MADAGASCAR .;^, BEFORE THE u UiN Liu lik) .. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST THE ISLAND, THE COUNTRT, ^ND THE PEOPLE WITH CHAPTERS OX TRAVEL AND TOPO- GRAPHY, FOLK-LORE, STRANGE CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS, THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE ISLAND, AND MISSION WORK AND PROGRESS AMONG THE INHABITANTS REV. JAMES SIBREE, F.R.G.S. Missionary of the L.M.S. AUTHOR OF "THE CHEAT AFRICAN' ISLAXD," "A MADAGASCAR lilBLIOGRAPHV, •THE I'.IRDS OF MADAGASCAR," ETC. WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUS7RA7I0NS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS LONDON T. FISHER UN WIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1896 [All ri gilts rcsnvcd.l PREFACE. This is my third book on Madagascar, and probably some of my readers may be disposed to ask what more I can have to say about the country or the people. The following pages form a reply to such a question, and it may be further said in explana- tion that it is now twenty-six years since the publication of my first book ^ and sixteen since the second ^ was issued ; and that since the latter of those dates much new information has been accumulating with regard to the physical geography, geology, fauna and flora, and ethnology of Madagascar. During the thirty-two years that I have been connected with this great island, I have been continually collecting information and writing about it, chiefly in the Antananarivo Annual, a pub- lication issued every year in the capital, as well as in the Proceedings of various English societies ; but as these papers are only known to a limited class of readers, I have thought that at this time, when public attention is being again called to Madagascar, the information given in the following pages would be interesting to the public generally. They will, I trust, give to many a clearer notion of what kind of place this country is, and what sort of people they are who inhabit it. I here express my obligations to my friend, M. Alfred Grandidier, for permission to translate and reproduce much that is valuable from his numerous publications referring to Madagascar in the French language. ' Matiufiasair ami its People (R.T.S., 1870). ' The Gnat African Island (Triibner, 1880). I 087586 VI PREFACE. I have also to thank my friends, Mr. J. Parrett and Dr. S. B. Fenn, for being able to reproduce several photographs which adorn these pages. And, lastly, my grateful thanks are due to the Rev. W. E. Cousins for his great kindness in correcting the proofs, so far at least as Malagasy words are employed. It has, of course, been a disadvantage that I could not personally revise the proofs when the work was passing through the press, and I must plead that in excuse for any faults that may be dis- covered by the critical reader. The publisher has done his best to minimise the difficulties necessarily involved in writing a book in Madagascar and publishing it in England. J. S. London Missionary Society's College, Antax.\narivo, Madagascar. November 20, 1895. Note. — All through this book Malagasy words are accented on the syllables which should be emphasised. And if it is borne in mind that the vowels have as nearly as possible the same sound as in Italian, and that the consonants do not differ much in sound from those in English, except that g is always hard, s always a sibilant and not like z, and J is like dj\ there need be no difficulty in pronouncing Malagasy words with a fair amount of accuracy. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. FROM COAST TO CAPITAL : NOTES OF A JOURNEY FROM MA- HANORO TO ANTANANARIVO I Various routes to interior — Mahanoro — Madagascar travelling — Filanjana or palanquin — Native bearers — Native villages — Betsimisaraka Cemetery — Canoe travelling — Canoe songs — Tropical vegetation — The Travellers'-tree — Scenery — Native houses and arrangements — A tiring Sunday's journey — Butterflies and birds — A village congrega- tion — Forest scenery and luxuriance — Romantic glens and glades — Uplands and extensive prospects — In Imerina at last — Over old haunts in forest — Mantasoa and its workshops — Native bridges — War preparations — A hearty welcome to the capital. CHAPTER n. IMERINA THE CENTRAL PROVINCE : ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES AND VILLAGE LIFE 15 Recent advances in knowledge of Madagascar -geography — Recent journeys — Tamatave — Mode of travelling — Coast lagoons — Scenery — Forest and climbing plants — Ankay Plain — Upper forest belt — Ime- rina or Ankova " Home of the Hova " — Mountains and prominent peaks — Bare uplands — Geology and colour of soil — Extinct volcanoes — Watershed of island — Lakes — Population — Sacred towns — Village fortifications — Maps of Imerina — An Imerina village — Ancient villages on high hills — Hova houses and arrangements — Ox-fattening pits — Native tombs — Trees — Hova children and games — Village chapels and schools. CHAPTER HI. ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL : ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MEMORIAL AND OTHER CHURCHES, AND RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS . . 34 Scenery around the capital — Its picturesque situation — Rugged streets and paths — Houses and other buildings — Recent introduction of Vin CONTENTS. PAGE bricks — Roj-al palaces — Faravohitra — Ancient gateway — Sacred stones — Weekly market of Zoma — Amusements — L.M.S. churches and religious institutions — Ambatonakanga Church — Other memorial churches — " Mother churches " and districts — Chapel Royal — Sunday observance — Colleges and school-buildings — Dispensaries and hos- pitals — Other missions — Extent of Christian work carried on — Civi- lising work of L.M.S. mission — Population — Plans of the capital — Antananarivo the heart of Madagascar. CHAPTER IV. THE CHAXGIXG YEAR IN CENTRAL MAD.^GASCAR : NOTES ON THE CLIMATES, AGRICULTURE, SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE, AND VARIED ASPECTS OF THE MONTUS . . . • 5^ The seasons in Madagascar — Their significant names — Prospect from summit of Antananarivo — The great rice-plain — Springtime : Septem- ber to October — Rice-planting and rice-fields — First crop — Trees and foliage — " Burning the Downs " — Birds — Summer : November to Feb- ruary — Thunderstorms and tropical rains — Effects on roads — Rain- fall — Hail — Magnificent lightning effects — Malagasy New Year — Native calendar — Royal bathing — Conspicuous flowers — Aloes and agaves — Christmas Day observances — Uniformity in length of days — Native words and phrases for divisions of time — and for natural phenomena — Effects of heavy rains — Wild flowers of Imerina — Autumn : March and April — Rice harvest — Harvest thanksgiving ser- vices — Mist effects on winter mornings — Spiders' webs — Winter : May to August — Winter the dry season — Ancient villages and fosses — Hova tombs — Great markets — Aspects of nightly sky — Epidemics in cold season — Vegetation. CHAPTER V. THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA : ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES AND LEGENDARY HISTORY ; AND THE VOLCANIC REGIONS OF THE INTERIOR 82 Ancient volcanoes of Central Madagascar — Hot springs — Fossil re- mains in limestone deposits — Crater lake of Andraikiba — Tritriva Lake — Colour of water — Remarkable appearance of lake — \'^iew from crater walls — Mr. Baron on volcanic phenomena — Ankaratra Moun- tain — Ancient crater — Lava streams — Volcanic rocks — Recent character of volcanic action. CHAPTER VI. AMBATOVORY : ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS IN MADAGASCAR ; WITH NATURAL HISTORY AND OTHER NOTES . . . '97 The rest-house — Amboniloha Hill— A deserted village — Ambatovory rock — Woodland paths — Birds — Lizards and chameleons — Grass- CONTENTS. IX PAGE hoppers — Protective colouring — Warring colours — Beetles — Ants and ant-nests — Ball insects — Spiders — Butterflies — King butterflj- — Solitary wasps — Wasp nests — Angavokely Mountain — Extensive prospect. CHAPTER VII. MALAGASY PLACE- XAMES IO9 Mixed nomenclature of coast and interior places — Early European influence — Arab and Portuguese names — Influence of fady or taboo — Name of Madagascar — Mountain names — The name-prefixes An- and Am — Height and prominence — Mystery and dread — Size — Words meaning rock and stone — Animals and birds — Personal names for hills — Grandeur of mountain scenery — River names — Descriptive epithets — Lake names — Town and village names — Dual names — Names of capital and its divisions — Town names from natural features — forests — river banks — from animals — Personal — Tribal — Province names — Appendix on Betsileo place-names. CHAPTER VIII. CURIOUS WORDS AND CUSTOMS COXXECTED WITH CHIEFTAIXSHIP AXD ROYALTY AMOXG THE MALAGASY ; AXD NOTES OF THE SIGN AXD GESTURE LAXGUAGE I49 The Betsileo^Special words, or " chief's language " — in Malayo- Polynesian languages — for Malagas^' sovereigns — Illness and death — Burial — Mourning — Diseases — Royal sei-vants — Royal houses — Chief's words among Betsileo — for family of chiefs — for elderly chiefs — for chiefs old and young — Extreme honour paid to chiefs — Fady or taboo in words — Tabooed animals — Roj-al names — Sacred character of — Veneration for royalty — Sakalava chiefs — Posthumous names — Relics of the sign and gesture language — Salutations — Sym- bolic acts — Royalty — " Licking the sole " — Knbhiys — The taboo. CHAPTER IX. MALAGASY FOLK-LORE AXD POPULAR SUPERSTITION'S . . . I74 Animals — The ox — Birds — Insects — Fabulous animals — Fatiauy, or seven-headed serpent — Footprints of giants — Trees and plants — Ordeals — Folk-lore of life — Lucky and unlucky actions — Sickness and death — Witchcraft and charms — Food and ftidy of the Sihanaka — Snakes and lemurs — Tabooed days — in clans — and villages — Good omens — for food — and wealth — Evil omens — as to famine — Trade — Poverty, and death — Weather prognostics — Various portents — dreams. CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE MALAGASY ORATORY, ORNAMENTS OF SPEECH, SYMBOLIC ACTIONS, AND CONUNDRUMS 19! Introductory historical sketch — Folk-lore — Folk-tales — Proverbs — Kahavy — Oratory and figures of speech — The desolate one — Mutual love — The bird — A divorced wife — Transitoriness of life — Bereave- ment — Death — Imagination — Boasting — The crocodile — A place for everything — Filial love — Friendship — Thanksgiving — Evil speech — Symbolic acts — The two kings — The heir to the throne — Riddles and conundrums. CHAPTER XI. MALAGASY SONGS, POETRY, CHILDREN'S GAMES, AND MYTHICAL CREATURES 213 Songs to the sovereign — Dirges — Sihanaka laments — Ballad of Benandro — Friendship — Children's games — Rasariiidra — Soanuditra — Sakada — "Leper" game — "Star killing" — New Year's games — Counting games — Marvellous creatures — Songoniby — Fanany, or seven- headed serpent — Tokandia, or " Singlefoot " — Kindly — Doiia, or Pily (serpent) — Laloiucna (Hippopotamus ?) — Angaliipona — Siona. CHAPTER Xn. MALAGASY FOLK-TALES AND FABLES 237 Bonia — Crocodile and dog — Three sisters and Itrimobe — The members of the body— The little bird— Rapeto— The lost Son of God— The five fingers — The earth and the skies — The birds choosing a king — The lizards — Hawk and hen — Vazimba — Chameleon and lizard — Serpent and frog — The rice and sugar-cane — Two rogues — Wild hog and rat. CHAPTER XHI. DIVINATION AMONG THE MALAGASY, TOGETHER WITH NATIVE IDEAS AS TO FATE AND DESTINY 262 The Sik'idy — Subject investigated by Mr. Dahle — Little organised idolatry among the Malagasy — Diviners — Divination and fate — Invoca- tion of the Sik'idy — Sixteen figures of the Sikidy — Sixteen columns of the Sikidy — Erecting the Sik)dy — Working of the Sik'idy — Identical figures — Unique figures — Combined figures — Miscellaneous Sik'idy — Gun charms — Trade charms — Medicinal charms — Fortunate places and daj's — Ati-pdko — Fate as told by zodiac and moon — Lucky and unlucky days — House divinations — Fate as told by the planets — Days of the week — Decreasing influence of the Sik'idy. CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XIV. PAGE FUNERAL CEREMONIES AMONG THE MALAGASY .... 286 Two great divisions of the people — Idea of impurity in connection with death — A revolting custom — Funeral feasts — Tankarana — Their carved coffins — Analogies to those of Philippine Islanders — Betsimi- saraka — Ranomena — Tambahoaka, Taimoro and Tanosy — The Fanano — Tandroy and Mahafaly — Sakalava — The Zomba, or sacred house — The Vazimba — Behisotra and Tandrona — Sihanaka — Bezanozano — Tanala — Vorimo — Ikongo — Hova — Betsileo — Bara — Funeral of Radama I. — Enormous wealth put in tomb — Silver coffin. CHAPTER XV. DECORATIVE CARVING ON WOOD, ESPECIALLY ON THE BURIAL MEMORIALS OF THE BETSILEO MALAGASY ; TOGETHER WITH NOTES ON THE HANDICRAFTS OF THE MALAGASY AND NATIVE PRODUCTS 313 Absence of artistic feeling among the Hova — The Betsileo — Carved memorial posts — Various forms of tombs — Character of the carving Vafo laky, or memorial stones — Graves of great depths — Carving in houses — Collection of rubbings — General style of ornamentation — Symbolic meaning ? — Malagasy handicrafts — Spinning and weaving — Different kinds of cloth — Straw-work — Bark-cloth — Metal-work — Pottery — Building — Canoes and boats — Cultivated products of country — Exports. CHAPTER XVI. ODD AND CURIOUS EXPERIENCES OF LIFE IN MADAGASCAR . . 335 The comic element everywhere present — First experiences — Native dress — Borrowed garments — Christmas Day exhibition — Interruptions to Divine service — A nation of bald-heads — Native houses and their inmates — Receptions by Hova governors — Native feasts — Queer articles of food — F^irst attempts at speaking Malagasy — " Try a rela- tive " — Transformations of English names — Biblical names — Odd names — English mistakes — The "southern" side of his moustache — Funeral presents — Church decoration — Offertory bo.xes — Deacon's duties. CHAPTER XVII. THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF MADAGASCAR IN CONNECTION WITH THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND ; WITH NOTICES OF THE EXTINCT FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE OF THE COUNTRY . 353 General characteristics of mammalian fauna — Remarkable difference to that of Africa — An ancient island — Wallace's " Island Life " — Ori- ental and Australian affinities — Vegetable productions — Botanising in Xll CONTENTS. Madagascar — Three-fourths of the flora endemic in the island — Three different regions described by Mr. Baron — Floral beauty — Orchids — The eastern region — The central region — The western region — Extinct forms of animal life — Grandidier's discoveries — Geology — Huge lemuroid — Link between apes and lemurs — Small hippopota- mus — The .(Epyornis — Crocodiles — Enormous terrestrial lizard — Primaeval Madagascar. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. CENTRAL PORTION OF AXTAXAXARIVO . 2. HOW WE TRAVEL IX MADAGASCAR 3. CAXOES OX RIVER NEAR COAST . 4. VILLAGE OX COAST 5. STOXE GATEWAY OF AXCIEXT TOWXS IX LMERIXA 6. XORTHERX PART OF AXTAXAXARIVO 7. VIEW FROM AXDOHALO .... 8. AXTAXAXARIVO FROM THE WEST. SOUTH EXD OF CITY To face p. 52 9. A SAKALAVA WARRIOR . 10. BETSIMISARAKA WOMEN Fro itisf> iece To face P- I M 4 n 15 M 26 >» 34 M 46 11. TAISAKA CHIEFS . 12. BETSIMISARAKA CEMETERY 13. MALAGASY LOOM, AXD WEAVIXG A LAMBA 14. A HOVA OFFICER, MAL.AGASY ARMY 15. travellers' TREES, LOWER FOREST . 16. RIVER SCEXE IN FOREST 149 191 286 290 336 353 368 CHAPTER I. FROM COAST TO CAPITAL; NOTES OF A JOURNEY FROM MAHANORO TO ANTANANARIVO. Various routes to interior — Mahanoro — Madagascar travelling — Filanjana or Palanquin — Native bearers — Native villages — Betsimisaraka cemetery — Canoe travelling — Canoe songs — Tropical vegetation — The Traveller's-tree — Scenery — Native houses and arrangements — A tiring Sunday's journey — Butterflies and birds — A village congregation — Forest scenery and luxuriance — Romantic glens and glades — Upland and extensive prospects — In Imerina at last — Over old haunts in forest — Mantasoa and its workshops — Native bridges — ^War preparations — A hearty welcome to the capital. AT the time of the Franco-Malagasy war of 1 883-1 885, the route to the capital from the East Coast, by way of Tamatave, was closed for many months, and the roads from Mahanoro and Mananjara became the usual route of foreigners coming into the interior. It was my good fortune to be able to come up to Imerina by the Mahanoro route in the month of November, 1883 ; and it may perhaps not be uninteresting to give here the substance of my daily notes describing our journey. We found ourselves, early in the afternoon of Thursday, November 8th, fairly on our way towards the interior. Our carriages were the ordinary native filanjana, or light, open palanquin ; our motive power, strong Malagasy bearers, eight to each person, in two sets of four each ; the roads we traversed, the paths made simply by the bare feet of the natives, generation after generation, mounting hills, floundering through bogs, and wading through streams, just as they happened to come ; our 2 « 2 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. inns, the huts of rush or wood, innocent alike of doors or windows, table or chairs or beds, and boasting only a clean mat spread for us over many dirty ones ; our cuisine, the rice and fowls always to be got on the way, supplemented by a few stores taken in tin boxes ; and our accommodation for the night, light, portable " stretchers " carried by our men, with the bedding secured in similar watertight contrivances. Our party consisted of my wife and little girl, two years old, and myself, together with our friend Mr. Houlder. I should perhaps add a few words here in answer to a possible question as to what kind of vehicle we travel in in Madagascar. This contrivance, generally called " palanquin " by Europeans, but filanjana by the Malagasy (from the verb inildnja, to carry on the shoulder), consists of a couple of light, strong poles, about lo feet long, kept together by two stout iron rods, and with a seat framed of iron and covered with leather, hung from the poles. Ladies' filanjana are a kind of oblong basket, made of fine strips of sheepskin plaited together, and carried on two poles made of the strong but light midrib of the leaves of the rofia palm. When travelling long distances, a hood of rofia cloth is fixed over ladies' filanjana as a protection from the sun and rain. The " bearers " are, as a rule, strong, active, and cheerful fellows, generally very kind and helpful, and most careful of the safety of those whom they carry, hour after hour and day after day, on their shoulders. The first stage of our journey was northwards, along a sandy breadth of land, between the belt of trees which line the coast and the lagoons. Beyond these trees, to the left, extends some wooded country, with a range of low hills west of it, gradually approaching the lagoons, and then showing line after line of higher hills towards the interior. The Traveller's-tree is very plentiful, as well as several species of Pandanus, and large Arums in the shallow waters. After four hours and a quarter's steady march we came to a village called Beparasy, with FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. 3 nearly one hundred houses. This afternoon we passed a small Betsimisaraka cemetery, where we saw at a little distance the curious fashion they have of wrapping up the corpses in mats and enclosing them in planks, and then fixing them on a stage, 4 or 5 feet above the ground.^ Near the village were tombs of a different description, resembling a house-roof, en- closed by a double line of pointed stakes. In the centre of the village is fixed a post, whose top is sharpened into two long " horns," and on this are the mouldering remains of an ox-skull. This, they told us, was a circumcision memorial. Friday, Nov. gth. — We were up soon after four o'clock, got our things packed, had a good breakfast, took our quinine, and were all clear away before six o'clock. Going down to the foot of the rising ground on which the village is built, we came to a narrow creek, where a canoe was awaiting us. Going along this creek we came to a broader reach of the lagoon, and were soon admiring the great Vtha arums, 9 or 10 feet high, just flowering, and one of the various species of Pandanus, which has an almost grotesque but withal a very graceful and slender outline. After passing through another short, narrow channel, we came out on a broad, widespreading lake. Few experiences are more pleasant in Madagascar travelling than to glide rapidly down or across one of the large rivers in the early morning — the time when the eastern rivers, at least, are the smoothest — and in a large canoe, with plenty of paddlers, to listen to the rowers' songs, which are often both amusing and musical. They will frequently improvise a song, one of them keeping up a recitative, in which circumstances which have occurred on the journey are introduced, while the others chime in with a chorus at regular intervals, a favourite one being " He ! misy vd ? " — " Oh ! is there some ? " This question refers to various good things they hope to get at the end of the day's journey, such as plenty of rice, beef, sweet-potatoes, &c., these • See subsequent chapter on " P'uneral Ceremonies," for fuller information on tombs and burial customs. 4 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. articles of food being mentioned one after another by the leader of the song. A little delicate flattery of their employer, the Englishman they are rowing, is often introduced, and praises of his hoped-for generosity in providing these luxuries for them ; something in this style : — E, misy va ? Oh, is there any ? E, misy re ! O yes, there's some ! E, ny vorontsiloza, zalahy e ? Oh the turkeys, lads, O ? E, misy re ! O yes, there's some ! E, ny gisy matavy, zalahy e ? Oh the plump-looking geese, lads, O ? E, misy re ! O yes, there's some ! E, ny akoho manatody, zalahy e ? Oh the egg-laying fowls, lads, O ? E, misy re ! O yes, there's some ! E, ny Vazaha be vola, zalahy e ? Oh the very rich foreigner, lads, O ? E, misy re ! O yes, here he is ! and so on, ad libitum. In another song heard by the writer on the Matitanana river (south-east coast), the chorus was Mandany vatsy, Toaniasina malaza e ! " ix., " Consumes provisions for the way, famous Tamatave O ! " while the recitative brought in all the different villages on the journey from Tamatave to the capital, ending with Andohalo (the central space), and Avara-drova (the northern and chief entrance to the palace). The lagoons of the eastern coast form a very marked feature in the physical geography of the island. They extend for more than three hundred miles, that is, from north of Tamatave to south of Mananjara, forming an almost continuous line ; at least the cutting of about thirty miles of canal would make them into an uninterrupted waterway between all the chief ports of the eastern coast. During the reign of the enlightened Radama I. (i 8 19-1828) the work of uniting these lagoons was commenced, but was soon stopped by his death. It may be hoped that it will not be long before this work will be again taken in hand. It would, doubtless, be of great value to the commerce and inter-communication of the eastern coast. These coast lagoons sometimes take the form of a river, FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. 5 running for several miles in almost a straight line, while in many places they broaden out into extensive lakes. After leaving the canoes we began to turn westward and then north-westward, over a wooded country. The most notice- able feature in the vegetation is the Traveller's-tree, which is very abundant, almost covering the hills wherever the virgin forest has been cut down. The Pandanus and the 7'ofia palm are also very plentiful ; and the dense secondary woods, through which the narrow path winds, were most beautiful, many trees and plants being just at the time of flowering. On all parts of the East Coast, from the sea level up to i,ooo feet above the sea, the most prominent and interesting tree is this well-known Traveller's-tree. This tree, which seems to form a link between the bananas and the palms, gives a peculiar character to the vegetation, and at once marks the landscape as a Madagascar one. From a palm-like trunk, usually from lo to 30 feet high, but in certain situations reaching from two to three times the latter height, springs a gigantic fan of long and broad leaves like those of a banana, often forming an almost complete circle of 20 to 30 feet in diameter. These have a peculiar effect, especially when a line of them crown the sides and summit of a hill. Mr. Ellis has compared them to the feathered crest in the head-dress of an Indian sachem, and there is much truth in the comparison. Although it has been sometimes denied, it is perfectly true that a good supply of pure and cool water can always be obtained by piercing the base of the leaf stalks ; and I have myself been thankful, when travelling along the coast, and could get no water except from the stagnant and brackish contents of the lagoons, to tap these living fountains and take a hearty draught from the Traveller's-tree. The Longbzy (cardamom) is also very abundant, and the small curving Bamboo. We soon began to ascend hill after hill, and presently caught sight of the sea, many miles behind us. The hills and forest appear to come here nearer to the 6 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. coast than on the Tamatave route. On reaching the end of a ridge, we caught sight of a river roaring over rapids below us, a mile or two away, and flowing to the sea (at Marosiky). We had a long ride of (including stoppages for canoes) five hours and twenty minutes. Many of the ascents and descents were very steep, and the paths narrow. There appears to be a con- siderable number of small villages on the road. Our after- noon's ride was much shorter than that of the morning, two hours and a half only, but generally following the valley of the pretty river Manampotsy, which flows westwards and southward, frequently foaming over rocky bars and rapids. We passed large masses of pinkish quartz, and in some places the rocks in the bed of the river were tilted, with their strata almost perpendicular. All over this country the air was thick with the smoke from the burning of the trees and grass on the hillsides, in order to plant rice in the ashes — a most wasteful and bar- barous custom, which causes a great destruction not only of the secondary woods and jungle, but also of the virgin forest. Before four o'clock we stopped at a village called Ambodimanga, built on rising ground some 200 feet or so above the river, which here flows nearly north and south. On both sides of the river- valley rise high hills to a height of several hundred feet, and covered with patches of old forest on their summits. Saturday, Nov. \oth. — W^e must now have ascended to between 1,000 and 2,000 feet above the sea, and a thick rug became a very comfortable covering towards the small hours of the morning. We were off before six o'clock, and immediately commenced a steep ascent of several hundred feet. Our road lay along a ridge, and then west and north- west, up and down, over some very rough paths. The river Manampotsy is still our companion to the right, flowing along due east. Here there is no continuous forest, but only patches of it left on the summits and sides of the hills. We made a short morning's ride of two and a half hours, and stopped at a village called Antanambe. In the house where we rested were FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. J a number of pretty little mats called lakatra, about i8 inches square, with a variety of patterns in brown straw. These, they told us, were for ornamenting the house, and were here fixed on the walls. We tried to buy some, but they had none new enough to sell us. In these Betsimisaraka houses the arrangement of the single room is thus : door at the left-hand side ; another facing it on the opposite side ; on the right-hand nearest corner, as you enter, is the hearth, with four massive posts supporting two stages, and called salazana. Near the door is fixed a large cylindrical box, hollowed out of a tree trunk, 3 feet high and i8 inches wide, and used for storing rice. As in Hova houses, the soot is allowed to accumulate, and to hang in long strings from the roof. Our second stage, of between six and seven hours, was very hot and wearisome. We crossed a lovely glen, with rocks and stream overhung by forest, and here the men enjoyed a bathe. During the afternoon we crossed the higher waters of the Manampotsy, here flowing from the south. We stayed for nearly an hour, about half way, under some trees, to rest a little from the great heat. The hills around are very high, and are covered with virgin forest. The house in which we stayed for the night was the smallest in which we have yet put up ; it was only about 12 feet by 10 feet, and had about as much room as we should have had in the cabin of a ship. This was the coldest night we have yet had. We fairly entered the great forest before getting to our halting-place. Sunday, Nov. 1 1 th. — This day's march, of more than six hours, was through a part of the old forest ; some of the trees were of great height, but none were of considerable bulk. I was struck by the variety of lichens and mosses on the tree trunks ; on some single trees there must have been dozens of different species, but not being on foot one could collect only by making a snatch at some of the aerial lichens, which were within reach of one's hand. I noticed that the forest was by no means so silent as I had remarked at other times. Former 8 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. journeys were made, however, in the colder winter months of the year, but now that the warm weather is approaching, some bird or other was almost always heard. Every quarter of a mile or so we heard the noisy call of the Kankcifotra Cuckoo, kow-kow, kow-kow, repeated ; then the flute-call of another cuckoo, the Tolbho, whose notes were heard all the way from Mahanoro ; also the chirp and whistle of the Railovy or King- crow, as well as the incessant twitter of many smaller birds. Then came, now and then, the melancholy cries of the Lemurs high up among the trees. Numerous butterflies crossed our path, seven or eight different species at least: the rather common green one with yellow spots, the blackish brown with two large blue spots, the widely distributed brown one with black-edged wings, the pure white one, the white with orange edges, white with black edges, white with crimped edges, the small yellow species, the small buff, the minute brown and blue, and many others. We have now lost the Traveller's-tree ; the rofia palm, however, is seen in the damp hollows, but not so large as lower down the country. The Bamboo, a slender graceful species, growing singly and bending over in an arched form, is plentiful in some of the valleys and on the hillsides. Here and there, high up on the hills, I caught the blaze of colours of one of those called Flamboyant. But the most plentiful tree with bright-coloured flowers is one bearing pinkish-red flowers, on some of which there is a mass of yellow stamens. At last we came up to a village, called Antenimbe, where we got a much larger house than on the previous evening. We were glad to throw ourselves on the mats and lie down until dinner was ready. The heat was very great and stifling in the houses with their single door. But by five o'clock I was ready to take part in our little service, which we held out of doors. Most of our bearers came, and some of the people of the village. We sang three or four hymns ; one of our bearers prayed, and H. and I both read a portion of Scripture and gave a short exposition. FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. 