimisdraka, 
 along a large part of the eastern coast ; the Sihdnaka and the Tankdrana to 
 the north ; and the Betsileo, the Bdra, the Tandla and others to the south. 
 Of these the Sakalava are the strongest and finest-looking people, but they 
 are the least civilised, and at present the least Christianised of the outlying 
 tribes. The Betsileo come next to the Hova in their reception of Christianity ; 
 but mission work is now making much progress also among the southern 
 peoples through the efforts of three Norwegian Lutheran societies. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE MEN WHO WENT TO TEACH THE MALAGASY 
 
 When the first L.M.S. missionaries to Madagascar, Messrs. Bevan and 
 Jones, arrived at Mauritius, on their way to their destination, and told the 
 planters there that they were going to teach the Malagasy, they were laughed 
 to scorn. " Teach the Malagasy ! " they said, " Why, you might as well try 
 to teach the monkeys [they meant the lemurs] in the forests." But the mis- 
 sionaries replied that they believed the Malagasy had minds and souls just 
 as much as Europeans, and that, at any rate, they were going to try to instruct 
 them. So the two men crossed the 550 miles of sea to Tamatave, and got 
 together a few native children, and began teaching them their letters ; and 
 they were surprised and delighted to see how bright and intelligent those 
 Malagasy boys and girls were. Mr. Bevan and Mr. Jones did not stay in 
 Madagascar then for more than five weeks, but in that brief time several of their 
 pupils could read short words, so that the missionaries felt no doubt as to the 
 mental capacity of the people. They returned to Port Louis to fetch their 
 wives and infant children, and said to the Mauritius planters : " Those 
 Malagasy children are quite as quick to learn as any of your own ; and we are 
 going back to Madagascar to teach them and their fathers and mothers as well." 
 
 This is not the place to tell of the sad beginning of their work ; how five 
 of that little party of six died within a month or two ; how Mr. Jones alone 
 survived ; how he went back to Mauritius for a few months ; how he went up 
 to the capital in October, 1820 ; and how he began work there by teaching 
 three boys. That was the humble commencement of the Mission which has 
 effected such wonderful changes in Madagascar during the past hundred years.
 
 HUMAN INHABITANTS OF MADAGASCAR 93 
 
 THE STORY OF TWO SMALL BARS OF SOAP 
 
 After the first missionaries to Madagascar had been allowed to go on with 
 their work without interruption for about eleven or twelve years, there seemed 
 much probability of it being stopped altogether ; for the heathen queen, 
 Ranavalona I. had became very uneasy and indeed angry at the progress of 
 the new religion among her subjects. The missionaries had reduced the 
 Malagasy language to a written form ; they had translated and printed the 
 New Testament, and were proceeding with the Old Testament also ; they had 
 established schools in all the chief towns, in which several thousand children 
 were being taught and receiving a good Christian education ; and they had 
 also instructed numbers of Malagasy workmen in improved methods of 
 carpentry and iron-work, in tanning and leather dressing, in preparing lime, 
 and in making bricks and tiles, etc. And many Malagasy had seen the folly of 
 idol worship and belief in charms and other superstitions, and were beginning 
 to worship the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ. These latter results of 
 mission work were very displeasing to the queen, and she had almost decided 
 to send the missionaries away and forbid all Christian worship among her 
 people. 
 
 But she remembered that they had taught the Malagasy many useful arts, 
 as just mentioned, so she sent to ask the missionaries if there was anything else 
 they could teach her subjects, for instance, could they teach them how to 
 make soap ? Now, this was a thing which neither Mr. Jones, or Mr. Griffiths, 
 or Mr. Johns knew anything about ; but among the artisan missionaries there 
 was one named Cameron, who was originally a carpenter but had taught 
 himself many other branches of useful knowledge ; so they turned to him and 
 said : " Mr. Cameron, could you teach them how to do it ? " He replied, " Let 
 the queen's messengers come again in a week's time, and I will see what can 
 be done." So he went to the market and got fat and suet from the butchers ; 
 he made alkali from wood ashes, and after a few experiments he managed to 
 produce two small bars of tolerably good-looking soap. When the queen saw 
 these she was very pleased, and immediately made an agreement with Mr.' 
 Cameron to erect a small factory, and to teach a number of Malagasy youths 
 the art and mystery of soap manufacture. 
 
 So the missionaries were allowed to stay on for two or three years more ; 
 and during that time they completed the translation of the Bible ; they 
 finished dictionaries and many other books ; the influence of Christianity 
 grew stronger and stronger, and they were able to instruct larger numbers of 
 the Malagasy in the faith of the Gospel, and to prepare them for the fiery trial 
 of persecution which began on March ist, 1835. These were the great blessings 
 which resulted from the making of " two small bars of soap." And so God 
 often uses apparently small and weak things to accomplish great and important 
 things.
 
 94 THINGS SEEN IN MADAGASCAR 
 
 THE STORY OF A " SCRAP OF PAPER " 
 
 Many years ago I took part with several of my missionary brethren in 
 Madagascar in the revision of our Malagasy Bible, as we endeavoured to make 
 it a more accurate translation of the original Hebrew and Greek, and to put 
 many of its verses into plainer language for the people. We not only met 
 together very frequently to do this work, but we had to go through the proof- 
 sheets at home, with our native helpers, before meeting in committee. To 
 help me in this duty I had a good man named Rainivelo, who came every week 
 to my house. One day, after we had carefully gone through the proof-sheets, 
 I said, " Rainivelo, how did you become a Christian ? Was it in the time of the 
 first missionaries ? " He replied, " No ; I was still quite a child when they 
 left Madagascar, and it was several years after that time. And it came about 
 in this way : I was one day walking along one of the streets in the capital, 
 and I saw on the ground a small piece of printed paper. I took it up and read 
 it as I walked ; it was half a leaf torn out of the Book of Psalms, and, like so 
 many of the Psalms, it spoke of the glory and the wisdom and the goodness of 
 Jehovah. Now I knew that this was the name of the God worshipped by the 
 Christians, and I was so powerfully impressed by what I read that I determined 
 to find out more about Jehovah and His worship. 
 