9 Monday, Nov. I2th. — We have to-day been travelling more than nine hours. Our road lay first to the south, so as to get round a towering height, and then turned westward through deep valleys, with a sparkling river, which we repeatedly crossed. Again we noticed the destruction of the forest and the wanton waste of the trees. We stopped at a small village of some sixteen houses, after nearly three and a half hours' ride. We now ascended to the pass between the ridge of mountains which bounds the eastern side of the Mangoro valley, and must have risen 500 or 700 feet before gaining the summit. On our right a river, broken by many rocks and falls, poured eastward. In the small space allowed by the river-bed the trees rose to an unusual height, and on either side of the gorge forest-clothed mountains towered to elevations of at least 2,000 feet above us. The path was difficult, but the deep cuttings we continually passed through were fringed by ferns and other plants. I noticed, however, that all along the route we had come there were no orchids, at least none conspicuous by flowering, and hardly any palms. At one point I noticed a nest suspended from a twig over the water, in shape exactly resembling that of an inverted chemical retort, and made by the Fbdifetsy, or " Crafty Weaver " {Ploceus pens His). At last we reached the highest point of the pass, and began to descend by a path more steep and rugged than the one we had mounted by. Gradually we got clear of the forest, and the view would have been magnificent had it not been dimmed by the clouds of smoke rising in every direction from the burning forest. At one place we were almost suffocated by the blazing wood and jungle close to our path, and narrowly escaped being stopped by the flames. Presently we caught a glimpse of the Mangoro far below, and we could hardly have descended less than 1,000 feet from the summit of the pass to the river level. Beyond the river the western range of moun- tains rose in great grandeur, line after line — all forest-clad ; these form the eastern edge of the upper plateau ; and I do 10 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. not remember to have seen anywhere else in Madagascar such a magnificent mountain scene. At a little before two o'clock we got down to the Mangoro, here a smooth rapid stream from 200 to 300 feet wide, and in a few minutes were ferried across in a large new lakana (canoe). It was easy to .see that at this point the physical geography of the country is very different from that of the same river valley on the Tamatave route. There — between Moramanga and the Ifody hills — it widens out into an extensive plain, but here the river valley is very narrow, the mountains descending by steep slopes, and rising on the western side, as already remarked, into ridges of great height. Our road lay along the valley, generally following the course of the stream. It can be traversed by canoes for no great distance, since it is broken up repeatedly by rocky bars and by falls over ledges of rock ; at one point it is contracted to a narrow gorge, through which the water rushes with a tremendous swirl and roar. We were glad, after our long ride of nine hours, to see a small village, Andranotsara, before us, on a rising ground 80 or 90 feet above the river. We found two sufficiently decent houses in the fifteen or sixteen composing the village. Here- abouts the wet culture of rice begins ^ ; and here the people brought us small presents. Tuesday^ Nov. 1 2th. — We left Andranotsara at five o'clock, and for two hours went northward, following the course of the Mangoro, which is beset with rocks, and forms rapids and falls in several places. A bright, clear river, the Mana- kona, falls into the larger one close to a village of the same name. After this we left the river, and began a long, stiff ascent up the hills on the west side of the river valley. Our road then turned west and north-west over rugged ground — hill and valley, through patches of old forest, with difficult paths. Then the road cut diagonally across the spurs of a ' For fuller information as to rice culture in Madagascar, see subsequent chapter on " The Changing Year." FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. II rock-capped and forest-covered hill, called Marivolanitra. Rounding one shoulder of this, we now saw part of the Ankay plain, the Moramanga hills on the east, the great mass of Ifody standing out like an outwork of the walls of the central plateau, and then Angavo and the line of hills which form the edge of the interior highland. The Ankay plain appears to end here, southwards, rather abruptly. The Angavo chain of heights seems to curve round in crescent-shaped masses, and then joins the mountains which bound the Mangoro valley. Near Fari- himazava we found a flourishing rice valley cultivated after the Hova fashion, and the appearance of the country and the methods of cultivation told us that we were getting near Imerina. After four and a half hours' ride we came to the village of Beparasy, quite a Hova-looking place, with the houses made of thick planking, " horns " to the gables, and a native chapel. Here the people brought us rice and eggs for our entertainment. Leaving again after noon, we had a weary journey over another great mass of hill, and then over the plain, still going north-west, and approaching the blue, forest-covered slopes of the wall of the plateau. We were glad at a little before five o'clock to stop at a poor little hamlet, called Ambodimivongo, where, however, we both got tolerably good houses ; but the bearers of our luggage only just managed to get in in time to escape a heavy thunderstorm. Our house began to leak a little ; but happily it rained heavily only for a short time. This is the beginning of the rainy season in the interior, but thus far we have had no rain on our journey, and so our things have kept dry. We ha\-e also had no annoyance from rats, and hardly any from mosquitoes. The people of the houses, here have been more intelligent and conversable than at most of the places where we have stayed. They brought us wild raspberries and blackberries as soon as they found we appreciated these fruits. The former we have had as dessert almost all the way up from the coast, and a very acceptable addition to our fare they have proved. I^ MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Wednesday, Nov. iJith. — There was a thick drizzly rain as we commenced our ascent up the hills into the regions of the interior. In a little time we got up to Andrangoloaka. A great many trees and plants were in flower, and the deep cuttings through which the path winds were lined with ferns and other plants. For nearly two and a half hours we made an uninterrupted ascent, very difficult in many places, and the rain was still falling. Then we came to a part of the forest where we recog- nised some of our favourite haunts during our holidays at Andrangoloaka, but when we came up to the house we were grieved to see how it was falling into ruin through neglect. The old house-keeper and his wife immediately recognised us, and were the first to welcome us to Imerina, Then we descended the hill, and after an hour or more we came to the single-plank bridges over deep water, which had always been a terror in the journey to or from Andrangoloaka, and now seemed more difficult than ever, but which we crossed in safety. After nearly five hours' ride we came to Mantasoa, and its ruined workshops and houses constructed by M. Laborde. We stayed for lunch at the large house, and here felt we were getting back to civilisation again, as we ate our meal off a table and sat to it on chairs ! Mantasoa was a remarkable place, for Madagascar, and when I first visited it, in 1872, was in a much more perfect state of preservation tnan it was at the time of this journey in 1883. It was a large collection of massively built workshops, made for the manufacture of cannon, pottery, glass, gunpowder, brass, steel, paints, soap, refined sugar, bricks and tiles, &c. These were erected during the reign of the Queen Ranavalona I. (1828-1861), under the direction of M. Laborde, a Frenchman of great skill and inventive genius. To supply power for the various workshops, a stream was diverted from the river close by and brought by iron aqueducts into the buildings so as to turn a number of large water-wheels. At the time of my first FROM COAST TO CAPITAL. 1 3 visit to Mantasoa the largest workshop was still crowned by its high-pitched roof covered with tiles. The walls of this building are of dressed stonework, massive as that of a castle and about 6 feet in thickness. In this building the furnaces and cannon- casting apparatus were still existing, and in the four smaller workshops much of the water-wheel machinery still remained. The forge, of beautifully dressed stone, had then its roof nearly perfect, surrounding the openings to the furnaces ; and there were two kilns, also of well-finished masonry, for firing the pottery manufactured there. Many of the buildings and workshops, however, were made of clay, and had become shapeless heaps of earth. All around the hillsides were covered with the ruins of villages which had been built for the accommodation of the various workpeople, about two thousand in number. One other point may be mentioned in connection with this remarkable creation of M. Laborde's skill, but one of a less pleasing character, viz., that during the long persecution between the years 1 836-1861, many of the Malagasy Christians had to work as a punishment at these great buildings. For several years some of them had to labour in quarrying the stone and in building these massive workshops. I have been told by the pastor of one of the country churches formerly under my charge, that he and others had no rest either on Sundays or on other days, and that their bondage was very severe, many of them dying under its pressure. So that the accession of Radama II. was welcomed by them especially as a time of " liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that were bound." A leisurely ride of about two hours brought us early in the afternoon to Ambatomanga ; and here we stayed at the big house of the Andnana, the feudal lord of the place, where we enjoyed the comfort of a good house, and had a good deal of talk with the native evangelist stationed here. For the first time we came upon signs of war preparation : all the lads were armed with shield and spear, and are being constantly exercised 14 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. in their use. Going to the tomb on the rock above the town, just before sunset, the great, bare hills, with their bones of rock showing through the skin of turf; the bright, fresh green of the newly planted rice-fields ; the red clay roads on the brownish- green hills, all told us we were again in the heart of Madagascar. It is needless to describe our five hours' ride into Antananarivo on the following day, or the hearty welcome from our friends, both English and Malagasy, on our arrival. This was all the more hearty, as we had come up when war was going on, and when some had feared to come at all at such a time. But we never doubted then or afterwards that we did the right thing, for our work suffered little interruption during the war, and our help was needed after six years' absence from the country and the people whom we wished to serve. CHAPTER II. IMERIXA, THE CEXTRAL PROVINCE ; ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES AXD VILLAGE LIFE, Recent advances in knowledge of Madagascar geography — Recent journeys — Tamatave — Mode of travelling — Coast lagoons — Scenery — Forest and climb- ing plants — Ankay Plain — Upper forest belt — Imerina or Ankova, " Home of theHova" — Mountains and prominent peaks — Bare uplands — Geology and colour of soil — Extinct volcanoes — Watershed of island — Lakes — Population — Sacred towns — Village fortifications — Maps of Imerina — An Imerina village — Ancient villages on high hills — Hova houses and arrangements — Ox- fattening pits — Native tombs — Trees — Hova children and games — Village chapels and schools. SINCE 1 86 1, when the reign of terror under the Queen Ranavalona I. came to an end, great advances have been made in our knowledge of the topography and physical geography of the island, and of its geology, botany, and natural history ; much has also been ascertained as to its people, their divisions, language, customs, traditions, and folk-lore ; and every year sees additions made to a fuller understanding both of Madagascar and of the Malagasy. Papers on the geography of the island, and describing various exploratory journeys, have appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and in those of the Scottish Geographical Society ; and we owe much to the late Rev, Dr. Mullens, the Rev. W. Deans Cowan, Mr. William Johnson, Captain S. P. Oliver, and others, for thus giving the results either of their own researches, or for sum- 15 l6 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. marising the journeys of other travellers.^ Comparatively little, however, has been made known as to the central province of Imerina, the heart of Madagascar, the home of the dominant tribe, the Hova, and the centre of government ; or about the capital city, Antananarivo, where civilisation, education, and Christianity have made the greatest progress. Before, however, describing Imerina, I will give a very brief summary of what has been done during the last few years to fill up the blanks on the map of the great island. In 1879 I con- tributed a paper to the Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, entitled, "The History and Present Condition of our Geographical Knowledge of Madagascar," in which I pointed out what had been done up to that date 2 ; and since then several journeys have been made in various directions into regions either previously alto- gether unknown or only very superficially explored. In the years 1877 and 1878 journeys were made in the northern and north-western parts of the island, as well as from thence to the capital, by a German naturalist. Dr. Chr. Ruten- berg. His researches added a good deal to botany and natural history, but not much to geography, although probably we should have learnt more on this point but for his murder by his treacherous native followers. It was not until 1880 that detailed accounts were published of his collections and dis- coveries. A valuable addition was made in 1882 to our knowledge of the southern central provinces of Betsileo, Bara, and Tanala, by a paper contributed to the Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. by the Rev. W. D. Cowan, giving a very full map of those portions of Madagascar from personal survey. Mr. Cowan was a mis- sionary of the London Missionary Society in the Betsileo for several years, and utilised his numerous journeys for teaching ' I would remark here that I must not be understood as ignoring the valuable work of several French cartographers, as MM. Laillet and Suberbie, Pere Roblet, and especially M. Alfred Grandidier. In the above paragraph I am specially noticing the work of English labourers in the field of Madagascar geography. = This paper fonns the first chapter of The Great African Island. IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 17 and evangelising by doing useful geographical work, as well as by contributing to fuller knowledge of the natural history of the island. During the progress of the Franco-Malagasy war in 1884, an American naval officer, Lieut. Mason Shufeldt, made a journey from Morondava, on the west coast, to Antananarivo. I have, however, been unable to obtain any account of Lieut. Shufeldt's travels, although, no doubt, full reports have been presented to the United States Government. In 1886 my friend, the Rev. R. Baron, F.L.S., made a long journey through the Antsihanaka province northwards, and crossing to the north-west coast, by the districts called x'\ndr6na and Befandriana, to the Hova garrison town of Anorontsanga. The most interesting discovery was the former existence of a large lake, running north and south for more than two hundred miles, with a breadth of from fifteen to twenty miles. Of this lake, the present lake of Alaotra, in Antsihanaka, about twenty- five miles long, is the small and still slowly diminishing remnant. Mr. Baron traced indubitable proofs of the former height of the waters of this ancient lake at no less than 1,140 feet above the present level of the Alaotra, and he was enabled to make important additions to our knowledge of the geology of Madagascar, which he communicated in a paper to the Geo- logical Society in 1889. During 1887 Mr, Neilsen-Lund visited a part of the Bara province, and also the district inhabited by the "emigrant Tanosy," being for some time in no little peril from the un- friendly Bara people. He then turned to the south-east, over mountainous and desert country, eventually reaching the Hova military post of Fort Dauphin, at the south-eastern corner of the island. Unfortunately his journey, although very interest- ing, added little to the map of Madagascar. The same must be also said about two journeys made in 1888 by the Rev. E. O. MacMahon, of the Anglican mission, to the west of the island into the Sakalava country, to the 3 l8 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. district occupied by the Betsiriry tribe. In 1888 also the Antanambalana river, flowing into Antongil Bay, was sur- veyed by Mr. L. H, Ransome, and a detailed map of its course, with descriptive paper, appeared in the Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. for May of the following year. A fully equipped expedition, under MM. Catat and Maistre, arrived in Madagascar in 1889, and explored portions of the eastern side of the island, and crossed the previously un- mapped region of the extreme south. Excursions were made in various directions from the capital, and then the old route from Imerina to Tamatave was explored ; this proved to be difficult to traverse, taking about three times as many days as the usual route. The principal journey was through the Betsileo province into the Bara country, and then into that of the " emigrant Tanosy." The sources of the river Onilahy were discovered, and important corrections made in the mapping of its course. The region to Fort Dauphin was crossed, and the fertile valley of Ambolo visited ; and the expedition returned to Betsileo through the Antaisaka country. The botanical and natural history collections made by MM. Catat and Maistre are extensive and valuable, as well as those relative to anthropology and ethnology ; and these have now been described in French, English, and German geographical and other scientific journals. In 1 89 1 another long journey, covering more than a thousand miles of country, was made by Mr. Baron along the north-east and north-west coasts of Madagascar, as far as the extreme northerly point of the island. Detailed accounts of this journey have been published : two, giving information as to topography, ethnology, and philology, in the Antananarivo Annual for 1892 and 1893, under the title of "Twelve Hundred Miles in a Palanquin " ; and another, with maps, in Quai't. Joiirn. Geol. Soc. 1895, giving the geological results of the journey. (This is reproduced in the last number of the Aftnual, xix., 1895.) In concluding this brief sketch of the most important journeys made in Madagascar during the last few years, I IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. I9 may also mention the issue by the eminent French traveller and scientist, M. Alfred Grandidier (Member of the Institute), of the geographical section of his great work on Madagascar, in from twenty to thirty quarto volumes, still in progress. In 1879 he published the first part of an atlas of ancient and early maps of the island, including that of the Arabic geo- grapher Edrisi (1153), the curious wall-map at Hereford Cathedral {circa 1300), and other quaint and interesting mediaeval maps, down to those — often very erroneous ones, mere fancy sketches — put forth as " maps of Madagascar," up to as recent a date as thirty years ago. In 1885 M. Grandidier issued a volume of text, giving a detailed historical account of Madagascar map-making, as well as a minute list of the geographical features, place-names, &c., of the entire coast-line of the island. In 1894 a much enlarged edition of this work was published, together with the second part of the atlas of maps, giving fac-similes of other ancient and curious maps of the island, as well as of various portions of the coast, harbours, islands, &c. In 1880 he published a map of the Imerina province to a scale of ^W. ooiT 5 ^"^ i" 1886 a map of the remarkable chain of lagoons on the east coast, extending for about three hundred miles. M. Grandidier is now putting the finishing touches to his atlas of Madagascar maps, in which he will give, to a large scale, the results of all his own explora- tions, and include all geographical data of any value supplied by other travellers up to the present time. The eastern port of Tamatave, not far from the centre of that side of the island, is still, as it has been for more than three hundred years, the usual place of landing for all those who are going to the central province of Imerina and to the capital of the country. Travelling is still in a rather primitive stage in Madagascar. There are no roads practicable for wheeled vehicles, and except a few bullock carts on the level grassy plains of the east coast, there is nothing in the way of carriage 20 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. or waggon for the use of travellers, Europeans, therefore, as well as all well-to-do Malagasy, make use of the light palanquin or Jilanjdna, carried on the shoulders of four stout bearers, who mostly belong to the tribes formerly conquered by the Hova. On long journeys a double set of men is usually taken with each palanquin, while bed and bedding, stores and clothing, and all other necessaries, must also be carried by other bearers. Travelling is tedious as well as expensive. The road from Tamatave to Antananarivo passes first for about sixty miles, or two days' journey, southward, along the coast, generally between the line of lagoons and the sea. The path is perfectly level, along greensward, dotted with clumps of trees and patches of forest, with the lagoons on one side, often expanding into broad lakes of calm water, while on the other we have the Indian Ocean, with the never-ceasing surf, driven by the south-east trade winds. At Andovoranto, canoes are hired for a half-day's voyage up the river Iharoka and one of its tributaries. The palanquin has, however, soon to be resumed, and we begin to traverse hilly country. Here, for about a day's journey, we are in the region of the Traveller's-tree, the Bamboo, and the rofia palm, which fill every hollow, and give a special character to the scenery. We gradually get higher until, as we approach the out- skirts of the forest-belt, we are about 1,300 feet above sea-level. The comparatively easy travelling is now succeeded by three days' very hard work for our bearers, as we cross the forest which extends round so large a portion of the coast regions of Madagascar. The path goes up and down the hills at very steep gradients ; and these ascents and descents are, after two or three days' rain, just slopes of adhesive slippery clay, up and down which our men toil heavily with their loads. The path, although apparently descending as often as it ascends, is really rising to a higher level, and by the time we get clear of forest, we have ascended the first great step upwards to the interior highland. IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 21 Half a day's journey over the Ankay plain, and then across the Mangoro river, brings us to the foot of the second step of our road. Then comes the narrow belt of upper forest, very beautiful, but with as difficult a path through it as on any part of the route ; and then we emerge on the bare hills of the upper region, and are in the province of Imerina. This central region of Madagascar is sometimes termed by the people themselves Ankova, that is, " The place of the Hova," the dominant tribe of the island, who, advancing from the East Coast, drove out the aboriginal inhabitants, the Vazimba, and made it their home, probably many hundred years ago. It is, however, usually called Imerina, a name as to whose origin there have been many conjectures ; the most likely one of these appears to be that it is from a Malagasy root, erina, meaning " elevated," " prominent," " conspicuous." It is difficult to give the exact boundaries or extent of Imerina, as Malagasy pro- vinces are not defined as minutely as English counties. On the east it is marked by the line of upper forest ; on the north and west it shades off into the uninhabited region which there divides the Hova from other tribes ; while on the south it ends at the southern slopes of the Ankaratra mountains, and the thinly peopled region which separates the Hova territory from that of the northern Betsileo. Roughly speaking, Imerina forms an irregular parallelogram, extending about one hundred miles north and south, and about seventy miles from east to west, with an area of about 7,000 square miles — in other words, it is considerably larger than the county of York. Imerina is a mountainous country, with but little level ground except on the western side of Antananarivo, where the dried-up bed of an extensive ancient lake forms the great rice-plain known as Betsimitatatra. This is the granary of the capital, and doubtless accounts for its position, and for the comparatively dense population around it to the north, west, and south. But there are innumerable valleys where the slopes are terraced with rice-plots, like great green staircases, where 22 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. the grain is first sown broadcast, and from which the young plants are taken up and transplanted in the larger fields along the banks of the rivers, and in the beds of small dried-up lakes of ancient date. There are numerous lofty hills, of which Angavokely to the east, Ambohimiangara in the extreme west, Iharanandriana to the south, Milangana, Ambohimanoa, and Andringitra more central, and Ambohipaniry and Vohilena to the north, are the most prominent, all forming capital landmarks and points from which angles can be taken in filling up details of the map. Then on the south-west the whole province is dominated by the central mass of Ankaratra, the peaks of which form the highest points in the island, although they are a little under 9,000 feet above the sea. Mr. Baron calls it " the wreck of a huge but ancient sub-aerial volcano." It covers an area of from fifty to sixty square miles, and its highest peaks, called Tsiafakafo, Tsiafajavona, and Ambohimi- randrina, are visible for an immense distance, especially to the west. Imerina is from 4,000 to 4,500 feet above the sea level, so that, although well within the tropics, it enjoys a temperate climate, made cool and bracing in the cooler season by the south-east trade winds which come fresh and moist over the forest belt and the wooded eastern plains. The atmosphere is wonderfully clear, so that hills many miles away stand out with a distinct outline that is very deceptive to those newly come from our more misty air and our grey English skies. The aspect of this region is bare, as it is destitute of wood, except in the hollows, although there are patches of forest still left in the northern parts of the province. There is a great extent of moor-like hills, so that but for the brilliant sunshine and the generally clear skies, Imerina would, like much of the other central portions of Madagascar, be somewhat dreary, especially as the grass gets brown and parched towards the middle of the dry season. The geological nature of the central region is shown by the numerous masses of granite or gneiss rock which form the IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 23 summits of all the hills. In many cases these take the form of enormous " bosses," or rounded hills of rock ; in others they have the appearance of Titanic castles ; while others, again, might be taken, in certain aspects, to be stupendous cathedrals. Over- lying the primary rocks there is an immense extent of what I must call clay, although it is not true clay, but appears to be decomposed granite. This is usually deep red in colour, from the large amount of iron oxide, although it is occasionally brown, and sometimes white, like China clay. Iron is abundant, and gold has recently been discovered in many places. Quartz in many varieties, quartzite, graphite, galena, copper, saltpetre, tourmaline, and some other minerals, are also found in Imerina. Two groups of ancient and extinct volcanoes which were described by the late Rev. Dr. Mullens hardly come into any description of Imerina proper, as one of them is just outside its western boundary and the other group is beyond the Ankaratra mountains, to the south-west. There are, however, within the district some detached hills which appear to be old volcanic vents ; and these, with occasional lava flows, as well as basaltic dykes in several places, give evidence of ancient subterranean forces, now shown only by slight earthquake shocks, and by hot springs in certain localities. The water-parting of the whole island lies much nearer its eastern than its western side, so that all the largest rivers flow across Madagascar and fall into the Mozambique Channel. The head-waters of the two chief rivers of Imerina, the Ikopa, and the Betsiboka, and of their numerous affluents, are therefore on the eastern side of the province. The Ikopa, fed by the Sisaony, the Andromba, the Mamba, and other streams, flow through the fertile plain of Betsimitatatra, going north-west, and is joined by the Betsib6ka further north ; the united streams, now known by the latter name, falling into the head of the Bay of Bembatoka. The province is thus well watered by numerous rivers, although the annual rainfall only averages about 53 inches at Antananarivo. 24 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. The only lake of any size in Imerina is that of Itasy, on its extreme western limits ; close to it, on the west, are numerous extinct craters ; indeed, the lake itself has probably been formed by the sinking of the ground, consequent on the discharge of so much matter from these old volcanoes. The name Imerina is used by the Malagasy in two senses : one, with a wider meaning, including the districts of Imamo to the west, and Valalafotsy to the north-west, and including all the Hova people ; and then it is also used more restrictedly for the part which is exclusive of these two divisions of the country. This narrower Imerina is divided into six sections, known as " Imerina-enin-tbkol' and comprising Avaradrano, which includes the capital (to the north-east), Vakintsisaony (south-east), Marovatana (north-west), Ambodirano (south-west), Vonizongo (further north-west), and Vakinankaratra (further south-west), which last division is named from the mountain mass which it includes, and which cuts it off from the others. These divisions are largely tribal, and are used by the native government in arranging the different shares of military levies, taxation, and all the various unpaid and forced service due by the people to their sovereign. There are no means of ascertaining with certainty the popula- tion of Imerina, as no census has ever been taken. But from calculations which have been made as to the number of villages and houses, and the average occupants of a house, it is believed that the population of the province is about 1,100,000.^ Antana- narivo is by far the largest town in Imerina or in Madagascar. There is hardly any other town of great size, although there is a considerable number of large villages, and these are rather closely crowded together in some parts, especially to the north and north-west of the capital. Several of these places were formerly of greater relative importance, as they were the capitals of the many small states, or "kingdoms," into which Imerina ' The recent census — March, 1896 — gives only 600,000 souls as the population of the province Imerina. — Ed. IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 2$ was anciently divided, before the supreme authority became centred in the chief of Antananarivo. Of these former chief towns the following are the most noteworthy: Ambohimanga, a place which still retains a nominal equality in royal speeches with Antananarivo a picturesque old town built on a lofty hill surrounded with woods, about eleven miles north of the modern capital ; also Ambohidratrimo, Ambohidrabiby, Ilafy, Alasora, and some others. In former times, every royal speech men- tioned tivelve old towns or hills (" Ny Tendrombbhitra rba dinbin' ny folo "), each of which had a semi-sacred character as being the seat of ancient chiefs ; the places just mentioned were in- cluded in these twelve, but others are now mere hamlets, if not as much deserted villages as Old Sarum was in pre-Reform days in England. All the ancient towns and villages in the interior of Mada- gascar were built on the top of hills, sometimes of considerable height. This was of course for security against enemies in the former warlike times, when every petty state was frequently fighting with its neighbours, like the barons of European castles in the mediaeval period. Protection was further given by deep fosses dug out of the hard red clay, and surrounding the towns. These are frequently double, or even treble, one outside the other, and must have formed a very effectual defence in the days when firearms were unknown, and especially when helped by the earthen ramparts often added inside the ditches from the material dug out. Some of these fosses look like a railway cutting through red sandstone, and although they are in many cases probably two or three hundred years old, the sides are generally as perpendicular and unbroken as when first excavated. A narrow bridge of the red earth leads to the gateway, which is formed of massive blocks of rock. Two different forms of gate- way are found in these old towns : one kind is defended by a great circular slab of stone lo or 12 feet in diameter, which, in time of war, was rolled between upright stones, so as to effec- tually block up the entrance. Another kind of gateway was 26 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. formed by massive upright monoliths, between which heavy wooden gates were fixed. In many cases there is a treble gate- way of this kind, with a narrow passage between each gate, so that the enemy could be speared from above, if the first or even the second line of defence had been broken through. Many of these old towns are now deserted, but their ancient defences form the chief antiquities of Madagascar, and are interesting memorials of a state of society now passed away in the central provinces. The ancient graves of the Vazimba, the aboriginal inhabi- tants of the interior, are found scattered over the central province. These are shapeless heaps of stone, generally overshadowed by a fano tree, a species of acacia, which has a semi-sacred character, its seeds being used in divination. Could these graves, like our ancient English barrows, be opened, doubtless much light would be thrown on the rather difficult question of the affi- nities of these Vazimba; but to meddle with any tomb, much more one of these ancient ones, is one of the most heinous offences among the Malagasy.^ A considerable number of upright stones, termed vdtoldhy (lit. " male stones "), huge undressed blocks of granite, are also found on the hills and downs. These are memorials of former chieftains, or of battles of the old times. As regards maps of Imerina, I believe that I was the first (in 1867) to make a sketch-map of the country round Antananarivo. This was, however, made chiefly to show the mission stations of the London Missionary Society. Parts of the province to the south-west were subsequently given much more fully by Mr. J. S. Sewell and Mr. W. Johnson ; but the first detailed map of Imerina and the surrounding regions was published by the Rev. Dr. Mullens in 1875, ^s the result of a large number of observations taken by himself, and founded on positions fixed by Mr. James Cameron. A map to a much larger scale (i : 2CK),ooo) was published by M. Grandidier in 1880; and he issued more recently (1883) a beautiful hypsometrical map of the province, showing by graduated tints the heights of every ' For fuller information as to the Vazimba, see subsequent chapter. %<• IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 2/ part of the country from the river-beds to the summits of Ankaratra. " This," says M. Grandidier, " is, I beheve, the first and only contour map which has been made of an unciviHsed country on such a large scale. This map enables one to see at a glance the zones of altitude characteristic of this province, which is so mountainous and desolate beyond the great plain west of Antananarivo ; and it shows clearly the manner in which the waters part themselves." A few words may be here added as to the external aspects of an Imerina village. As already mentioned, all the ancient villages and towns were built on the tops of high hills, and are consequently rather difficult to approach ; and although a great many of them are now deserted, and the more modern villages are built either on the plains or on the lower rising grounds, numbers of the old places still remain inhabited ; and the people who live in them must have a weary climb every evening as they go home from their work in the rice-fields, or return from a neighbouring village or market. Even the capital city, Antananarivo, is built on the top and the sides of a long, narrow ridge rising about 600 feet above the plain below. The old capital, Ambohimanga, is on an equally high hill, and so are most of the ancient and famous towns and villages. Some of these hills rise to 700 or 800 feet in height ; and a few years ago I had to climb up to a village called Vohilena, which is built on a tremendous hill no less than 1,500 feet above the valley at its foot. Never shall I forget my ascent up its steep side in the darkness, without a guide, and unable to find any path in the woods that cover its slopes ! The deep fosses which surround these old villages have already been alluded to. Most of them are from 20 to 30 feet wide and as many feet deep, although sometimes they are much deeper. But although so deep, these trenches are not full of water, for this is always drawn off by another trench leading down the hillside. They are, however, of course damp, and good soil gradually increases there, so that ferns and wild plants grow 28 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. luxuriantly ; and the bottom of the fosse therefore forms a plantation, in which peach, banana, guava, and other fruit-trees are cultivated, as well as coffee, arums, and a variety of vege- tables. Tall trees of other kinds also grow there, so that these hcidy, as they are called, are often by far the prettiest feature of the village. On many hill-tops in Imerina, where no villages now exist, the hady may be seen from a great distance, scoring the hillsides, and showing that in former times a village crowned the summit. In some parts of the central provinces of Madagascar there is no deep fosse, such as those just described, but the village is protected by a dense and wide plantation of prickly-pear.^ This shrub is armed all over with spines and prickles 2 inches long, sharp as a needle and somewhat poisonous. The thick, fleshy, twisted stems, the gaily-tinted flowers, and even the pear-shaped fruits, are all armed with spines and stinging hairs ; and it is no easy matter to get rid of the minute little needles if they once get into one's skin. So it is easy to see that a hedge of^this prickly-pear, several feet wide and 8 or 10 feet high, is a very effectual defence against enemies or robbers, especially when it is remembered that the majority of people wear no shoes and so have no protection for their bare legs and feet. In many places, instead of prickly-pear, the fence round the village is made of tsidfakbviby (" impassable by cattle "), a shrub with bright yellow flowers and full of hook-like prickles.^ Now let us get up into the village and see what it looks like. Crossing the deep hddy by a kind of bridge of earth, we come to the entrance or vdvahady (" mouth of the fosse "). This is generally a narrow gateway formed of roughly-built stonework ; and on its inner side, in a groove, is a great circular slab of granite, for rolling across the opening, so as to quite close it up. But for many years past, in most villages, these great slabs of stone have been unused, and the grooves are filled up with dust ' Opnutia Dillaiii, Haw. - The Mysore thorn, Ccvsalpinia scpiaria, Roxb. IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 29 and dirt, so that it is not very easy to move the stone out of its place. In many villages the great stone lies on the ground, and the children play games upon it, showing that for a long time there has been no war in the interior of the island, but people have been able to live in security and peace, " none daring to make them afraid." In some cases, instead of a door at the gateway, a number of short poles are hung from a cross-piece at the top, which passes through a hole in each of them ; and one has to hold up two or three of them in order to pass through. This kind of gate is chiefly for the purpose of preventing the pigs and sheep from getting in and out of the village. In some parts of Imerina, to the west and north, where there is frequent danger from roving parties of robbers, the villages are still care- fully guarded, and many of them have a treble gateway, with three pairs of thick wooden doors, and connected by a kind of tunnel. Here, however, we are at last inside the village, and we see at once that there are no streets intersecting it. The houses are built without any order or regularity, except in one point, namely, that all the old-fashioned houses are built north and south, and that they have their single door and window always on the west side, so as to be protected from the cold and keen south-east trade-winds, which blow over Imerina during the greater part of the year. The houses are mostly made of the hard red earth, laid in courses of a foot or so high. They are chiefly of one storey and of one room, but they generally have a floor in the roof, which is used for cooking, and are sometimes divided into two or three rooms by rush and mat partitions. On the east of Imerina, near the forest, the houses are made of rough wooden framing, filled up with bamboo or rush, and often plastered with cow-dung ; and in the neighbourhood of the capital a great many houses are now built of sun-dried bricks in two storeys, with several rooms and often with tiled roofs. These, however, belong to the richer people. Ambohitritankady, one of the villages in my mission district, 30 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. is on a high hill, and in the centre of the village are ten large houses of massive timber framing and with very high-pitched roofs, with long " horns " at the gables, arranged five on each side of a long oblong space sunk a couple of feet below the ground. Here, in former times, bull-fights took place, and various games and amusements were carried on. One of the houses, where the chief himself resided, is much larger than the rest, and the corner posts, as well as the three great central posts supporting the ridge, are very large, massive pieces of timber. It was all in one great room without any partitions, the whole being well floored with wood, and the walls covered with neat mats. Such fine old houses are now, however, be- coming very rare, and are being fast superseded by much less picturesque, but perhaps more comfortable, as well as cheaper, houses of sun-dried or burnt brick. The houses of most villages are scattered about the place in a very irregular fashion. There is no privacy or retirement about them, no backyard or outbuildings, although occasionally low walls do make a kind of enclosure round some of them. Here and there among the houses are square pits, 5 or 6 feet deep and 8 or 10 feet square, called fahitra. These are pens for the oxen, often very fine animals, with enormous horns and humps, which are kept in them to be fattened, mostly for the national feast of the Fandroana (" the bathing ") at the New Year. All sorts of rubbish and filth accumulate ; there are no sanitary arrangements ; frequently the cattle are penned for the night in a part of the enclosure, and the cow-dung makes' it very muddy in wet weather, and raises clouds of dust when it is dry. Frequently the cow-dung is carefully collected and made into circular cakes of 6 or 8 inches diameter, which are then stuck on the walls of the houses to dry. It is afterwards used as fuel for burning off large slabs of the hard gneiss rock, which are employed by the people in making their tombs. The pits in which the people store their rice are bottle- shaped holes, from 8 to 10 feet deep, dug out of the hard red IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 3 1 earth, and will contain a large quantity of grain. They are closed up by a flat stone and covered with earth, so it is not easy for a stranger to know where the rice-store is. In former times these pits were now and then used as places of refuge, and even of worship, by Christian people in the time of persecution; and occasionally those who had offended the sovereign were placed in the pits, which were partly filled up with earth, boiling water being then poured over them until they were killed. In the centre of the village may often be seen the large family tomb of the chief man of the place, the owner of the land and the rice-fields in the neighbourhood. This is a struc- ture of dressed or of rough stonework, from 12 to 20 feet square, and about 6 to 8 feet high. Generally it has two or more stages diminishing in area, and frequently at the east end is a kind of headstone, in modern tombs sometimes with a name and date cut upon it. These tombs are vaults made of great undressed slabs of blue rock, partly sunk under ground, and with stone shelves on which the corpses, wrapped in silk cloths, are laid. The steps down to the vault are always on the west side, and the door is a massive stone slab turning on pivots at the top and bottom. In the case of people who are Andriana, or of noble birth, the stonework is surmounted by a small wooden house, with thatched or shingled roof and a door, but no window. This is called trdno mdsina (" sacred house ") or trdno mandra ("cold house "), because it has no hearth or fire. In some villages, where the people are almost all of high rank, a line of these tombs, with their little wooden houses, may be observed. Seen from a distance, these Malagasy villages often look very pretty and picturesque, for " distance lends enchantment to the view." Round some of them tall trees, called Avt'dvy,^ a species of fig-tree, grow, which are something like an English elm in appearance. In others one or two gvedit A vidntana^ trees may be seen ; these are also a species of fig-tree, and have large and glossy leaves. A beautiful tree called Zdhana 3 is also ■ Ficiis mcgafodcx, Baker. * F. Baroiii, Baker. 3 Pliyllarthroii Bojcridiituii, D.C. 32 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. common, with hundreds of large pink flowers ; and in the fosses the Ainiana,^ a tall tree nettle with large, deeply-cut, and velvety leaves, with stinging hairs, frequently grows. Many kinds of shrubs often make the place gay with flowers ; but these all grow wild, and the people have not yet learned to plant flowers in beds and gardens for their own pleasure. The Hova children are brown-skinned, some very light olive in colour, and some very dark. As a rule, they have little clothing, and no caps, shoes, or stockings, and are usually very dirty and uncared for. On Sundays and on special occasions the girls are often dressed in print frocks, and the boys in jackets of similar material, and with clean white calico lainba over all ; but on week-days a small laniba, of soiled and coarse hemp cloth, often forms almost their only clothing. Of course the children of well-to-do people are sometimes very nicely dressed, although they too often go about in a rather dirty fashion. I am here, however, speaking of the majority of the children one sees, those of the poorer people of the village. One day some of us went for a ride to a village about two miles away from Ambohimanga. A number of children followed us about as we collected ferns in the hddy, and as a group of seven or eight of them sat near us, we calculated that the value of all they had on would not amount to one shilling ! Poor children ! they have few amusements. They some- times play at a game which is very like our " fox and geese " ; the boys spin peg-tops ; the little children make figures of oxen and birds, &c., out of clay ; and the big boys have a rough and violent game called maviely dlanianga, in which they kick back- ward at each other, with their feet lifted almost as high as their heads. Perhaps the most favourite amusement of Malagasy children is to sit in parties out of doors on fine moonlight nights, and sing away for hours some of the monotonous native chants, accompanying them with regular clapping of hands. One thing more may be noticed about our Malagasy village, ' Urcra sp. and Obetia sp. IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE. 33 and that is, that in almost all the larger villages of Imerina there is now to be seen a building for Christian worship. In many places this is a rough and plain structure, made of clay or of sun-dried brick, often with no glass in the windows, and no pews or benches on the floor. Still, in these rude country churches, God's Word is read and preached, the love of Christ is made known, and some light is being shed upon the minds of the people, who are most of them still very ignorant and super- stitious. In the neighbourhood of the capital, however, as well as in some other districts, many very neat and pretty village churches are now to be seen. These are plastered and coloured, and often have tiled roofs and glass windows ; there are low benches and clean mats on the floor, and some few have well- carved stone and wood pulpits, showing that the people have worked hard and done their best to make a building that shall be suitable for the worship of God. Besides being used for Divine service on Sundays, the village church is also the school-house on week-days. Here may be seen bright children repeating their a, b, d (not c), reading and writing, doing sums, learning a little grammar and geography, and being taught their catechism and something about the chief facts and truths of the Bible. And perhaps there is no more pleasant sight to be seen in Madagascar than one of the larger chapels filled to the doors on the annual examination day with children from the neighbouring villages, all dressed in their best eager to show their knowledge, and pleased to get the Testa- ment or hymn-book or other prize given to those who have answered well. Thank God there are now hundreds of such village churches and schools in Central Madagascar. May they soon be seen all over the provinces of the great island ! CHAPTER III. ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL : ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MEMORIAL AND OTHER CHURCHES, AND RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. Scenerv' around the capital — Its picturesque situation — Rugged streets and paths — Houses and other buildings — Recent introduction of bricks — Royal palaces — Faravohitra — Ancient gateway — Sacred stones — Absence of wheeled vehicles and of gas and water supply — Street scenes — Weekly market of Zoma — Amusements — L.M.S. churches and religious institutions — Ambatona- kanga Church — Other memorial churches — " Mother churches " and districts — Chapel Royal — Sunday observance — Colleges and school buildings — Dis- pensaries and hospitals — Other missions — Extent of Christian work carried on — Civilising work of L.M.S. Mission — Population — Plans of the capital — Antananarivo, the heart of Madagascar. THE chief city of Madagascar is situated nearly in the centre of the island, as regards its length from north to south, but is much nearer the eastern than the western side of the country. It is about one hundred miles from the Indian Ocean to the east, while the Mozambique Channel is nearly twice that distance from it to the west.