 " To accomplish this, I went to see a friend of mine, who I suspected was 
 a Christian, to ask about Jehovah ; and when he saw I was in earnest for 
 people had to be extremely cautious in those days, lest they should be betrayed 
 he sat down and told me about Jehovah, and also about Jesus Christ and 
 what He had done for men. I had many talks with him, and the result was 
 that I felt convinced that this Jesus Christ was Lord and Master, and that I 
 ought to serve Him ; and that He was Saviour and Redeemer and could save 
 me. And so I resolved to serve Him, and to trust in Him for salvation ; and I 
 have tried to do this ever since." 
 
 This was Rainivelo' s story, and remember that that was a time of persecu- 
 tion, when it was a very dangerous thing for anyone to be known or suspected 
 to be a Christian ; yet this good man felt that whatever it might cost he 
 must obey and serve the Lord Christ, and believe in His power and willingness 
 to save. And all this, you see, was the result of the reading of a little " scrap 
 of paper " ; but it was a fragment of God's Book, made mighty to win a 
 human heart and bring it into obedience to Christ. And so God honours His 
 own Word. 
 
 A STORY OF PRAYER AMONG THE HEATHEN MALAGASY 
 
 It was said of one of old, when he was wonderfully changed from a self- 
 righteous and persecuting Pharisee into a humble and self-denying and zealous 
 apostle, " Behold, he prayeth ! " And it is worthy of note that from its first
 
 HUMAN INHABITANTS OF MADAGASCAR 95 
 
 introduction into Madagascar the Christian religion has always been known as 
 " the praying " religion ; and Christian people as " the praying ones." 
 
 Prayer, however, was not absolutely unknown in Malagasy heathenism ; 
 but it was a rare thing, a practice only employed at certain times and on 
 solemn occasions, especially in times of war and difficulty and distress. I 
 well remember at the time of the second Franco-Malagasy war (in 1895), 
 how, as the foreign troops were slowly advancing up the country, the Malagasy 
 women of each village used to gather together morning and evening, and with 
 spear-like wands in their hands, with passion in their voices and with fervour 
 in their eyes, sent up their prayer-songs or rdry, to God, praying for the 
 protection of their fathers and brothers, and husbands and sons, against 
 the invaders, somewhat in this fashion : 
 
 " Protect Thou them, O Great Spirit ; 
 May the spear have no power to wound them, 
 May the rifle-bullet do them no harm ; 
 May they conquer their enemies ! 
 Whether they fight by night or by day, 
 May they be helped to defeat our foes ! " 
 
 Still, such prayers, and all Malagasy prayer in former times, were spasmodic 
 and occasional, very different from what the Christian poet described when 
 he wrote : 
 
 " Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 
 The Christian's native air ; 
 His watchword at the gates of death ; 
 He enters heaven by prayer." 
 
 Yes, I well remember the weird, wailing sound of those women's voices as 
 they sang their prayer-songs in early morning, as I passed by some of the 
 villages in my mission district. 
 
 We know now that it was not the will of God that those prayers should 
 be answered, for the foreign troops reached the capital on the last day of 
 September, and from that date Madagascar became a French protectorate 
 and, during the following year, a French colony. European control has 
 brought many advantages to the Malagasy, especially in material matters. 
 It has stopped all internal war between the different tribes ; it has abolished 
 slavery ; it has made roads all over the island ; it has introduced the 
 motor-car, the railway, and the telegraph ; it has promoted commerce and 
 civilization, and it has established courts of justice in every province. It has 
 not always been friendly to missionary effort, but we may hope that the 
 French authorities will see more and more clearly that in proportion as 
 the Malagasy people become Christianized, so will they become intelligent 
 and industrious, and therefore good subjects of France, and will work 
 together with their rulers for the true advancement of their country.
 
 TO SEE THE WORLD 
 
 there is no need to travel. The Magazines of the London Missionary 
 Society bring the people of other lands to your own fireside. 
 
 N EWS FROM AFAR is a i6-page Illustrated Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls. 
 Pictures on every page. Price Id. Post free 2/- per annum. 
 
 THE CHRONICLE is a 24-page Illustrated Monthly Magazine, giving stories of the 
 
 thrilling work in India, Asia, Africa, and the Islands. Profusely illustrated. 
 
 Price 2d. monthly. Post free 3/- per annum. 
 
 THE OTHERS. A Terminal Paper for Public Schoolboys. Supplied Gratis. 
 
 A TREASURE-HOUSE OF GOOD THINGS 
 FOR BOYS AND GIRLS ! 
 
 Where? At the Mission House at 48, Broadway, Westminster, S.W.I., in the 
 Livingstone Bookshop of the L.M.S, 
 
 You never saw soeh a crowd of jolly-looking books ! There's lots of story books 
 about missionary adventures, and sehool stories, and animal and nature stories. 
 
 A list of Books, Pictures, etc., will be sent on application, stating requirements. 
 
 Address all Orders and Payments for Books io Mr. Ernest H. Hayes, MANAGER, 
 
 THE LIVINGSTONE BOOKSHOP, 48, BROADWAY, WESTMINSTER, S.W.I.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 040 088 7