^ Let us suppose that we have just come up from Tamatave, and, by the route described in the first chapter, have passed through the two belts of forest, and are now on the open, breezy moorland of eastern Imerina. Antananarivo is still about thirty miles distant, a good day's journey from the upper line of forest. We see signs of a denser population as we advance : well- ' By the latest and most reliable obser\-ations, the following has been settled as the position of Antananarivo : Lat., i8° 55' 2*io"-2'i8" S. ; long., 47° 31' 22" E. 34 ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 35 cultivated rice-fields in every valley, plantations on the hillsides, numerous villages, and scattered homesteads, the houses being built of the hard red clay or decomposed granite, while the walls enclosing the compounds are also of this material. We pass the long mountain of Angavokely, with its double summit, one peak having a remarkable resemblance to a mediaeval castle ; and then the rounded, dome-like mass of Ambatovory, with its woods — a remnant of the primeval forest — nestling in the valley at its base ; and then a long, gradual ascent brings us to a high moor, from which a very extensive prospect is unfolded ; the greater part of Imerina lies before us, and most of its prominent hills and its chief towns can be clearly seen. Before us, at nine or ten miles' distance, is a long and lofty ridge, stretching north and south, on which buildings can be plainly discerned, cutting the sky-line ; in the centre are the lofty white roofs of the group of royal palaces ; to the north are the towers of the Prime Minister's house, its glass dome shining in the sunlight ; while the spires and towers of churches can also be distinguished, especially at each extremity of the long line of hill. From this lofty point we descend into deep river valleys, and ascend again several times before the two hours' ride still to be accomplished is completed ; we lose sight of the city again and again, until another long ascent brings us up to the last hill before we descend into the valley which surrounds Antananarivo ; and at last the capital of the island stands before us, at a distance of three-quarters of a mile or so across the rice- fields. It is certainly a very picturesquely situated town ; the rocky ridge, on the summit and slopes of which the houses are built, rises at its highest point, near the centre, to from 500 to 600 feet above the surrounding valleys and the western plain, and its length, north and south, is not far short of two miles. At the southern extremity it slopes down abruptly to the valley, but at the northern end the descent is more gradual. At about two- thirds of its length from the south, a large branch or spur of the 36 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. hill separates from the main ridge and curves round to the north-west with a tolerably easy gradient ; so that the actual extent of the city is not realised from the eastern side, and one must ride round to the west to see how large a place it really is. The ridge, though long, is narrow, so that there is little level ground on the summit ; and the majority of the houses are built on terraces, cut away on one side and built up with retain- ing walls on the other. At the junction of the two northern branches of the hill there is a large triangular open space called Andohalo, where a market is held, and where great public assemblies are convened, as at the promulgation of any new law, or the reception of the sovereign on her return to the capital, &c. East and west, the sides of the hill are very steep ; indeed, on the western side they are precipitous. On this side is the pre- cipice of Ampamarhiana (" the place of hurling"), the Tarpeian of Antananarivo, where those accused of sorcery were formerly killed by being hurled from the summit ; and where also, in 1849, rnany Malagasy Christians suffered death, being supposed to have been enabled, by some powerful charm, to be dis- obedient to their heathen sovereign's will. Antananarivo, or " City of a thousand," that is, probably, a thousand settlers or military colonists, is certainly " a city set on a hill which cannot be hid." As already remarked, it is by far the largest town in Madagascar, only two or three places reaching a tenth of its extent or population. Its ancient name was lalamanga, i.e., " At the blue (or famous) wood," probably from the forest formerly covering its summit and slopes, as is still the case with Ambohimanga, the ancient capital. Antanana- rivo has attained its present important position in the island only within the last hundred years, greatly increasing in size and population since it became no longer merely the chief town of one Malagasy tribe — the Hova — but also the capital of the country through the Hova making themselves the dominant tribe of Madagascar. ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 37 It need hardly be said that road-making is very difficult in a place like Antananarivo. The naked rock comes to the surface almost everywhere ; and the gradients, east and west at least, would be almost impossible for a carriage, even could the path be paved smooth. There are, in fact, only about two main roads in the city, one going north and south, and the other east and west. These are roughly paved in some parts ; but it requires care even to ride on horseback along Antananarivo streets. The houses are not built adjoining each other, as in European towns ; each one stands in its own compound ; al- though certainly in the centre of the city they are packed pretty closely together, and often the only path to large and respectable houses is by climbing low walls and struggling up and down narrow and steep rocky stairs. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Antananarivo now pos- sesses a large number of substantial and often handsome houses, as well as many public buildings which would not disgrace a European town. A great change has come about since I first knew the place in 1863. Then it was a town built entirely, within the city proper, of wood or rush and bamboo. By an old law, or rather custom, no building of stone or clay was allowed to be erected within these limits ; and there was a similar custom in many of the other ancient towns. The houses of the nobles and the wealthier people were all of massive timber framing, fitted in with thick upright planking, and the roof of extremely high pitch, with long crossed gable-timbers or " horns." These houses were sometimes roofed with wooden shingles, but more frequently with thatch of a species of sedge. It will be easily seen that with such combustible materials fires were of frequent occurrence, especially at the end of the dry season ; and twenty, thirty, or even a hundred houses were not unfrequently burnt down at one time. The acceptance of Christianity by the Queen and Government in 1868 put an end to this foolish custom, as well as to many other still more harm- ful things ; and the old timber houses have now almost dis- 38 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. appeared from the city. An interesting relic of the past is still preserved with religious care in the palace yard among more modern buildings. This is the ancient royal house called Besakana, where the corpse of a deceased sovereign lies in state, the building being draped entirely in scarlet cloth. The introduction of sun-dried brick and tiles by Mr. James Cameron and Mr. W. Pool, of the London Missionary Society, as well as the erection of the stone Martyr Memorial Churches, of which I was the architect, has completely revolutionised the building art in Imerina and in Betsileo. And Antananarivo, instead of being a town of wooden and rush houses, as I knew it thirty-two years ago, has become a city containing hundreds of good two- and three-storied brick houses, with many public buildings of stone. Within the last ten or twelve years burnt brick has come into much more general use ; and many sub- stantial houses and some churches are now to be seen erected of this more durable material. Scores of houses have their verandah pillars of moulded brick, or of stone with carved capitals. There are, it must be confessed, some drawbacks to the otherwise pleasant picture. There are too many houses unfinished, and a general aspect of disrepair visible, and a want of neatness and tidiness. Among the most prominent buildings of the capital are the group of royal palaces, the largest of which, an immense three- storied timber structure, has been surrounded with triple stone verandah and arches, and strengthened with corner towers. This largest of the royal buildings is known by the name of Manjdkaniiddana, i.e., " Reigning peacefully " ; it is about 1 20 feet in height to the ridge of the high-pitched roof, which is surmounted at each end by tall lightning-conductors, and in the centre by an enormous gilt copper figure of an eagle — a bird which is used as a kind of national emblem, much as is the case with the eagles of America and several European states. Close to this largest palace stands the Trdnovo/a or " Silver house," about two-thirds the size of its larger neighbour, but entirely of ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 39 timber. There are several other palaces, each having its proper name, as Manauipisba ("Adding good"), Besdkana ("Great breadth"), &c. This last-named building is the most ancient and venerated of all ; it is a simple oblong structure of framed timber, with upright planking, and a roof of enormously high pitch, covered with wooden shingles, and crossed "horns," 10 or 12 feet long, at each gable.^ In the palace courtyard the spire and tower of the Chapel Royal is a conspicuous feature. The building is constructed of stone and roofed with slates from the Betsileo province. It boasts of a pipe organ, tinted glass windows, and a good deal of elaborate carving both in wood and stone. Further south is the great square stone and brick house of the Prime Minister, and other handsome residences of nobles and high officers, and the High Court of Justice, with its Ionic columns. Very prominent in Antananarivo also are buildings for religious and educational purposes ; the four Memorial Churches of the London Missionary Society, each with spire or tower, together with about a score more (belonging to the same mission), less ornate in style, in the city and its suburbs ; the Anglican Cathedral, although still wanting its spires ; the Roman Catholic Cathedral, with its elegant lantern-crowned towers ; the Nor- wegian Lutheran Church ; the College of the London Missionary Society and the High Schools of the same society, as well as those of the Friends, the Anglican, and the Jesuit missions ; the Mission presses ; the London Missionary Society's and Norwegian Hospitals and Dispensaries ; while about two miles to the east is a French Observatory, superintended by a Jesuit priest. As one's eye passes along the long wavy ridge of the city hill, from south to north, it is seen to slope gradually to the plain at the northern extremity. This portion of the capital is called Faravohitra, i.e., " Last village," its former extremity northward, ' It is the custom for Malagasy sovereigns to build a new house for themselves soon after their accession. 40 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. although the city has now extended far beyond this spot. Thirty years ago this part of the ridge was a desolate-looking place, with hardly a house upon it ; a number of ancient tombs stretched along the rough footpath ; it was one of the places of execution, and no one would walk along it after nightfall. Now, however, and for many years past, it is a favourite part of the city, the majority of the English mission families residing there ; while amongst them is seen the square tower of the Faravohitra Memorial Church, and many of the educational establishments of the L.M.S. and Friends' Missions. The most ancient structure in Antananarivo is the old gate- way to the east of the city, the only one now remaining of several gates formerly guarding the chief approaches to the capital. This interesting relic of the olden time is a mass of rude masonry of thin, flat stones laid without mortar, with large upright slabs of blue gneiss at the angles. The opening is a square doorway several feet deep, and in time of war was closed by a huge flat circular stone which was rolled out of a groove inside the gateway. The name of this ancient gate is Ankadi- bevava, i.e., " At the Fosse with the great Mouth," or opening ; but it is also as often called Ambavahadimitafo, i.e., " At the Roofed Gateway," because it is covered with a rush roof. The " sacred stones " of Antananarivo are objects which are onnected with royalty among the Hova and mark it — amongst many other things — as a different place from European cities. One of these is situated in Andohalo, a spacious triangular open space in the centre of the capital, where a large daily market is held, where public assemblies take place, and where some of the sovereigns have been crowned. The sacred stone here is nothing but the underlying gneiss rock, which in one spot comes to the surface ; but upon it the sovereign must always stand on special occasions, as when returning from a visit to Ambohimanga or more distant places, and is there saluted by the army and by the people generally. The other sacred stone is a much more prominent object, and appears to be a boulder-like mass of ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 4I gneiss which has at some remote time tumbled down from the precipitous western side of the city hill, and stands nearly in the centre of a large square plain on that side of Antananarivo. This open space is called Imahamasina, i.e., " Place of making sacred " (or establishing or confirming). Some Hova sovereigns have been crowned here (or rather, first appeared in state for the homage of their subjects), and the throne is always placed on the sacred stone. One is here reminded of the sacred stones on which the kings of other nations have been enthroned in ancient times, and especially of our own " Stone of Destiny " from Scone now and for so many centuries past placed under the chair of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. From whatever side one goes up into Antananarivo, the ascent is steep, in most places exceedingly so, and most rugged and uneven. It is immediately evident that no carriage could traverse these roughly-paved roads ; such things are in fact unknown in this large city, and so the streets are singularly quiet, with no rush of wheels or tramp of horses, while the great majority of human feet are shoeless and so almost noiseless in their tread. There are only two or three streets, in our sense of the term, in this capital of Madagascar, that is where a tolerably good pavement has been laid down with side gutters, &c. The greater part of the houses are reached by narrow paths winding in and out among the compounds, and sometimes there is no access to a house but by crossing the yards of others, and often only by climbing over the low clay walls which surround them. As we pass along we see how difficult and costly it would be to make roads and streets in Antananarivo, for each compound is a terrace cut out of the steep hillside, built up on one side by the soil and rock removed from the other. Of course drainage is all surface, and in the heavy rains of the wet season each street and path is swept by a furious torrent, often forming a series of rapids and waterfalls, and constantly- cutting deep trenches in the red soil, so that every path not protected by some kind of rough paving is being constantly 42 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. lowered, some streets being many feet below the compounds on either hand. It need hardly be said that there are no water-pipes or gas mains in the streets of Antananarivo. The want of the former is supplied by the primitive plan of all water being fetched from springs at the foot of the city hill by the women and girls — slave or free — of every household. Long lines of these may be seen in the evenings going up and down the rough paths with their water-pots on their heads. At nights the streets are dark and almost deserted, but for the lantern carried by an occasional passenger. Few Europeans or respectable natives care to risk their limbs by going without a light over these breakneck paths. A prominent feature in the life of Antananarivo is the great weekly market held every Friday on a place in the north-west side of the city. This is called Zoma (Friday), from the day on which it is held, and although a large daily market is also held there, on Fridays an immense concourse of people from the surrounding country, as well as from the city itself, is gathered together. All the chief roads are thronged with people bringing in their goods for sale, and by an early hour in the forenoon probably io,ocK) or 12,000 persons are assembled, and the hum of voices can be heard from a considerable distance. Here everything that is grown or manufactured in the interior province can be procured, and in no place can a better idea of the productions of the country or of the handicraft skill of the Malagasy be obtained than in this great Zoma market. There is, of course, a rough division of the various objects for sale in different sections of the market-ground. Here is a forest of timber, rafters, joists, and boards ; here are doors, bedsteads, and chairs ; here are enormous piles of lih-ana rush for roofing and long dry grass for fuel ; here is the grain, fruit, and vegetable division of the market, with heaps of salt and chillies for condi- ments ; here is the cattle market, and not far off the beef and mutton, and the poultry section, with hundreds of fowls, ducks, ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 43 turkeys, and geese ; here is the " dry goods " division, with English caHcoes, American sheeting, gay prints, and native cloths of hemp, cotton, and rofia fibre ; here are piles of snowy cocoons of raw silk for weaving into fine Idniba ; here is iron- work of all kinds, nails and hinges, bolts and screws ; and here is native pottery, water-jars, and cooking-pots, and so on. The Zoma market is certainly one of the most interesting sights of Antananarivo, and is without doubt one of the chief delights of life to the native residents in the capital. To Europeans there is a great absence in Antananarivo of anything like entertainments or amusements. A French gentle- man, newly arrived in the city, truly observed : " // ny a pas des distractions ici ! " And doubtless he felt the want of the cafe and theatre and boulevarde of his beloved Paris. Probably the Malagasy themselves do not feel this need, and are sufficiently amused and entertained by the mild excitement of their New Year's festival, by an occasional kabary or public assembly, by the return of the queen from a visit to some other part of the country, with the state and ceremony attending it, by a review of troops, and perhaps still more by the frequent markets and their gossip, together with the delights of bargaining and seeing others buy and sell. Of late years these purely native amuse- ments have been added to by the introduction of occasional lectures, concerts, and other entertainments, chiefly held in the educational buildings or the different missions ; the school children also often have their " treats," when they sport their gayest dresses and are feasted in some garden or mango orchard in the suburbs of the city ; and it may be added that the Lb/iavblana, or service held at one of the larger Antanana- rivo churches in rotation on the first Monday morning of every month, is also a time of great enjoyment to the younger people from the new sacred music introduced on many of these occa- sions. On referring to the map it will be seen that there are in Antananarivo and its suburbs, no fewer than thirty-five churches. 44 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. twenty-seven of which are connected with the London Mis- sionary Society. And when the population ^ of the capital is remembered — probably from 80,000 to 100,000 — it will be evident that these thirty-five churches provide by no means too large an accommodation for those who should attend public worship, indeed it is still greatly inadequate to the needs of the city. It will be noticed that little attempt has been made in the map to show the remarkably irregular and very picturesque site of Antananarivo, as this would have interfered with its main purpose. This has been already sufficiently described in the earlier portion of the chapter. The first building erected for Christian worship in Antanana- rivo was at Ambodin' Andohalo, on the spot where the London Missionary Society Girls' Central School stood until very lately (see map). For some time the school-house adjoining Mr. Griffiths' residence on this site appears to have been used for worship, and this continued for several years to be the sole place of meeting. In 1831, however, as the number of worshippers increased, a second building was erected at Ambatonakanga (i) ^ ; and, as the first site at Andohalo was not, in this later period of the Mission, used again for worship, the congregation meeting in the ^lemorial Church there may be justly regarded as the " mother church " of Madagascar. Ambatonakanga is certainly the most interesting spot in the island as regards its religious history. It is a commanding position at the junction of the two chief roads in the city — it might almost be said in the island — and the site was originally granted for a workshop to the L.M.S. On this spot the first printing-press was erected and set to work ; subsequently the second place in the country ever erected for Christian worship was built here ; on the outbreak of persecution this building was turned into a stable and afterwards into a ' The population of Antananarivo has recently been ascertained — March, 1896 — not to exceed 43,000 souls. — Ed. = The numbers following the names of churches are those by which they are marked on the map and in the list at the end of this chapter. ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 45 prison for the punishment of the " praying people " ; and finally, the first of the four Martyr Memorial Churches was commenced here in 1864 and opened in 1867. This is a substantial stone structure with tower and spire, built in a simple Xorman style, the first stone building ever erected in the country. When Mr. Ellis arrived in Antananarivo in June, 1862, soon after the country was re-opened to Christian effort, he found three large congregations already gathered together, and all meeting in the same quarter of the city, the north-west — one at Amba- tonakanga ; another at Analakely (2) ; and the third at Ampa- ribe (3). These congregations met in very rough and unattractive buildings — one being an old stable ; another several native houses patched together ; and the other an old workshop. For many years past, however, these congregations have been housed in large buildings ; and these three still continue in the front rank as regards numbers and influence, Amparibe probably containing the largest congregation to be seen in any part of the island. During the twelve years or so following the year 1862 numerous offshoots sprang from the three just named, until the city churches reached the number shown on the map. Ten of these are reni-fia7igbnana (" mother churches "), having large districts connected with each, which stretch for many miles in all directions, and contain in all no fewer than six hundred congregations. The largest of these districts includes 120 churches and is worked most efficiently by the Friends' Mission, in complete harmony with the London Missionary Society, and has its mother church at Amb6hitantely (8). Of these ten, four are the Memorial Churches at Ambatona- kanga (i), Ambohipotsy (2), Ampamarinana (6), and Faravo- hitra (9). The first of these has already been described. The second occupies a most commanding position at the southern extremity of the city ridge, and is visible for many miles in every direction. It is built in a simple Early English style of Gothic, and has a tower and spire. Ambohipotsy is the St. Albans of Madagascar, for it is the spot where the heroic 46 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Rasalama, the first Christian martyr, was speared in the year 1837. The third church is built on the edge of the " precipice of hurHng," as its name signifies, and commemorates thirteen brave confessors who were, in 1849, dashed down the steep cHffs for refusing to deny their Saviour. The building is designed in a simple Romanesque style, and has a lofty campanile ; the interior, with its galleries all round, looking very much like an English Nonconformist chapel. The fourth of these Martyr Memorial buildings occupies a very prominent position at the northern end of the city ridge. Faravohitra Church is a very plain stone structure, with low square tower, and marks the exact spot where, in 1849, four Christian Malagasy were burnt to death, together with the mangled remains of those thirteen who had been hurled over the precipices at Ampamarinana on the same day. The Queen's Church in the palace courtyard is attended by Her Majesty and her Court, as well as by many of the chief people of the city. The congregation here gives liberally towards the support of native evangelists and teachers in the different districts, and it is distinctly a Congregational church. The other churches in the city and suburbs are mostly of sun-dried brick and stone, but some of the more recently-erected ones are of burnt brick, and are handsome buildings. On Sunday mornings they are all well filled, especially on the first Sunday in the month, the congregations numbering in several instances over a thousand people. The afternoon congregations are not quite so large. Some of the surburban churches are just as largely attended as those in the city proper. The observance of Sunday is a marked feature in the life of Antananarivo. No markets are held, all Government business is stopped, and large numbers of people in clean white dresses and lamba crowd the roads going to and from the various places of worship. The sound of bells is heard from many towers, and as one passes by the churches, the familiar strains of many well- known English tunes may be heard sung accompanied by the ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 47 notes of American organs or harmoniums. A Sabbath quiet and calm is over the whole city ; not only is divine worship attended by thousands, but hundreds of children are learning in Sunday schools ; and it may be said that in Antananarivo, as well as in many other Madagascar towns and villages, the Day of Rest is as well observed as in most parts of England, or even of Scotland. In addition to the churches of Antananarivo, other institu- tions connected with the London Missionary Society and the Friends' and other Missions are also shown on the map. Of these, the largest building, and one seen most prominently on approaching the capital from Tamatave, is the L.M.S. College, a massive and substantial structure of brick and stone. The College teaching was commenced in 1869, and the present building was opened in 1881. The accommodation includes, besides spacious class-rooms and tutors' residences, a lecture hall, arranged in theatre fashion, where lectures are delivered and meetings of all kinds are constantly held, there being room for about five hundred auditors. About seventy to eighty students of different grades are usually under training, the majority of these being educated for the Christian ministry, while some are secular students. A little below the College, to the north, is the L.M.S. Normal School, also housed in a substantial stone and brick building ; and here teachers for the town and country schools receive a thorough course of instruction for their work. The Girls' Central School is in Ambodin' Andohalo, nearer the centre of the city. Not far from this is the L.M.S. Press, from which a large number of books and other publications are constantly being issued.^ Lower down, to the north-west, at Analakely is the Dispen- sary, under the management of a joint committee of the London Missionary Society and Friends' Missions. Within the last four or five years a new, larger, and very complete Hospital has been ' About 150,000 books of various kinds yearly. 48 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. erected at Isoavinandriana, a place about a mile from the northern extremity of the capital. This is also under the joint control of the two societies, although the Friends take the larger share of the expenses of all medical work. Here the sick are nursed and attended to : and young men are trained as doctors and surgeons, and women for the work of nursing and mid- wifery. A Medical Mission Board gives diplomas of efficiency in surgery and medicine, and a considerable number of young Malagasy are now qualified medical practitioners. The Friends' Mission Central Girls' School and their press are on the Faravohitra hill close to the College ; and their excellent upper Boys' School is at Ambohijatovo, nearer the centre of the city. So close is the connection between the two Missions, that for all practical purposes they may be regarded as one ; all plans of work, church government, and worship being the same in almost every respect in the churches of the London Missionary Society and those in charge of the Friends. A word or two must also be said about the other churches of Antananarivo. Those of the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel" Episcopal Mission are four in number, the chief being the stately stone Cathedral, which occupies a most commanding position on the north side of Andohalo in the centre of the city. This is a cruciform structure with three towers, which will eventually be crowned with spires. This Mission has also good High Schools for boys and girls in the city, while their college, with some elegant stone buildings, is situated about twelve miles to the north. The Norwegian Lutheran Mission has a representative church in Antananarivo, as well as a training institution, orphanage, schools, and hospital. Its chief work is south of Imerina and in the Betsileo province, where there are a large number of stations. The Roman Catholic Jesuit Mission has four churches in the capital. Of these, the largest one, or cathedral, close to Ando- ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 49 halo, is a handsome stone structure with towers crowned by- octagonal lanterns. There are also large buildings as residences for priests, lay brothers, and sisters of mercy, and for schools and press.i It will be seen from the above sketch that Antananarivo is the centre of a large amount of Christian work and activity. Its twenty-seven L.M.S. town and suburban churches and schools, although they all have their own native pastors and preachers, still, however, need the help and guidance and teaching of English missionaries ; and for a long time to come its college, schools, presses, hospitals, &c., will require the same oversight. And when it is remembered that, in addition to the above churches and their large districts, there are also five out-stations of the L.M.S. at a few miles' distance from the capital, with about three hundred more congregations, it is evident that English missionaries in the central province of Madagascar have unusual opportunities of service for Christ. The greater part of all these nine hundred congregations have only come out of heathenism within the last twenty-five years, and numbers of the people are still (can we wonder at it?) very ignorant and superstitious. The claims of the still completely heathen districts of Madagascar are, it is true, very urgent ; but while more ought to be done for these, we cannot afford at present a single man from the wide field close to our hands and open to our teaching with hardly any external hindrance. It may safely be said that in no other part of the world are there such favourable opportunities of service for our Master. In almost every other mission-field the people have with difficulty to be drawn out of heathenism to hear the sound of the Gospel ; here they are already gathered into hundreds of congregations, their idols destroyed, and are willing to listen to the Word of Life. ' A new French Protestant Church has been established (1896), under the auspices of the French Resident-General, M. Hippolyte Laroche, at Ambatona- kanga, where services are conducted by the Pasteurs, MM. Logat and Kruger. —Ed. 5 50 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. In concluding this description of Antananarivo it will be evident from what has been said that this capital of the Hova Malagasy is no mere collection of huts, nor is it like a Kaffir kraal, but is gradually becoming a respectable city ; and it is only fair to add that the advances in civilisation, enlightenment, and intelligence, which are so manifest in the capital, and also, in fair proportion, in other towns throughout the central provinces, are the direct results of the labour of Christian missionaries, chiefly those of the London Missionary Society. This society, more than sixty years ago, sent to Madagascar artisan missionaries, as well as those whose work was more directly educational and religious ; and to their united efforts the Malagasy chiefly owe the material progress they have already made, as well as the Christian teaching which has broken down the old idolatry of the people, which has covered the central provinces with hundreds of churches, which is teaching a hundred thousand children in its schools, and is gradually raising up a formerly ignorant and semi-barbarous tribe to the position of an enlightened and Christian people. The population of Antananarivo is difficult to estimate exactly. No census appears to have been taken by the native Government, but the houses have been counted by some of my friends, and careful inquiries made as to the average number of occupants, and from these it is believed by some that the popu- lation of the city is much over 100,000. I should be inclined to put it at from 6o,ooo to 70,000.^ There is frequently a large number of strangers in the capital, as people come constantly from all parts of the island on Government business, bringing tribute, and receiving orders from the Sovereign ; and on special occasions, as when levies of troops are being made, &c., the ordinary population of the city must be swelled by many thousands. Many years ago, during the time of the early mission of the London Missionary Society, a plan of Antananarivo was made ' Vide auk, p. 44. Population is only 43,000. — Ed. ANTANANARIVO, THE CAPITAL. 51 by Mr. Cameron (whose name has already been mentioned in this chapter), and was pubHshed in Ellis's History of Mada- gascar (1838). The city has of course greatly increased since then ; and within the last six or seven years a new detailed plan to a large scale has been made from surveys by French officers. Antananarivo may justly be considered the heart of Mada- gascar. There is the seat of government and of the most advanced civilisation of the country ; from it go out the Hova officers and soldiers who garrison every port on the coast and every important town in the interior ; from it go out weekly thousands of books and copies of the Sacred Scriptures ; and there are trained the native doctors and surgeons and nurses, the schoolmasters and evangelists and teachers, who are sent to distant places to labour together with their European teachers in various ways to benefit their fellow-countrymen, and to hasten that day when, as we hope, the whole of Madagascar shall share in the advance and enlightenment which is already so marked in the central province of Imerina and in the capital city, Antananarivo. ItiDEX TO X UMBERS OX MAP. Palace Church 1. Ambatonakanga 2. Analakely ... 3. Amparibe ... 4. Ambohipotsy 5. Ankadibevava 6. Ampamarlnana 7. Andohalo ... 8. Ambohitantely 9. Faravohitra 10. Imahamasina 11. Isotry 12. Ambanidia Commenced. Commenced. 1869 13- Ambatomitsangana ... 1863 /183I 14- Fiadanana, E. 1867 ••• I1861 15- Fiadanana, W. 1872 1861 16. Isoanierana 1867 1861 17- Ankadimbahoaka . 1865 1863 18. Androndra... 1867 ... 1863 19- Mahazoarivo 1863 1864 20. Ambohimiandra . 1863 1864 21. Andraisoro... 1866 1864 22. Ambatoroka 1869 1868 23- Ankadifotsy 1868 1867 24. Tanimena ... 1869 1867 25- Anjanahary 1869 1868 26. Manjakaray 1861 CHAPTER IV. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR : NOTES ON THE CLIMATE, AGRICULTURE, SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE, AND VARIED ASPECTS OF THE MONTHS. The seasons in Madagascar — Their significant names — Prospect from summit of Antananarivo — The great rice-plain — Springtime : September and October — * Rice-planting and rice-fields — First crop — Trees and foliage — " Burning the Downs " — Birds — Summer : November to February — Thunderstorms and tropical rains — Effects on roads — Rainfall — Hail — Magnificent lightning effects — Malagasy New Year — Native calendar — Royal bathing — Conspicuous flowers — Aloes and agaves — Christmas Day observances — Uniformity in length of days — Native words and phrases for divisions of time — And for natural phenomena — Effects of heavy rains — Wild flowers of Imerina — Autumn : March and April — Rice harvest — Harvest Thanksgiving Services — Mist effects on winter mornings — Spiders' webs — Winter : May to August — Winter the dry season — Great markets — Aspects of nightly sky — Epidemics in cold season — Vegetation. MY object in this chapter is to describe the varied aspects of the different months throughout the year in this central province of Imerina, as they present themselves to any one who lives in the capital city of Antananarivo, and is frequently travelling in the country around it. I want to show the variety of Nature during the changing seasons, as the result of the heat or cold, and of the moisture or drought of the climate, and to point out the changes resulting from the different processes of agriculture carried on by the Malagasy. And it must be remembered that although this central province of Madagascar is by several degrees well within the tropics, our climate for some months of the year is by no means the THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 53 " tropical " one supposed in our ordinary English use of that word. On these interior highlands, from 3,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea level, the south-easterly winds blow from June to August with a keenness and force which it needs thick clothing to withstand, and makes a wood fire during the long evenings a very pleasant addition to the comforts of home life. The seasons in the central regions of the island are practi- cally only two : the hot and rainy period, from the beginning of November to the end of April ; and the cool and dry period, during the other months, from May to October. The Malagasy are, however, accustomed to speak of four seasons of their year, viz., the Lokataona, i.e., " head of the year," during September and October, when the planting of rice is going on everywhere, and a few showers give promise of the coming rains ; the Fahavaratra, i.e., " thunder-time," when severe storms of thunder and lightning are frequent, with heavy downpours of rain, from the early part of November to the end of February or into March ; the Fdrarano, i.e., " last rains," from the beginning of March and through April ; and lastly, the Ririnina, i.e., " time of bareness," when the grass becomes dry and withered, from June to August. Taking, therefore, the seasons in order, from the beginning, not of January, which gives no natural division of the year, but from the early part of September, when the blossoms on the trees speak of the " good time coming " of renewed verdure, I shall note down, in their succession, the varying aspects of the country, in climate, vegetation, and culture of the soil, through- out " the changing year." Before, however, proceeding to do this, it may give greater distinctness to the mental picture I want to draw for those who hav^e never been in Madagascar, if I try to describe in a few words the appearance of this central province of the island, especially of that portion of it which is in the neighbourhood of the capital. Let us go up to the highest point of the long rocky ridge on and around which Antananarivo is built, from 54 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. which we can " view the landscape o'er," and try and gain a clear notion of this "heart of Imerina," as it is often called by the Malagasy. The city hill reaches its greatest elevation at a point called Ambohimitsi'mbina, i.e., " Hill of regarding," which is JQO feet above the general level of the rice-plains around it. From this " coign of vantage " there is of course a very extensive view in every direction, and we see at once that the surrounding country is very mountainous. East and south there is little but hills of all shapes and sizes to be seen, except along the valleys of the river Ikopa and its tributaries, which come from the edge of the upper forest, thirty miles or so away to the east. To the north the country is more undulating, but at ten or twelve miles away high hills and moors close in the view. Some of the hills rise into mountains, as in the case of Angavokely to the east, Milangana, Andn'ngitra, and Lohavohitra to the north and north-west, and Iharanandriana to the south. The country is everywhere in these directions, except in the river valleys, covered with red soil, through which the granite and gneiss foundations protrude at almost every elevated point in huge boulder-like rocks. There is little foliage to be seen, except on the top of some of the hills, where the ancient towns and villages were built, and in such places a circle of old Aviavy trees, with an occa- sional Ainontana ^ tree, gives a pleasant relief to the prevailing red and ochre tints of the bare hills. The largest mass of green is at the old capital, Ambohimanga, eleven miles away to the north, where the steep sides of the hill are still covered with a remnant of the original forest, which formerly was doubtless much more extensive in this part of Imerina. To the west, from north to south, the prospect differs con- siderably from that to the east. To the south-west there rises by very gradual slopes, at some thirty-five miles' distance, the mass of Ankaratra, the highest point in the island, its three or four crowning peaks reaching an elevation of nearly 9,000 feet ' Ficus Baroiii, Baker, and Ficiis trichosphcvra, Baker. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 55 above the sea, and something more than half that height above the general level of the country. Due west and north-west is a considerable extent of level country, beyond which the mountain of Ambohimiangara, sixty miles away, is seen on the horizon, as well as many other hills. In the foreground, stretching away many miles, is the great rice-plain of Betsimitatatra, from which numbers of low red hills, most of them with villages, rise like islands out of a green sea when the rice is growing ; along the plain the river Ikopa can be seen, winding its way north-west- wards to join the Betsiboka ; the united streams, with many tributaries, flowing into the sea at the Bay of Bembatoka. This great plain, " the granary of Antananarivo," was formerly an immense marsh, and earlier still a lake ; but since the embank- ing of the river by some of the early kings of Imerina, it has become the finest rice-plain in the island, and, with its con- nected valleys, furnishes the bulk of the food of the people of the central province. From this elevated point at least a hundred small towns and villages can be recognised, many of them marked by the tiled roof of the village church, which shines out distinctly in the sunshine amid the brown thatched roofs of most of the houses, and can be easily distinguished at distances of ten or twelve miles away. This view from the summit of the capital is certainly in its way unrivalled for variety and extent, as well as for the human interest of its different parts, as shown by the large population, the great area of cultivated land, the embanked rivers, and the streams and water-channels for irrigation seen in every direction. Springtime : September and October. — With the early days of September we may usually say that springtime in Imerina fairly sets in, and that the year in its natural aspects properly commences. By a true instinct, arising doubtless from long observation of the change of the seasons, the Malagasy call this time Lbhataona, i.e., " the head, or beginning, of the >'ear," when nature seems to awake from the comparative deadness of 56 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. the cold and dry winter months, during which the country has looked bare and uninviting, but now begins again to give promise of fertility and verdure. The keen cold winds and drizzly showers of the past few weeks give place to warmer air and clearer skies, and although usually there is but little rain during September, the deciduous trees begin to put forth their leaves, and flower-buds appear as heralds of the fuller dis- play of vegetable life which will be seen after the rains have fallen. The great rice-plain to the west looks, during the early days of the Lohataona, bare and brown ; but we shall see that in various places, where the plain borders the low rising grounds on which the villages are built, there are bright patches of vivid green. These are the ketsa grounds, or smaller rice-fields, where the rice is first sown thick and broadcast, and where it grows for a month or two before being planted out in the larger fields. These ketsa patches begin to be very numerous also in the smaller valleys which are found in every part of the province ; and as soon as the young plants are 4 or 5 inches high they are frequently strewn over with long dry grass to protect them from the hot sun by day as well as from the cold winds by night. In other rice-patches large fronds of bracken fern are used for the same purpose, and small branches of trees are also stuck along the edges of the enclosures, which are divided from each other by a low bank of earth, a few inches broad and only a foot or two in height. As the season advances the people begin to be busy digging up their rice-fields, the clods being piled up in heaps and rows in order to give the soil the benefit of exposure to the sun and air. All this work is done by the native long-handled and long- and narrow-bladed spade, driven into the ground by the weight of the handle, as the Malagasy wear no shoes, and so could not drive down the spade by the foot in European fashion, while the plough is still an unknown implement to them. The water- courses, by which water is brought to every rice-plot, are now THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 57 being repaired in all directions. The chief supply of water is from the springs found at the head of almost every valley, which is carefully led by channels cut and embanked round the curves of the hillsides, being often taken thus for a considerable distance from its source. Eventually this little canal resolves itself into a small stream traversing the valley, from which smaller channels convey the water to every iield, so as to moisten the clods after they have been dug over. The water-supply for the great Betsimitatatra plain is derived from the Ikopa river and its tributaries the Andromba, the Sisaony, the Mamba, and other streams. Canals tap these rivers at various points, in order to irrigate the fields at lower levels further down their course. A large quantity of water is thus diverted from the rivers during September and October, so that the smaller streams are almost dry, and even* the Ikopa and its affluents, good-sized rivers at other times of the year, then become shallow and easily fordable. Before the end of October a large extent of the great plain, especially to the north and north-west, is completely planted with rice ; and a green level, looking like one vast lawn, stretches away for many miles in this direction, without any break or visible divisions. This green is ^ the vary aloha, or " former rice," the first crop, which will become ripe in the month of January, or early in February. Smaller expanses of bright green appear in other directions also, especially along the courses of the rivers, but a considerable extent of the plain directly to the west of the capital is still russet brown in colour, and will not be planted until a month or two later. From this will come the later rice crop, or, as it is called, the {vary') vdky avibidty^ which is planted in November or December, and becomes fit for cutting about April. This latter crop is so called because the flowering of the Anibidty shrub,^ about November, gives notice to the people that planting-time has come. This shrub is very conspicuous about this time of the year from its masses of white flowers. ' Vcnionin appcndiculata, Less. 58 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. The ketsa grounds are covered before sowing with a layer of wood and straw ashes, so that they have quite a black appearance. Before this, however, the clods have been broken up and worked by the spade into a soft mud, with an inch or two of water over all, and on this the grain is sown broadcast, springing up in two or three weeks' time and looking like a brilliant emerald carpet. There are usually a few heavy showers about the end of September or the early part of October, which are called rdno- nbrana indnipisdra-taona, i.e.^ " rain dividing the year " ; but occasionally no rain falls until the rainy season regularly com- mences, so it is dry and dusty everywhere, the ground cracks, and everything seems thirsting for moisture. The heat increases as the sun gets more nearly vertical with the advancing season, although the nights are pleasantly cool. Yet notwithstanding the dry soil, the trees are beginning to blossom. Most con- spicuous among them is the Cape-lilac,^ a tree introduced from South Africa about seventy years ago by the first L.M.S. missionaries, and now thoroughly naturalised. It grows to be a good-sized tree, and many hundreds of them are to be seen in all the suburbs of Antananarivo, making them gay with the profusion of lilac flowers which cover the trees, and fragrant with their strong perfume. There are many large orchards in Imerina, thickly planted with mango-trees, and about this time the green of the leaves is largely mingled with a tinting of reddish brown, which is caused by the masses of flowers in the upper part of the trees. The low banks of earth which form the boundary walls of plantations are largely planted with a species of Euphorbia,^ of which there are two \'arieties — one with brilliant scarlet bracts, and the other of pale yellow tint, the leaves appearing on the prickly stems later on. As the season advances, the people burn the grass over the hillsides and the open moor country, so as to get rid of the ' Miiia Azcdcrach, L. ' Euphorbia splcndcns, Bojer. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 59 long dry grass and to obtain a crop of green herbage as soon as the rains have fallen plentifully. This has an unpleasant appearance by day, from the immense black patches of charred vegetation to be seen in every direction ; and frequently the hedges and smaller trees are destroyed as well. There can be no doubt that to this practice of inandoro tanety (" burning the down "), as it is called, is largely attributable the bare and treeless appearance of the central provinces. The young trees which would spring up, especially in the hollows and sheltered places, have no chance against the yearly fires which sweep over the country, and the little vegetation which has held its own is constantly liable to be lessened as time goes on. Sometimes a dozen fires, long curving lines of flame, may be seen at night in different directions ; and a ruddy glow in the sky often shows the places where the actual fire is hidden from view by inter- vening hills. Mandbro tanety thus gives a strangely picturesque appearance to the nights of springtime in Imerina. The weather often gets very hot and sultry before the rains come on, indeed the heat is greater and more trying at this time than in the summer itself, when the frequent storms freshen the air, and the rain cools the earth. The clear skies and pure atmosphere of other months are exchanged for thick, oppressive days, when the distant hills disappear altogether, and the nearer ones seem quite distant in the dense haze. These atmospheric conditions are probably due to the grass-burning just described, and also to the frequent burning of the forest away to the east. As the weather gets warmer, a few birds come up from the wooded regions of the island, and wherever there is a small patch of wood, the oft-repeated cry of the Kankajotra, the Madagascar Cuckoo, may be heard, much resembling the syllables " koiv-kow, kow-koiv-koo." The querulous cry of the noisy little Hltsikitsika, or Kestrel, is heard continually, for he and his mate are now bringing up their young brood and busily seeking food for them. As we walk over the downs, the Sorbkitra, the native Lark, darts up from her nest on the bare 6o MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. ground, with a note somewhat like that of her European cousin's, but not so full and sweet. As the end of October draws near, the people are busily at work, not only in the rice-fields, but also repairing their houses, mending their grass or rush roofs, and hurrying on their sun- dried brick or clay building before the heavy rains fall. Although a large number of burnt-brick houses, with tiled roofs, have now been erected, the majority of native dwellings are still of the cheaper materials ; and everything of the kind must be finished, or at least well protected from the weather, before the rainy season comes on. The watercourses, too, need attention, and the river banks must be repaired, lest a succession of heavy rains should swell the streams, break through the embankments, and flood the rice-plains. Summer : November, December, January, and Feb- ruary. — Summer is not only the hot season, but it is also the rainy season, very little rain falling at any other time of the year. It is accordingly called by the Malagasy Fahavaratr-a^ i.e., " thunder-time," since almost all heavy rain is accompanied by a thunderstorm ; and taking the average of a good many years, this season may be said to commence at the beginning of November. As the sun gets every day more nearly vertical at noon, on his passage towards the southern tropic, the heat increases, and the electric tension of the air becomes more oppressive. For a week or more previous to the actual commencement of the rains, the clouds gather towards evening, and the heavens are lighted up at night by constant flashes of lightning. But at length, after a few days of this sultry weather, towards mid-day the huge cumuli gather thickly over the sky and gradually unite into a dense mass, purple black in colour, and soon the thunder is heard. It rapidly approaches nearer and nearer, the clouds touching the lower hills, then down darts the forked lightning, followed by the roar of the thunder, and presently a wild rush of wind, as if it came from all quarters at once, tells us that the THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 6 1 storm is upon us, and then comes the rain in big, heavy drops for a few seconds and soon in torrents, as if the sluice-gates of the clouds were opened. The lightning is almost incessant, and for half an hour or so there is often hardly any interval between the crashing and reverberations of the thunder peals, the hills around the capital echoing back the roar from the clouds. Certainly a heavy thunderstorm in Madagascar is not without a considerable element of danger, especially for any one caught in a storm in the open, or in a house unprotected by a lightning- conductor. Every house of any pretensions in the central provinces has this safeguard, for every year many people are killed by lightning — some while walking in the road, and others in houses unprotected by a conductor ; for instance, one of our college students, travelling with wife and children to the Betsileo, was killed instantaneously, as well as a slave near him, when sitting in a native house, while a child he was nursing at the time escaped with a few burns only. A large quantity of rain sometimes falls during such storms in a very short time. On the 19th of January, 1892, 3|- inches fell in less than half an hour ; and as the streets and paths through the capital are all very steep, and from the rocky nature of the whole hill there can be no underground drainage, it may be imagined what a roar of water there is all over the city after such a storm. The three or four chief thoroughfares are transformed into the beds of rushing torrents and series of cascades, and it is no wonder that most of the highways of the capital get deeper and deeper every year. Even where there is an attempt at a rough paving, a single storm will often tear it up and pile the stones together in a big hole, with no more order than obtains in the bed of a cataract. After the rains are over, the red soil is dug away from the sides to fill up the channel cut by the torrent, and so the road gradually sinks below the walls of the compounds on either side of it. Taking the average of eleven years (i 881 -1890), the annual rainfall of Antananarivo was 52 inches ; and of this, omitting 62 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. decimals, 5^ inches fell in October, 5f inches in November, 10^ inches in December, 1 1 inches in January, 9 inches in February, 8 inches in March, and 2 inches in April ; so that December and January are the wettest months, during which rain falls usually on two days out of every three. It is very unusual for thunderstorms to occur in the morning, they mostly come on in the afternoon ; and after the first heavy downpour, a steady rain will often continue for three or four hours, and occasionally far into the night. It is generally bright and fine in the early morning ; all vegetation is refreshed by the plentiful moisture ; and the people are busy in their planta- tions on the sloping hillsides, digging up the softened earth for planting manioc, sweet potatoes, the edible arum, and many other vegetables. Hail also very frequently falls during these thunderstorms, and should it be late in the season, when the rice is in ear, great damage is often done to the growing crop. A large extent of rice-field will sometimes be stripped of every grain, the stalks standing up like bare sticks. Charms against hail had therefore in the old heathen times a prominent place in the popular beliefs and, there can be little doubt, are still trusted in and used by many of the more ignorant people. Occasionally the hailstones are of very large size and kill sheep and small animals, if they are left unsheltered. I remember a storm of this kind (Oct. 22, 1887), when the hailstones were as large as good-sized nuts, while some were cushion-shaped and hexagonal with a hollow in the centre, and nearly ij inches in diameter. In other cases they have been seen as jagged lumps of ice ; and it may be easily imagined that it is very unpleasant and some- what dangerous to be exposed to such a fusilade. Besides the thunderstorms like those just described, which come so close and are often so awful in their results, there is another kind of storm we frequently see in the rainy season which is an unmixed source of delight. This is when, for two or three hours together in the evening, a large portion of the THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 63 sky is lighted up by an almost incessant shimmer of lightning. All the time no thunder is heard from this celestial display, but it is most fascinating to watch the infinitely varied effects of light and darkness. As the Malagasy New Year's Day now comes in the month of November, it may be fitting to say something here about the native division of time. The Malagasy months are lunar ones and therefore their year, reckoning by the months, is eleven days shorter than our own, the first day of their year coming consequently at different times, from the first to the twelfth month, until the cycle is complete. When I first came to Madagascar (in 1863), the Malagasy New Year's Day, that is, the first of Alahamady, was in the month of March, and in this year, 1894, the first of that Malagasy month fell on the 6th of April, the cycle of thirty-three years being thus nearly finished. But since the accession of the present Sovereign, Queen Rana- valona III., in 1883, the 22nd of November, which is her Majesty's birthday, has been fixed as the invariable New Year's Day ; and most of the old ceremonies always observed previous to the year 1883 on the first day of the first month (Alahamady) are now kept up on the eve of November 22nd. The old New Year's Day, the birthday of the father of Radama I., is still, however, held in remembrance by the firing of cannon on the first of Alahamady. The Malagasy appear never to have made any attempt, by the insertion of intercalary days or any other contrivance, to fill up their shorter year to the true time occupied in the earth's annual revolution round the sun ; for of course they must have noticed that their months came at quite different periods after a very few years. The names of the Malagasy months in use in the central province and in most other parts of the island are all Arabic in origin, as indeed are the names of the days of the week. In some districts, however, other names are employed, which mostly appear to be purely Malagasy words. It may be noticed here that the Malagasy month-names are not the Arabic names for the months, but are 64 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. the Arabic words for the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. Thus, x'\lahamady is the Ram, Adaoro is the Bull {daoro =taurus), Adizaoza is the Twins, and so on. This appears to have arisen from the connection between astrology and the divination {sikidy) introduced by the Arabs several centuries ago. A full account of the Fandrbana or " Bathing," as the New Year's festival is called, cannot be given here, as a complete description would form a separate chapter of some length. It must suffice to say that although some of the ancient customs have fallen and are still falling into disuse, most of them are still kept up. The most prominent of these are the following : — (i) The lighting of little bundles of dried grass at dusk on the evenings of the 20th and the 21st of November, the latter, the eve of the 22nd, being considered as the commencement of the New Year's Day itself, for the Malagasy, like other Orientals, reckon " the evening and the morning " as the proper order of the day. These fires, possibly a relic of the old fire-worship, are called liarhidrina^ and form one of the most pleasing features of the festival in the gathering darkness of the evening. (2) The ceremonial Royal Bathing at the great Palace, when all the principal people of the kingdom are present, as well as representative foreigners, is perhaps the most prominent of all the ceremonies, giving, as it does, the name to the whole festival. This is followed by a ceremonial bathing, or at least sprinkling of water, by all households. (3) On the following day comes the killing of oxen, doubtless the most important of all Fan- droana observances in the estimation of the people generally, at any rate of the jDOorer classes, who then get, for once a year at least, a plentiful supply of beef Presents of the newly-killed meat are sent about in all directions to relatives and friends, and feasting and merrymaking prevail for several days among all classes. (4) For some time previous to the actual festival, it is customary for the Malagasy to visit their elders and superiors in rank, bringing presents of money, fowls, fruit, &c., using certain complimentary formula and expressions of good wishes. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 65 The abundant rains which usually fall in November soon make the hills and downs, which have got so brown and dry during the cold season, to become green again, and although wild flowers are certainly not plentiful, there are several kinds which now make their appearance. Among these are the Vonenina,^ with large pink flowers ; the Avbko,^ bright crimson ; the Nifijtakangafi deep blue ; several small vetch-like plants with yellow flowers ; many others with minute yellow compound flowers, and some few other kinds. Besides flowers growing on the ground, there are many shrubs and small trees now in blossom, although some are by no means confined in floral display to the warm and rainy season. Along the hedges in one or two localities is a small bush, with clusters of purple flowers, called Fainamo ; 4 branches of these shrubs are sometimes placed in a pool or stream, so as to stupefy, and thus easily obtain, any fish present in the water. Very con- spicuous are the bright yellow flowers of the Tainakbho 5 and the Tsiofakbinby^ and the orange yellow spikes of the SevaJ More showy and handsome still perhaps are the abundant large yellow flowers of the prickly-pear, which is so largely used for hedges and for the defences of the old towns and villages. A species o{ Hibiscus^ is not uncommon, with yellow flowers, which have deep red in the centre ; yellow seems indeed the most common colour in the flora of Imerina. At this time of the year also three or four species of aloe come into flower. The larger of these, called Vdho7ia9 by the Malagasy, is much used for plant- ing as a hedge, from its fleshy leaves being armed with sharp prickles ; its tall flower-spike shoots up very rapidly to a height of 4 or 6 feet. Another and smaller one, called Sah6itdra,^° has its flowers branching at the top of the stalk something like a candelabrum. The numerous flowers attract, as they expand, ' Vinca rosea, L. ^ Vi^na aiis^ivcnsis, Baker. 3 Commclyua madasiascarica, C. B. Clarke. * Muiuiulca subcrosa, Benth. s Cassia lai'igata, Willd. * Ca'salfuiia scpiaria, Koxb. 7 Bitddlcia madai^ascaricnsis, Lam. * Hibiscus divcrsifolius, Jacq. 9 Aloe macivclada, Baker. " Aloe capitata, Baker. 6 66 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. swarms of bees. Another plant, like an aloe in appearance, called Taretra '^ by the natives, has long leaves, with a sharp spine at the ends only ; and its flower-stalk shoots up like a small mast to a height of 20 feet, with widely-spreading branch- lets and an immense number of light-coloured flowers. Strong fibre used as thread is obtained from the leaves, the name of the plant being indeed that used for " thread." The tall flower-stalks of these aloes and agaves form quite a noticeable feature in the Imerina landscape in the early summer. In the orchards, soon after the mango has finished flowering, we may see the curious whitish flowers of the Rose-apple,^ a sort of ball of long stamens, showing conspicuously among the foliage. Towards the beginning of December the earlier crop of rice comes into ear ; and should the rains fall as usual during November, the remaining portions of the great rice-plain will be all planted out with the later crop, the whole of the level and its branching valleys presenting an unbroken expanse of green. Of this, the early rice shows distinctly as a darker shade of colour, although it will soon begin to turn yellow, as the grain ripens under the steady heat and the plentiful rainfall. Perhaps this is the time when Betsimitatatra is seen in its most attractive and beautiful aspect, for every part of it is covered with rice in some stage or other of growth and cultivation. Since the reception of Christianity by the people of the central provinces of Madagascar, Christmas Day has become a very generally observed festival. As far as can be ascertained, the first Protestant missionaries (1820-1836) do not appear to have enjoined its observance upon their converts ; it seems to have become customary to keep it as a festival at some time during the suppression of open Christian worship, probably during the latter years of Ranavalona I., when severe measures against the " praying people " became less common. However this may be, on the re-establishment of the L.M.S. Mission in 1862, the observance of Christmas became very general with the ' Agave Ixtli, Karw. * Eugenia malaccensis, L. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 6^ Christians, and it has kept its hold upon them ever since. Every congregation meets in the morning of the day, either in its own church, or, more frequently, in the case of the country people, in large united gatherings of half a dozen to a dozen neighbouring congregations in the open air. Looking round on the country from any good position in the capital during the forenoon of Christmas Day and following days, one may see at many miles' distance, on various elevated points, a great mass of white, showing where one of these large assemblies is gathered together for worship. To such services people who are seldom seen at church on other occasions make a point of coming ; although one can hardly believe that their motives for attendance even then are of a very high order. It is a great day for showing off the best dresses the people possess, or can borrow or hire for the occasion ; the men often look very un- comfortable and awkward in suits of European cloth clothing, instead of their far more becoming and graceful native Idniba, over white shirt and trousers. And the women, although they wisely retain the Idinba, often have these of brightly coloured silk, and they also consider it a point of good breeding to sport the smartest of shoes and boots they can procure, although they seldom cramp their feet in such uncomfortable contrivances on other occasions. Jewellery, coral beads, and other ornaments are brought out, their hair is elaborately plaited, handsome embroidered dresses are worn, smart parasols and sun-shades are carried, and every one tries to get something extra to show himself, and especially herself, to the best advantage. Great pains and trouble are often taken to get up special hymns, or at least musical compositions with some Scripture or religious allusions in them, for the Christmas services ; these are often elaborate and wonderful performances, and sometimes the teacher is paid a considerable sum for his trouble in training his choir. Several sermons or addresses are delivered at these out- door gatherings, and the services of popular andeloquent preachers are often secured, so as to give greater interest to the occasion. 68 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. About Christmas-time also many congregations have a feast together, generally in some mango orchard, for the sake of the shade. Here the people are arranged in rows on either side of primitive tablecloths consisting of fresh banana-leaves. Great piles of boiled rice are brought in huge wooden platters, generally the sahafa or rice-winnowing dish ; while the laoka or accompaniments, consisting of stewed beef or geese or fowls, with gravy and green vegetables, is brought in any and ever>' kind of crockery that can be borrowed for the feast. The repast is concluded by a dessert of sliced pineapple, peaches, and bananas, all of which fruits are cheap and plentiful ; and it is a pleasant sight to see the people enjoy themselves in this innocent fashion. In Imerina there is only about two hours' difference in the length of the longest day, about Christmas, and the shortest day, early in July. It is dark at about seven o'clock on the ist of January, and at about six o'clock on the ist of July. Thus we have no long evenings ; but, on the other hand, we escape the long nights and the short days of the English winter. We lose also the long twilights of the temperate zone, although I have never seen the almost instantaneous darkness one some- times reads about in books as following the sunset. There is a twilight of from fifteen to twenty minutes' duration in this part of Madagascar. Very seldom have we a wet morning in any part of the year, and the heat is not more oppressive than it often is in hot summers in England. It may be interesting to notice at this point the numerous words used by the Malagasy to indicate the different times of the day, from morning to evening. Clocks and watches are comparatively a recent introduction into Madagascar, nor do the people ever seem to have contrived any kind of sun-dial, although, as will be seen, they did use something else as a kind of substitute for such a timekeeper. It should be remembered that the hours given (counting in European fashion) as equiva- lents for these native divisions of the night and the day are THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 69 only approximations, and must be taken as the mean of the year, or, in other words, at about the time of equal day and night, towards the end of March or of September. They are as follows : — [Mamato)i hliiia, or Misdsaka aliua, Maiicno sahona, Mancno akoho, Maraina aliiiu kou, Maiiciio goaika, I Manga vbdiliinitra, -, Mangbiin' atsiiuiiiana, \ Mang}raii-(iriitsy, Ahitan-tsbratr' oinby, Miizava riitsy Mifoha olo-inazoto, Maraina koa, (Vdky Diasoinniiv, -j Vdky dud IV, \Piakdndiv, Aiitodudro be ndiialidry, Efa bdna iiy dndro, Miliintsatia diido, Mii'oaka onihy, Maini-bolioii-drdvi'na, Afa-drdnom-pandla, Maiidra vara ny dndro, Mi'sd udratra a udro, Mitatao lu'iratra, Mitatao vovouaiia, M and ray tokonana ny dndro, /Mitsidika dndro, - Ldtsaka iray dia ny dndro, [Soldfak' dndro, ( Tdfaldtsaka ny dndro, ) (Mihilana uy dndro, J A ni-pitotbani-bdry, (Mby anun' ny dndry ny dndro, ( A ni-paniatbran-jdnak' oniby, Mby ani-pisbko ny dndro, Mody buiby tcra-bao, Centre of night, \ or [ about 12.0 Halving of night, J midnight Frog-croaking, „ 2.0 Cock-ci"o\ving, Morning also night, Crow croaking. Bright horizon, \ Reddish east >- Glimmer of day, j Colours of cattle can be seen, Dusk, Diligent people awake. Early morning. Sunrise, \ Daybreak, [ ]■ 3-0 4.0 5-0 5-15 5-30 Co Broad dkylight, \ Dew-falls, „ 6.1- Cattle go out (to pasture), „ „ , Leaves are dry (from dew), Hoar-frost disappears. The day chills the mouth. Advance of the day. Over (at a right angle with) the purlin. Over the ridge of the roof. Day taking hold of the thres- hold, Peeping-in of the day, ^ Day less one step (=hour ?), L Slipping of the day, j Decline of the day = afternoon. At the rice-pounding place. At the house-post. At the place of tying the calf. At the sheep or poultry pen. The cow newly calved comes home, „ 4.30 6.30 )) 6.45 I) 8.0 II 9.0 ,, 12.0 noon 12.30 p.m. 1.0 1-3 II to 2.0 II I) )i " 3.0 11 11 4.0 ,, These only refer to the two or three winter months. 70 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Tafapaka ny atidiv, Sun touching (/.c, the eastern wall), abo ut 5.0 p.m. Mody dill by, Cattle come home, ,, 5-30 „ Mcna iiiasoiindyo, Sunset flush, ,, 5-45 „ Maty luasoaiidiv, Sunset cut. " Sun dead "), „ 6.0 „ Miditra akoJio, Fowls come in, ,, 6.15 „ Somainbisdmby, Dusk, twilight, „ 6.30 „ Maiziiii-bin'a-vilauy, Edge of rice-cooking pan obscure, „ 6.45 » Manokoiu-bary blona, People begin to cook rice, „ 7.0 „ Hoinaiii-bhry blona, People eat rice,i ,, 8.0 „ Tapi-niilimaiia, Finished eating, ,, 8.30 „ Maiidry blona, People go to sleep, „ 9-0 „ Tapi-niandry blona, Every one in bed, ,, 9.30 „ Mipba-tafbndro, Gun-fire, ,, lO.O „ Maiin'ifoii' c'llina, Midnight, „ 12.0 „ This list is, I think, a very interesting one and shows the primitive pastoral and agricultural habits of the Hova Malagasy before they were influenced by European civilisation. Previous to their knowledge of clocks and watches (which are still unknown to the majority of people away from the capital), the native houses thus served as a rude kind of dial. As, until recent times, these were always built with their length running north and south, and with the single door and window facing the west, the sunlight coming in after mid-day at the open door gave, by its gradual progress along the floor, a fairly accurate measure of time to people amongst whom time was not of very much account. In the forenoon, the position of the sun, nearly square with the eastern purlin of the roof, marked about 9 o'clock ; and as noon approached its vertical position, about the ridge-pole, or at least its reaching the meridian, clearly showed 12 o'clock. Then, as the sunlight gradually passed westward and began to peer in at the door, at about i o'clock, it announced " the peeping-in of the day " {initsidika andro) ; and then, as successive points on the floor were reached by the advancing rays, several of the hours of the afternoon were sufficiently clearly marked off: — "the place of rice-pounding" {aui-pitotbam-bary), as the light fell on the rice-mortar, further into the house ; " the calf- fastening place " {am-pamatoran-jdnak^ THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 7 1 bmby), as the rays reached one of the three central posts supporting the ridge, and where the calf was fastened for the night ; and then, " touching " {tdfapdka), when the declining sunshine reached the eastern wall, at about half-past four in the afternoon. Other words and notes of time, it will be seen, are derived from various natural phenomena. There is a phrase, jlnja dndry, meaning " house-post notching," to denote notches or marks cut in the southern ridge-post to mark the gradual advance of the sun's rays, and from them the hours of the afternoon. Some other words for the divisions of time used by the Malagasy may be here noted. Thus " a rice-cooking " {indray indhamdsa-bdry) is frequently used to denote about half an hour ; while " the frying of a locust " {indray viitbno valdld) is a phrase employed to describe a moment. Many words exist in the Malagasy language to denote different appearances of Nature which are somewhat poetical and seem to show some imaginative power. Thus the light fleecy clouds in the upper regions of the atmosphere are called " sky gossamer " {farora-ddnitrd) ; the sun is the " day's-eye " {indsodndrd) ; the galaxy is the " dividing of the year " {efi- taond); the rainbow is "God's large knife" {dntsiben' Andria- mdnitrd) ; and a waterspout is the " tail of the sky " {rdmbon- ddnitrd). January is usually the wettest month in the year in Imerina ; and in some years there occurs what the Hova call the Jiafitoana or " seven days," that is seven days of almost continuous rain, although it more often lasts only three or four days. Such a time is not only a most uncomfortable one for all who have to go about, especially for the Malagasy, with their thin cotton clothing ; but it is also most disastrous for the houses, com- pounds, and boundary walls. The continuous rain soaks into these and brings them down in every direction. From the steep situation of the capital, almost every house compound is built up on one side with a retaining-wall, and on the other is cut away so as to form a level space. These walls or 72 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. " batteries," as they are termed, are often badly constructed and of very insufficient strength and thickness ; the constant moisture soaks in, and down come hundreds of stones and tons of earth, blocking up the narrow paths and making locomotion more difficult than ever. The enclosing walls of compounds and gardens, made of several layers of the hard red soil, are also apt to be brought down in ruin at such times, although it is wonderful to see for how many years such structures will endure the storms and heavy rains of successive seasons. The prolonged moisture combined with the heat of this time of the year naturally makes everything grow luxuriantly. Our gardens are gay with flowers ; and in many places the open downs display a considerable amount of floral beauty. I have never seen elsewhere so beautiful a display of wild flowers as that which met our view when travelling from Antsirabe in Vakinankaratra to Antananarivo in the middle of December, 1887. Leaving Antsirabe and proceeding for several miles towards the north-east, the level country up to the foot of the long ridge running north and south, which is ascended about four hours after leaving Antsirabe, was gay with flowers, which covered the downs, and in places gave a bright colour to the surface of the ground. Among these the most prominent was a pale pink flower on stems from a foot to eighteen inches high (called by the people Kbtosay),^ and also the lovely deep-blue flower called Nifinakanga (lit. " guinea-fowl's tooth," see p. 65 ante), which latter occurred abundantly among the grass. In many places, especially near villages, a plant with small pale-blue flowers,^ almost exactly like our English " forget-me- not," grew in dense masses, but on stems a foot or two feet high, showing a blue-tinted surface even at a considerable distance. The Vonenina (see p. 65), with a pale-pink flower, was very frequent, as well as several species of bright yellow flowers. ' Sofubia triphylla, Baker. * Various species of Cynoglossiiiii. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 73 Three or four species of white-flowered plants, one of which was a clematis/ were very frequent ; and here a few late examples of terrestrial orchids were seen. We reckoned that there were from twenty to thirty different species of wild flowers then in bloom on these downs of Vakinankaratra, gladdening our eyes by their varied beauty and abundance as we travelled northwards on that glorious morning. As we got to the higher ground, however, I noticed that the blue Ntfinakanga became very scarce. The pale-pink Kbtosay was also much less abundant on the heights, but the white orchids were still in flower in many places. Seven weeks previously these upper downs had been also gay with great masses of a brilliant crimson flower, a leguminous plant, probably an Indigo/era, which grew in clusters of many scores of spikes growing close together. But in December only here and there was there a flower left, and hardly a seed-pod, the great majority having been scattered by the winds. Not only do flowers and verdure delight our eyes at this time of the year, but this is the season when the greatest variety of fruit comes in. Bananas, pine-apples, and two or three other fruits may be had all the year round, but in the rainy season we also get grapes, peaches, mangoes, plums, quinces, and oranges, and latterly apples are also becoming plentiful. Autumn : March and April. — Generally, both crops of rice — the earlier and the later — are all cut by the end of April, although in the northern parts of the province harvest is usually five or six weeks after that date. But if the rains are late and should happen to be scanty in February and March, as was the case this year (1894), harvest work is still going on at the end of May. In fact, owing to there being these two crops of rice, with no very exactly marked division between the two, autumn, in the sense of rice-harvest, is going on for about four months, and sometimes longer, as just mentioned, and extends over the later months of summer as well as the two months of autumn ■ Clematis Bojcri, Hook. 74 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. or Fararano (March and April). In January those portions of the great rice-plain which lie north-west of the capital become golden yellow in hue, and after a few days, patches of water- covered field may be noticed in different places, showing where the crop has been cut, and the few inches of water in which it was growing show conspicuously in the prospect. As the weeks advance, this water-covered area extends over larger portions of the rice plain, until the whole of the early crop has been gathered in, so that in many directions there appear to be extensive sheets of water. I well remember, when once at Ambohimanarina, a large village to the north-west of Antana- narivo, how strange it appeared to see people setting out to cross what seemed a considerable lake. But of course there was no danger, as the water was only a few inches deep. As there are channels to conduct water to every rice-field, small canoes are largely used to bring the rice, both before and after it has been threshed, to the margin of the higher grounds and nearer to the roads. At the village just mentioned, which is like a large island surrounded by a sea of rice-plain, there is one point where a number of these channels meet and form quite a port ; and a very animated scene it presents at harvest- time, as canoe after canoe, piled up with heaps of rice in the husk, or with sheaves of it still unthreshed, comes up to the landing-place to discharge its cargo. In a few weeks' time the watery covering of the plain is hidden by another green crop, but not of so bright and vivid a tint as the fresh-planted and growing rice. This is the kblikoly or after-crop, which sprouts from the roots of the old plants. This is much shorter in stalk and smaller in ear than the first crop, and is often worth very little ; but if the rains are late, so that there is plenty of moisture, it sometimes yields a fair quantity, but it is said to be rather bitter in taste. In cutting the rice the Malagasy use a straight-bladed knife ; and as the work proceeds, the stalks are laid in long curving narrow lines along the field, the heads of one sheaf being TPIE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. y$ covered over by the cut ends of the stalks of the next sheaf. This is done to prevent the ears drying too quickly and the grain falling out before it reaches the threshing-floor. This last-named accessory to rice-culture is simply a square or circle of the hard red earth, kept clear from grass and weeds, and plastered with mud, and generally on the sloping side of a hill or rising ground close to the rice-field. Here the sheaves are piled round the threshing-floor like a low breastwork. No flail is used, but handfuls of rice are beaten on an upright stone fixed in the ground, until all the grain is separated from the straw. The unhusked rice is then carried in baskets to the owner's compound, and is usually stored in large round holes with a small circular opening dug in the hard red soil. These are lined with straw, and the mouth is covered with a flat stone, which is again covered over with earth ; and in these receptacles it is generally kept dry and uninjured for a considerable time. In most years the end of April and the beginning of May are very busy times with the Malagasy ; almost all other work must give way to the getting in of the harvest ; the fields are every- where dotted over with people reaping ; almost all slaves, as well as the poorer people we meet along the roads, carrying a considerable load of freshly-cut grain on their heads, or a basket filled with akbtry or unhusked rice, and large quantities are spilt all along the roads and paths. Hence some of the most frequented thoroughfares, like the chief embankment leading out from the city westwards, swarm with rats and mice, which must pick up a very good living at this time of the year. Other animals also take toll from the harvest, especially the Fody, or Madagascar cardinal-bird, which may be seen some- times in large flocks, the bright scarlet plumage of the cock- bird making him a very conspicuous feature of the avifauna during the warmer months. These birds sometimes do considerable damage to the rice-crop. Large quantities of rice-stalks are now to be seen in all directions, spread out to dry in the sun, and they are also placed for the yd MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. same purpose on the top of the clay boundary walls of the compounds. Of late years it has become rather common for the Christian congregations to have a Harvest Thanksgiving service in their churches. The church is often elaborately decorated with rice and fruits of all descriptions, sometimes in fact to an absurd extent, so that the building looks like a greengrocer's store, as indeed may be occasionally seen even in churches in England. A much more commendable feature of these thanksgiving services is the bringing of offerings of rice and various kinds of produce for the support of the evangelists and school teachers. As the colder weather advances, the mornings are often foggy, at least a thick white mist covers the plains and valleys soon after the sun rises, and remains for an hour or two until his increasing power disperses it. Seen from the higher grounds, and from the most elevated parts of the capital, this mist often presents a very beautiful appearance : a billowy white sea of vapour is brilliantly lit up by the sunlight, and out of this sea the hill-tops rise up like islands. But these misty mornings also reveal many things which can only be seen by very close observation, in clear sunshine, especially the webs of various species of spider. Many kinds of bush are seen to be almost covered by geometrical webs : one species seems to choose the extremities of the branches of the Sbngosbngo,^ but the most common is a web averaging five or six inches in diameter, vhich is spread horizontally on tufts of grass, and may be seen by thousands, half a dozen or so in a square yard. The aspect of vegetation, except in the rice-fields, can hardly be said to change much during the autumn months. A plant with pale yellow flowers ^ may be noticed by thousands in marshy grounds, giving quite a mass of colour in many places. A significant name given to autumn is Mencihitra, i.e., " the grass is red," that is, turning brown. ' Euphorbia splcndcns, Bojer. =" Graiigca madcrasfalaua, Poir. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. JJ Winter: May, June, July, and August. — We have no snow, nor is there any native word for it, for even the highest peaks of Ankaratra are too low for snow to fall on them ; we never see ice (although adventurous foreigners have once or twice seen a thin film of it on pools on the highest hillsides) ; hoar-frost, however, is not uncommon, and occasion- ally the leaves of some species of vegetables, as well as those of the banana, turn black with the keen night air. And since there is no rain during our Imerina winter, the paths are dry, and it is the best time for making long journeys, especially as there is little to be feared from fever. Winter is therefore a pleasant time ; the skies are generally clear, the air is fresh and invigorating, and to the cool and bracing temperature of the winter months is doubtless largely due the health and strength which many Europeans enjoy for years together in the central provinces of Madagascar. The long period without rain at this season naturally dries up the grass, and the hills and downs become parched and brown. Maintmty, i.e., " the earth is dry," is one of the native names for this season, and it is very appropriate to the con- dition of things in general.^ The rice-fields lie fallow, affording a scanty supply of grass for the cattle ; and many short cuts can be made across them in various directions, for the beaten track over embankments, great and small, may be safely left for the dry and level plain. The winter months are a favourite time for the native custom q{ famadihana, that is, of wrapping the corpses of their deceased relatives in fresh silk cloths, as well as removing some of them to a new tomb as soon as this is finished. These are quite holiday occasions and times of feasting, and, not unfrequently, of much that is evil in the way of drinking and licentiousness. Another very prominent feature of the social life of the Hova Malagasy is the system of holding large open-air markets ' Another curious native name for the end of the dry season is Mhharbra vary aniitrn, i.e., " making the old women spit " ! 78 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. all over the central province on the various days of the week. The largest of these is that held in the capital every Friday (Zoma), at which probably io,000 people are densely crowded together, and where almost everything that is grown or manu- factured in the province can be purchased. But two or three of the other markets held within four or five miles of Anta- nanarivo do not fall far short of the Zoma market in size, especially those at Asabotsy (Saturday) to the north, and at Alatsinainy (Monday) to the north-east. To a stranger these great markets present a very novel and interesting scene, and a good idea may be obtained as to what can be purchased here by taking a stroll through their crowded alleys and noticing what is offered for sale. The market is roughly divided into sections, according to the kind of goods sold. In one part are oxen and sheep, many of which are killed in the morning, while the meat is cut up and sold during the day. Here are turkeys, geese, ducks, and fowls by the hundred ; here are great heaps of rice, both in the husk and either partially cleaned, as ■" red rice," or perfectly so, as " white rice " ; here are piles of grey locusts, heaps of minute red shrimps, and baskets of snails, all used as " relishes " for the rice ; here is indngahazo or manioc root, both cooked and raw, as well as sweet-potatoes, earth-nuts, arum roots (saonjo), and other vegetables. In another quarter are the stalls for cottons and prints. American sheetings and Lancashire calicoes, as well as native-made cloths of hemp rqfia palm fibre, cotton, and silk ; and not far away are basketfuls and piles of snowy cocoons of native silk for weaving. Here is the ironmongery section, where good native-made nails, rough hinges, and locks and bolts can be bought ; and near them are the sellers of the neat little scales of brass or iron, with their weights for weighing the "cut money" which forms the small change of the Malagasy. There we come to the vendors of the strong and cheap native mats and baskets, made from the tough peel of the ZozSro papyrus,^ and from » Cyperus imcrinensis, Boeckl. THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 79 various kinds of grass, often with graceful interwoven patterns. Yonder a small forest of upright pieces of wood points out the timber market, where beams and rafters, joists and flooring boards can be purchased, as well as strong bedsteads and doors. Not far distant from this is the place where large bundles of Hcrana sedge,^ arranged in sheets or " leaves," as the Malagasy call them, for roofing, can be bought ; and near these again are the globular water-pots, or siny, for fetching and for storing water. But it would occupy too much time and space to enumerate all the articles for sale in an Imerina market. It is greatly to be lamented that native rum is now largely sold at many markets, in bottles, gourds, and in big earthen pots ; and it must be added that at the Antananarivo market slaves are also exposed for sale. This is done in rather a quiet corner of the market, as if the people were a little ashamed of it. Perhaps the star-lit skies of the evenings of the summer months are the most beautiful of all the year. At this season some of the finest of the northern constellations are seen at the same time as several of the southerly ones. The Great Bear stretches over the northern sky ; higher up is the Northern Crown ; the Pleiades,^ and Orion 2 with his many brilliant neighbours, are overhead ; the Southern Cross, with its con- spicuous " pointers " in the Centaur, is high in the southern heavens ; and the Magellan Clouds are clearly seen nearer the horizon ; and all across the firmament is the Galaxy, or, as the Malagasy call it, the efi-taona, " the division," or " separation of the year." And then, as the circling year revolves, the great serpentine curve of Scorpio appears, and Sirius, Capella, Canopus, and many another glorious lamp of heaven light up the midnight sky. Imerina is certainly a very favourable ' Cypcnis latifolius, Poir. * Curiously enough, the Malagasy appear to have given names only to these two prominent dusters of stars. The Pleiades they call Kbtokcli-uiiadi-Iaoua, i.e., " Little boys fighting over the rice mortar " ; while the three stars of Orion's belt they call Tiio-iio-ho-n-fy, i.e., " Three make a fathom." They have no name for the first-magnitude stars, or for the planets, except for Venus, as a morning star, viz., Fiturikaiuiro, i.e., "Leader of the day." 80 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. country for astronomical observation, and good work may be expected from the Observatory established five years ago by the Jesuit Mission. The month of August, the closing one in this review of the year, is often the coldest month of all, cold, that is, for a country within the tropics. All through August the keen south-eastern trades generally blow strong, and although in sheltered places the afternoon sun may be quite warm, the mornings and evenings are very cold, and during the night the mercury will often descend to very near the freezing point. The mornings are frequently misty ; on some days there are constant showers of erika or drizzly rain, alternating with bright sunny days and clear skies ; these latter seem the very perfection of weather, bracing and health-giving. But this cold weather often brings malarial fever, which attacks great numbers of Malagasy, and also brings affections of the throat and chest, to which many fall victims. At such times their thin cotton clothing seems ill adapted for protection against the climate. This circumstance has often struck me as showing how difficult it is to change the habits of a people ; for centuries past the Hova have lived in this cool highland region, yet, until very lately, few of them have made any change in their dress, which was well enough adapted for the purely tropical region from which they origin- ally came, but quite unfitted for the keen cool air of the winter months in a country nearly 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The great rice-plain to the west of the capital and all the broader valleys still lie fallow, although in various places exten- sive sheets of water show that irrigation is commencing. Many of the fields are now being Qug up, and water is allowed to flow over them to prepare the soil for planting. In the lesser valleys and at the edges of the larger rice-plains the landscape is en- livened by the bright green of the ketsa grounds, the smaller rice-fields or nurseries, where, as already described, the rice is sown broadcast before transplanting into the larger fields. There are not many deciduous trees in Imerina, so the THE CHANGING YEAR IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR. 8 1 numerous orchards, chiefly of mangoes, look green throughout the year. Several prominent trees, however, do cast their leaves, notably the A vz'dvy,^ the Cape-lilac,^ and the Vbanonoka,'^ a large tree very like an oak. But the Cape-lilac is beginning to put out its green buds ; the peach-trees are a mass of blossom, and the Sbngosbngo 3 in the hedges is beginning to show its brilliant scarlet or pale yellow bracts. Wild flowers are still scarce, but the lilac flowers of the Sevabe'^ bloom all through the year. The golden-orange panicles of the S^vaS now come into bloom. Nature is arousing from the inaction of the cold season, and the few trees now flowering give promise of the coming spring and summer. Towards the end of this month the people begin to burn the dry and withered grass on the hillsides, as previously described. This time of the year is that during which, as well as in the earlier months of the cold season, the Malagasy are busy with house building and house repairing. Many of their houses are still built of the hard red clay which covers most of the country, although sun-dried brick is rapidly superseding this ; and now is the time when both clay and bricks can be made as well as built into houses. There being no heavy rain, there is no risk of the work being injured if finished before the rainy season comes on. But it is time that I conclude these sketches of Imerina, and of the varied aspects of Nature, as well as of some of the social aspects of the people, which may be observed throughout the year. Much more might be recorded, but what has been now noted down must suffice. My principal object in writing this chapter has been to endeavour to give, if possible, to people in England some clear notion of that part of the country where we live, and of the climate and conditions surrounding us here as well as some aspects of the social life of the people amongst whom we work day b}" day. ' See pp. 54, 58, ante. " Ficus Mcllcri, Baker. 3 Sec p. 76. * Solaintin auricidattiiii. Ait. 5 Biiddlcia inacinPascaricusis, Lam. CHAPTER V. THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA : ITS PHYSICAL FEA- TURES AND LEGENDARY HISTORY; AND THE VOL- CANIC REGIONS OF THE INTERIOR. Ancient volcanoes of Central Madagascar — Hot springs — Fossil remains in lime- stone deposits — Crater-lake of Andraikiba — Tritriva Lake — Colour of water — Remarkable appearance of lake — Legends — Mythical monsters — Depth of lake — View from crater walls — Mr. Baron on volcanic phenomena — Ankara- tra Mountain — Ancient craters — Lava streams — Volcanic rocks — Recent character of volcanic action. MADAGASCAR is not at present one of those regions of the earth where volcanic disturbances occur ; but there is ample evidence, from the numerous extinct craters found in various parts of the island, that at a very recent period, geologically considered — possibly even within the occupation of the country by its present inhabitants — it was the theatre of very extensive outbursts of subterranean energy. The whole island has not yet been examined with sufficient minuteness to determine the exact extent of these old volcanoes, but they have been observed from near the south-east coast in S. Lat. 23°, and in various parts of the centre of the island up to the north- west and extreme north, a distance of 680 miles ; and probably a more careful survey would reveal other links connecting more closely what is at present known as only a series of isolated groups of extinct craters. In the central provinces of Mada- gascar there are two large clusters of old volcanic cones and vents ; one of them in and about the same latitude as the THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA. 83 capital (19° S.), but from fifty to seventy miles away to the west of it, in the neighbourhood of Lake Itasy ; the other in the district called Vakinankaratra, situated about eighty miles to the S.S.W. of Antananarivo, and south-west of the great central mountain mass of Ankaratra. This second volcanic region stretches from twenty to thirty miles from Antsirabe away west to Betafo and beyond it, and contains numerous and prominent extinct craters, such as Ivoko, latsifitra, Vohitra, Tritriva, and many others, some of which have been described by the graphic pen of the late Dr. Mullens, in his Twelve Months in Madagascar (pp. 214-219). The doctor says that he counted in this southern group about sixty cones and craters. There are also many hot springs in this Vakinankaratra region, the most noted of which are those at Antsirabe. At this place one of the chief springs is largely charged with lime, which has formed an extensive deposit all over a small level valley sunk some 20 feet below the general level of the plain around the village. For a long time past this place has furnished almost all the lime used for building in the capital, and the central province of Imerina. Besides the deposit over the floor of the valley, there is also a compact ridge-shaped mass of lime accretion, 70 feet long by 18 to 20 feet wide, and about 15 to 16 feet high. This has all been deposited by the spring which kept open a passage through the lime to the top. Within the last ten or twelve years, however, the spring has been tapped by a shaft, of no great depth, a few yards to the north, over which a large and commodious bath-house has been erected by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission ; and here many visitors come to bathe in the hot mineral water, which has been found very beneficial in rheumatic and other complaints. A little distance to the south-west is another spring, not, however, hot, but only milk-warm, the water of which is drunk by those who bathe in the other spring. This water has been shown to be, in chemical constituents, almost identical with the famous Vichy 84 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. water of France. All over the valley the water oozes up in various places ; and about half a mile farther north are several other springs, somewhat hotter than that just described, to which the natives largely resort for curative bathing. During the excavations for the foundations of the bath- house, the skeletons of several examples of an extinct species of hippopotamus were discovered, the crania and tusks being in very perfect preservation. Some of these are now in the Museum at Berlin ; the finest specimen was sent to the Museum of the University of Christiania in Norway. This Madagascar hippopotamus was a smaller species than that now living in Africa, and is probably nearly allied to, if not identical with, another hippopotamus (//". Lemerlei), of which remains were found in 1868 by M. Grandidier, in the plains of the south-west coast. I was informed by the people that, wherever in these valleys the black mud is dug into for a depth of three or four feet, bones are sure to be met with. Probably a series of excavations would reveal the remains of animals, birds, and reptiles formerly inhabiting Madagascar. From the internal structure of the teeth and bones of the hippopotami discovered at Antsirabe, traces of the gelatine being still visible, it is evident that the animals had been living at a comparatively recent period. There have been occasional vague reports of the existence of some large animal in the southern parts of the island ; possibly the hippopotamus is not yet absolutely extinct there ; and perhaps the half-mythical stories of the Songbmby, Tbkandla, Lalomena, and other strange creatures current among the Malagasy are traditions of the period when these huge pachyderms were still to be seen in the lakes and streams and marshes of Madagascar. Within a few miles of Antsirabe are two crater lakes. The nearer and larger of these is called Andraikiba, which lies distant about four miles due west. This is a beautiful sheet of water, blue as the heavens in colour, in shape an irregular square, but curving round to the north-west, where it shallows THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA. 8$ into a marsh, which is finally absorbed in rice-fields. The lake is said to be of profound depth, but the hills surrounding it are not very lofty, rising only about 200 feet above the surface of the water, from which they rise steeply. Fish and water- fowl and crocodiles also are said to be very abundant in and on its waters. But the most interesting natural curiosity to be seen in the neighbourhood of Antsirabe is the crater-lake of Tritriva. This is situated about ten miles to the south-west, and is a pleasant ride of two hours by palanquin. Travelling at first in a westerly direction, the road then turns more to the south-west, and skirts the southern foot of the old volcano of Vohitra (already men- tioned). Passing some mile or two south of the high ground round the southern shores of the Andraikiba lake, the road gradually ascends to a higher level of country, so that in about an hour and a half's time we are about as high as the top of Vohitra — probably about 500 feet. Reaching a ridge between two prominent hills, we catch our first sight of Tritriva, now about two or three miles distant in front of us. From this point it shows very distinctly as an oval-shaped hill, its longest axis lying north and south, and with a great depression in its centre ; the north-eastern edge of the crater wall being the lowest part of it, from which point it rises gradually southwards and west- wards, the western edge being, at the centre, from two to three times the height of the eastern side. To the north are two much smaller cup-like hills, looking as if the volcanic forces, after the main crater had been formed, had become weaker and so been unable to discharge any longer by the old vent, and had therefore formed two newer outlets at a lower level. Descending a little from the ridge just mentioned, we cross a valley with a good many scattered hamlets, and in less than half an hour reach the foot of the hill. A few minutes' pull up a tolerably easy slope, perhaps 200 feet in height, brings us to the top, at the lowest part of the crater edge ; and on reaching the ridge the crater of the old volcano and its lake is before us, 86 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. or, rather, below us. It is certainly an extraordinary scene, and unique of its kind. The inner sides of the crater dip down very steeply on all sides to a deep gulf, and here, sharply defined by perpendicular cliffs all round it, except just at the southern point, is a rather weird-looking dark green lake far below us, the water surface being probably from 200 to 300 feet lower than the point we are standing upon, and consequently below the level of the surrounding country. The lake, exactly shut in by the cliffs of the crater surrounding it, is not blue in colour, like Andraikiba, although under a bright and cloudless sky, but a deep and somewhat blackish green. It is undoubtedly an old volcano we are now looking down into ; the spot on which we rest is only a few feet in breadth, and we can see that this narrow knife-edge is the same all round the crater. Outside of it the slope is pretty easy, but inside it descends steeply, here and there precipitously, to the edge of the cliffs which so sharply define the actual vent and, as distinctly, the lake which they enclose. Looking southwards, the crater edge gradually ascends, winding round the southern side, and still ascending as the eye follows it to the western, the opposite side, where the crater wall towers steeply up from 200 to 300 feet higher than it does on the east, where we are standing. The lake we judge to be about 800 to 900 feet long and 200 to 250 feet wide, forming a long oval, with pointed ends. The cliffs which enclose it appear to be from 40 to 50 feet in height, whitish in colour, but with black streaks where the rain, charged with carbonic acid, has poured more plentifully down their faces. These cliffs are vertical and in some places overhang the water, and from their apparently horizontal stratification are no doubt of gneiss rock. In coming up the hill I noticed a few small lumps of gneiss among the basaltic lava pebbles. The strongest feature of this Tritriva is the sharply defined vertical opening of the vent, looking as if the rocks had been cut clean through with an enormous chisel, and as if they must dip down — as is doubtless the case — to unknown depths below the dusky -green THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITR^VA. 87 waters. At the northern end of the lake is a deep gorge or cleft, partly filled with bushes and other vegetation. Southward of this, on the eastern side, the cliffs are still lofty and overhang the water, but at about a third of the lake's length they gradually decrease in height, and at the southern point they dip down to the level of the lake, so that at that part only can the water be approached. On the western side the cliffs keep a pretty uniform height all along the whole length. So steep is the inward slope of the crater walls, that we all experienced a somewhat " eerie " feeling in walking along the footpath at its edge ; for at a very few feet from this a false step would set one rolling downwards, with nothing to break the descent to the edge of the cliffs, and then to the dark waters below. We proceeded southwards along the crater edge to the higher part at the south-east, where the view is equally striking, and the depth of the great chasm seems still more profound. Here we waited some time, while most of our men went down to one of the hamlets in the plain to the east to get their meal, in which quest, however, they had only poor success. On expressing a wish to taste the Tritriva water, one of our bearers took a glass, and descending by a breakneck path, went to fetch some water from the lake. He was so long away that we were beginning to feel uneasy, but after a quarter of an hour he reappeared with the water, which tasted perfectly sweet and good. He also entertained us with some of the legends which were certain to have grown up about so weird- looking a place as Tritriva. Pointing to two or three small trees or bushes growing on the face of the cliffs near the northern point of the lake, he told us these were really a young lad and lass who had become attached to each other ; but the hard- hearted parents of the girl disapproving of the match, the youth took his loin-cloth, and binding it round his sweetheart and his own body, precipitated her with himself into the dark waters. They became, so it is said, two trees growing side by side, and they now have offspring, for a young tree is growing near them ; 88 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. and in proof of the truth of this story, he said that if you pinch or break the branches of these trees, it is not sap which exudes, but blood. He appeared to believe firmly in the truth of this story. He also told us that the people of a clan called Zanatsara, who live in the neighbourhood, claim some special rights in the Tritriva lake ; and when any one of their number is ill, they send to see if the usually clear dark green of the water is becoming brown and turbid. If this is the case they believe it to be a presage of death to the sick person. Another legend makes the lake the former home of one of the mythical monsters of Malagasy folk-lore, the Fandnim-plto- IbhUy or " seven-headed serpent." But for some reason or other he grew tired of his residence, and shifted his quarters to the more spacious and brighter lodgings for seven-headed creatures afforded by the other volcanic lake of Andraikiba. This same bearer assured us that in the rainy season — contrary to what one would have supposed — the water of the lake diminishes, but increases again in the dry season. He told us that there is an outlet to the water, which forms a spring to the north of the mountain. I noticed a white line a foot or two above the surface of the water all round the foot of the cliffs, showing a probably higher level than at the time of our visit. Walking round to the southern end of the crater edge, I proceeded up the far higher saddle-back ridge on the western side. Here the lake seems much diminished in size, and lying far down at an awful depth. But a magnificent and extensive view is gained of the surrounding country ; the long flat-topped lines of hill to the east running many miles north and south, and surrounded directly east by two perfect cones (old volcanoes, Votovorona and Ihankiana) ; the peaked and jagged range of V6amb6rona to the south-east ; the enormous mass of Ibity to the south ; and then west, a flat region broken by abrupt hills ; to the north-west are the thickly populated valleys THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA. 89 towards Betafo, with many a cup-shaped hill and mountain marking old volcanic vents ; and beyond this a high mass of country, with serrated outline against the sky, showing the district of Vavavato and the peaks of lavohaika ; and finally, coming to due north is the varied grouping of the hills which form the northern termination of the central mountain mass of Ankaratra. Between us and these again is the extensive plain of Antsirabe, with the white walls and gables of the church and the mission buildings plainly visible in the bright sunshine, although ten or eleven miles distant — altogether a panorama long to be remembered. From this point also the significance and appropriateness of the name given to the old volcano is clearly seen : Tritriva is a combination of the words trltry, a word used to describe the ridge on the back of a chameleon or a fish, and tva, low, deep ; so that the name very happily describes the long steep western ridge or crater wall, and the deep chasm sweeping down from it. It may be added in conclusion, that the slopes of the crater both inside and out are covered over with turf, which grows on a dark brown volcanic soil, mingled with rounded pebbles of greenish or purple lava, very compact and close in structure, and containing minute crystals scattered sparingly through it. Occasional blocks of this are found round the edge of the crater wall, and the same rock crops out at many places on the steep inner slopes. I did not notice any vesicular lava or scoria ; and at a little homestead not far from the north-eastern foot of Tritriva, I was surprised to find the hdcfy or fosse dug to 1 2 or 14 feet deep almost entirely through the red clay found all through the central regions of the island. The dark brown volcanic soil, here seen in section, appeared to be only 18 inches deep, with layers of small pebbles. So that the discharge of the volcanic dust and ash appears to have extended only a short distance from the mountain, at least it does not appear to have been very deep, unless, indeed, there has been much denudation. It must be remembered, however, that this point 90 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. is to the windward side of the hill ; probably the volcanic soil is deeper to the west of it. The much greater height of the western wall of the crater is no doubt due to the prevailing easterly winds carrying the bulk of the ejected matter to the west, and piling it up to two or three times the height of the eastern side. After seeing the amount of gneiss rock which must have been blown out of the vent, I expected to have found much greater quantities of it, and in larger blocks, than the very few and small fragments actually seen on the outer slopes. The greater portion, however, is probably covered up under the quantities of volcanic dust and lapilli which were subsequently ejected. The Rev. Johannes Johnson, of the Norwegian Missionary Society, says : " It will interest you to hear that the depth of the Volcanic Lake of Tritriva has been measured. Here is a rough diagram showing the places where soundings were made, S < I :^ "T~ > N. At I it was found to be 328 feet deep, at 2 it was 443 feet, and at 3 it was 474 feet in depth. The natives expected it would prove to be much deeper than this." Thus it appears that although not, as popularly supposed, unfathomable, the depth of this remarkable sheet of water is still very consider- able for its small area, and is quite sufficiently profound to have given rise to the many weird legends connected with it in the popular imagination. The two best known volcanic regions of Central Madagascar have already been referred to in this chapter, and as some of the readers of these pages may like to have fuller information as to these interesting parts of the country, I will not attempt to describe them myself, but will quote half a dozen paragraphs from a paper by my friend and brother missionary, the Rev. R. Baron, F.L.S., F.G.S., contributed to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, for May, 1889, and entitled "Notes on the Geology of Madagascar." Mr. Baron is the chief authority on the geology of the island and has made a special study of the petrology ; and all that he describes is from personal observa- THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA. 9 1 tion and microscopic examination of all the known rocks of the country. "Volcanic Phenomena. — The scene of the greatest dis- play of former volcanic activity in Central Madagascar has undoubtedly been Ankaratra. This mountain, situated some twenty to thirty miles to the south-west of Antananarivo, is the highest in the island, attaining an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet above the sea. It is a broad and elevated mass of land, with no very sharp peaks or ridges, and having, for the most part, a gentle slope of 4°-8° on all sides, so that it is not easy to define its exact limits. Roughly speaking, however, it may be said to cover an area of perhaps fifty square miles. It is the wreck of a huge, but ancient, subaerial volcano. There are at present, so far at least as my observations go, no traces of cones or craters, but there are volcanic ejectamenta scattered about which bear witness to their former existence. From this volcano vast floods of liquid lava have issued and overflowed the surrounding country to the extent, probably, of from 1,500 to 2,000 square miles. In fact, almost the whole of Vakinankaratra province has been covered b}' a sheet of lava. This lava has been poured out at various times, several beds being superimposed on one another. Some of the lava-streams are probably no less than twenty or twenty-five miles in length, and, before they thin out, from 300 to 500 feet in thickness. They are mostly of a basaltic character. " The lava which has issued from the north, north-east, and north-west of the mountain seems to be almost entirely olivine- basalt ; whilst that which has issued from the south, south-east, and south-west seems to be mainly nepheline-basalt. Trachyte also exists in sheets, apparently below the basalt, on the south- east and south-west side of the mountain. The three highest points of Ankaratra are Tsiafajavona, 8,494 feet above the sea ; Tsiafakafo, 8,330 feet ; and Ambohitrakoholahy, 7,730 feet. Tsiafajavona, the highest peak, and Tsiafakafo consist of oli vine- basalt, Ambohitrakoholahy of trachyte. 92 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. " It would be interesting to know at what period Ankaratra was in a state of eruption ; but our knowledge of the mountain and the surrounding district is, as yet, too scanty to help us to any conclusion on the matter. There is evidence sufficient, how- ever, to show that the volcano is of comparatively ancient date ; for, in the first place, all signs of craters or cones seem to have been effaced through denudation, though the presence of fragmentary materials (which, however, have largely disappeared) manifest their former existence. Then, again, numerous deep valleys have been excavated out of the hard basaltic covering by the many streams that come down from the mountain, leaving long tongues of lava diverging from the central mass. Many of these streams have cut clean through the beds of lava, bringing into view the gneiss upon which they are superimposed, " Some thirty or forty miles to the south of Ankaratra there are to be seen about a dozen remarkably conical hills without craters. Whether they are the cores of former volcanoes or eruptive bosses or remnants of a former lava sheet, it would be difficult to say, though I am inclined to regard them as the last. Votovorona and lakiana (or Ihankiana?) are probably the highest of these cones, though even these are of no great height. Votovorona is 350 feet high, and has been protruded through granite. The angle of its slope is over 50°. The rock is nepheline-hornblende-phonoHte. A few similar cones exist on the south-east of Vavavato mountain. About twenty or twenty- five miles N.N.E. of Ankaratra, and some seven or eight miles W.S.W. of Antananarivo, there is another of these probably eruptive bosses. It is a low conical knob of perhaps 1 50 or 200 feet high, and is also known by the name of Votovorona. It consists of oli vine-basalt. There seem to have been a few small outflows of lava from the hill, and it not improbably forms the core of an old volcano. " In Mandridrano district, on the western side of Lake Itasy, and in the neighbourhood of Betafo, in Vakinankaratra (the former being fifty-five miles west, and the latter seventy-five THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRIVA. 93 miles S.S.W., of the capital), there are numerous volcanic cones, which are undoubtedly much more recent than the volcanic pile of Ankaratra. Both localities are about 130 miles from the east coast of the island, and 170 from the west coast. It is hardly necessary to say that all these volcanoes are extinct, and that there are none in activity at the present time in any part of Madagascar. On the west side of Lake Itasy the volcanic cones exist in great numbers, and these therefore shall be first described. " The extinct volcanoes of the district of Mandridrano extend for a distance of about twenty miles north and south, and perhaps three or four east and west. The cones are thickly studded over the district, in some parts clustering together more thickly than in others. Occasionally there is a series of cones which have evidently been heaped up by the simultaneous ejec- tion of scoriae from different vents situated on the same line of fissure, but so that the cones have run one into the other, leaving a ridge, generally curvilinear, at the summit None of these extinct volcanoes reach the height of i ,000 feet. Kasige, which is probably the highest, I found by aneroid to be 863 feet above the plain. This is a remarkably perfect and fresh-looking volcano, whose sides slope at an angle of 32° or 33°. The scoriae on the sides have become sufficiently disintegrated to form a soil, on which is found a by no means scanty flora. On its top is an unbreached funnel-shaped crater, which measures, from the highest point of its rim, 243 feet in depth. Contiguous with Kasige, and adjoining its south side, though not so high, there is another volcano, Ambohimalala, and many others are to be seen near by. " One thing with regard to these volcanic piles soon strikes the observer; this is, that in the majority of the cones one side of the crater is higher than the other. Not only so, but the higher side is situated in most instances on the north, north-west, or west of the crater. This is accounted for b}- the direction of the wind during the eruption, causing the ejected fragments to 94 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. accumulate on the leeward side of the vent. Now we know that the south-east trades blow during the greater part of the year in Madagascar, hence the unequal development of the sides of the cones. The same thing may also be observed in the volcanic piles in the neighbourhood of Betafo. " A very large number of the cones have breached craters, whence lava has flowed in numerous streams and flooded the plains around. These streams and floods consist, in most instances, of black basaltic lava ; a sheet of this lava, the mingled streams of which have flowed from Ambohimalala and some other vents, has covered the plain at the foot of Kasige to such an extent as almost to surround the mountain. Similar sheets are to be seen in other parts of the district, but they are so much alike, that a description of one will suffice for all. Amboditai- mamo is a small volcanic cone at the south-west end of Ifanja marsh, and at the northern confines of the volcanic district. It possesses a breached crater turned towards the east. From this has issued a stream of lava which, following the direction of the lowest level of the ground, has swept through a small valley round the northern end of the cone, and spread out at its western foot. This sheet of lava, which is extremely rough on the surface,, occupies but a small area of some two or three square miles. It has been arrested in its flow in front by the form of the ground. It is cut through in one part by a stream (Ikotombolo) which, in some places, has worn a channel to the depth of eighty or ninety feet. Its surface, which is slightly cellular, is covered by hundreds of mammiform hillocks, which must have been formed during the cooling of the liquid mass. The hillocks are mostly from twenty to thirty feet high, and apparently are heaped-up masses of lava, and not hollow blisters. The lava itself is black, heavy, and compact, being porphyritic with, somewhat large crystals of augite. As yet it is scarcely decomposed sufficiently to form much of a soil, though grass and a few other plants grow on it abundantly. " As to the nature of the volcanic rocks of the district, it may THE CRATER LAKE OF TRITRiVA. 95 be said that these comprise basalt, andesite, trachyte, trachytic tuff, palagonite tuff, and limburgite. Some of the trachytic rocks contain large porphyritic crystals of glassy felspar (sanidine). Pumice, obsidian, and pitchstone do not seem anywhere to be found. " In addition to the numerous scoria-cones, there may be seen scattered here and there in the district some dozen or more other volcanoes, differing entirely in character from those which have been spoken of above. These are large bell-shaped hummocks of trachyte or andesite. They are without definite craters, though one or two of them have more or less conspicuous depressions on their summits, showing that eruptive action has not been altogether wanting. These hummocks are chiefly composed of a light-coloured compact rock. This rock, having originally had a highly viscid or pasty consistency, has accumu- lated and set immediately over the orifice through which it was extruded. " It is hardly necessary to say that these extinct volcanoes of Mandridrano must have been in activity in comparatively recent times. Possibly they belong to the historic period, though, so far as I am aware, no tradition lingers with regard to their being in a state of eruption. That they are, at any rate, of recent date is shown by the good state of preservation in which most of the cones are still found and by the undecomposed (or slightly decomposed) character of the lava-streams that have issued from them. There have been no terrestrial disturbances or modifica- tions of any magnitude since the days of their fiery energy ; the conformation of hill and dale was the same then as now, for in every instance the lava-streams have adapted themselves to the form of the existing valleys." CHAPTER VI. AMBATOVORY, OXE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS IN MADA- GASCAR ; WITH NATURAL HISTORY AND OTHER NOTES. The Rest-house — Amboniloha Hill — A deserted village — Ambatovory rock — Woodland paths — Birds — Lizards and chameleons — Grasshoppers — Pro- tective colouring — Waning colours — Beetles — Ants and ant-nests — Ball- insects — Spiders — Butterflies — King Butterfly — Solitary wasps — Wasp-nests — Angavokely Mountain — Extensive prospect. BY the kind consideration of the Directors of the London Missionary Society for the comfort and health of their missionaries in the central province of Imerina, we have had for some years past a pleasant Country-house or Sanatorium, to which, after a year or so of steady labour in college, or school, or hospital, or church and district, we can go for a fortnight or a month's quiet holiday. This peaceful resting-place is situated about twelve miles east of Antananarivo, on the Tamatave road, a mile and a half beyond the mission station of Isoavina, and a mile or less west of a great rounded mass of granite rising about 400 feet above the rice-valleys, and known as Ambato- vory, i.e., " Round rock." On the summit and eastern and western slopes of this huge boss of rock are numerous trees, much more plentiful on the western side, where they stretch down into a deep valley and form an amphitheatre of wood and bush. This vegetation is probably a remnant of the original forest, which once covered a much larger area of this mostly bare and treeless Imerina, and it forms a refreshing contrast to 96 AMBATOVORY, ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS. 97 the moory hills and rocky mountains which are seen in every direction. The Mission Rest-house is a good six-roomed dwelling on the slope of the hill facing the south, and from it the ground falls rapidly down to the rice-valleys a couple of hundred feet below, the large piece of ground belonging to the house joining on to the bush and scattered trees of the Amba- tovory forest, so that in two minutes' time one can stroll into the woods, through which a number of paths have recently been cut, or, turning in the opposite direction, can walk over the breezy downs towards Isoavina. Here is the pleasant mission-house of Mr. Peake, with its long row of cottages for the workmen in the industrial school which he has carried on for several years, its school- and class-rooms and its pretty church and school-house, forming altogether a model mission station. Behind the Rest-house rises for several hundred feet above it a rounded hill called Amboniloha, i.e., " Over-head," a not inappropriate name. Like scores of hills throughout Imerina, a number of deeply-cut lines round the summit show that this place was formerly the site of a well-fortified town. These lines, which can be seen for miles away, prove on closer inspection to be deep fosses cut in the hard red earth, a treble line of defence one within the other, the innermost rampart being strengthened by a low wall of massive stones. No building now remains in this " deserted village," but many squares of grass-grown stones can be traced, showing the former outline of the wooden framework of the houses ; and on the highest spot there is an ancient tomb, where doubtless some of " the rude forefathers of the hamlet " sleep their last sleep. In front of the house, looking south-west, the view is partly shut in, at a mile or two's distance, by lofty rocky hills rising high above the rice-valleys far below ; but to the south-east one gets a peep into a distant prospect of lines of hills, some of the nearer ones being enormous masses of bare rock ; while to the 8 98 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. east the view is closed by the smooth, rounded slopes of Amba- tovory itself, with the woods around it and stretching down into the deep valley at its base. There are many pleasant walks in the neighbourhood of the Sanatorium. One of these is to the top of the Ambatovory rock, from which there is an extensive view, and around which, to east and south, are fine trees and pleasant shady spots, where a picnic party can be improvised, and where ferns and other plants can be gathered. A few years ago there was a small village on the spot ; four or five years ago there were about that number of houses ; while now there is not one left, the people, as is usual throughout Imerina, deserting these incon- venient heights for the plains. But a row of half-a-dozen old tombs, with small timber houses on their tops, shows that this was a village of one of the noble clans or Andrlana, who alone are allowed to make such wooden houses, Trdno masina or Trano mandra, as they are called {i.e., " Sacred houses," or " Cold houses " i). These are, however, now tumbling to pieces, and after two or three more rainy seasons heaps of rotting wood will be all that is left over the tombs of these departed great ones of the district. Another easily reached spot is a detached rock, something like a miniature Ambatovory, but a short distance to the south of it. Here a scramble over a great sloping surface of gneiss brings us to a rough ascent leading to an ancient gateway. The top of this rock was evidently a fort of the old times, for, except where we climb up, there is no approaching the summit and no need of fosses or ramparts, as the smooth rock slopes away perpendicularly all around, and in the days before guns and gunpowder a dozen resolute men could have barred the narrow approach against a hundred assailants. The paths through the woods are, however, among the most pleasant places for a walk in the neighbourhood of Ambato- vory ; and although the small remnant of old forest is too * " Cold," because they are houses having no hearth or fire to warm them. ambatov6ry, one of our holiday resorts. 99 limited in extent to furnish much variety in animal life, there is still a great deal to interest those who have a taste for natural history, especially if they will only use their eyes. Of four-footed creatures in the shape of mammalia there are none, except possibly some of the small hedgehog-like creatures (the Centetidae), as the woods are far too restricted in range for any species of the lemurs to find a home there, and there is no great variety even of birds. There is a space of fifteen or sixteen miles of bare moors between this place and the upper forest, so that few of the numerous feathered tribes of the wooded regions come over the intervening country. In the warm season the kow-kow kow-koo of the Kankdfotra, the Madagascar cuckoo, is continually heard among the trees and bushes, as well as the chirping and whistling cries of a few of the smaller and less conspicuous birds, and the cooing note of one of the wood-pigeons. About the rocks one may constantly hear the querulous cry of the little Httsikltsika, or kestrel, and see them hovering in the air or darting about ; and now and then we come across a flock of the Papdngo, or Egyptian kite, perched on the trees, or swooping down near the native houses to carry off an unwary chicken or mouse. Of course the ubi- quitous Goaika, or native crow, is never far away. With his fine white collar and square white patch on his breast, he has a very clerical appearance ; he haunts the neighbourhood of the great open-air markets, where he apparently picks up a good living from the scattered rice and refuse of various kinds. In the warm season flocks of the little weaver-birds may be seen, both the Fody, the male of which is mostly of a brilliant scarlet at the hot season of the year, and the smaller Tsikirity, in sober brown livery, which darts down like an arrow on the rice-fields in companies of thirty or forty together. In the rice-fields the Tdkatra, a brown stork, may be sometimes seen stepping solemnly about. He builds an enormous nest, which looks as large as a truss of hay and is fixed on the fork of a tree or on the edge of a large rock, and there are many superstitions and TOO MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. fables connected with him. In the old times of idolatry, if one of these storks crossed the path along which any of the chief idols was being carried, it was immediately taken back, and it was thought equally unlucky if it crossed the road in front of the sovereign. The reptiles to be found near Ambatovory are small and inconspicuous. Two or three species of lizard are frequently seen : the pretty little Antsidntsy, with brown coat and white lines and dark spots along its sides, eight or ten inches long, darts about like an arrow on rocks and sunny banks, while a smaller species, about four inches long, is of an exquisite green colour above, with black and white lines along its sides, and pale grey underneath. It is often seen running around the fleshy leaves of the aloes, its tinting forming a protective resemblance among its surroundings. Equally beautiful are the bright tints of some of the small chameleons — black and yellow, and red and green — and equally protective also, in case of need, is their power of changing into dull grey or brown when alarmed. Small pretty brown snakes may be often seen, from eighteen inches to two feet long, and happily they are perfectly harmless, as, indeed, are all the serpents of this great island — at least, there are none whose bite is dangerous. And yet it is amusing to see how the Malagasy leap out of their way with the greatest alarm. We found on one occasion a very large earthworm, three times as long and bulky as any we had ever seen in England. But perhaps it is the insects which attract one's attention most constantly. On the open downs, and when the sun is shining, the air is filled with the hum of chirping insect life from the many species of grasshoppers, crickets, and small locusts which cover the ground. Every step among the long dry grass disturbs a score of these insects, which leap in all directions from one's path as we proceed, sometimes dashing on one's face with a smart blow. The majority of these are of various shades of brown and green, and some of the larger AMBATOVORY, ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS. lOI Species of grasshopper are remarkable for their protective colouring. Here is one whose legs and wings are exactly like dry grass ; the body is like a broad blade of some green plant, the antennae are two little tufts like yellow grass, and the eyes are just like two small brown seeds. But, curiously enough, when it flies a pair of bright scarlet wings make its flight very conspicuous. You pursue it, to catch such a brightly coloured insect, when it settles, and lo ! it has vanished ; only something resembling green or dry grass remains, which it requires sharp eyes to distinguish from the surrounding herbage. Other grass- hoppers are entirely like green grass blades and stalks, and others, again, resemble equally closely dried grass, and unless the insects move under one's eyes it is almost impossible to detect them. One is puzzled to guess where the vital organs can be placed in such dry-looking little sticks. There is one species of mantis also, which, in the shape and colour of its wings, legs, antennas, and body, presents as close a resemblance to its environment as do the grasshoppers. Their curious heads, however, which turn round and look at one in quite an uncanny manner, and their formidably serrated fore-legs or arms, put up in mock pious fashion, give them a distinctly different appearance from the other insects. In the dry and cooler season, on almost every square foot of ground is a large brown caterpillar, often many of them close together, feeding on the young blades of grass. But the most handsome insect one sees on the downs is the Valdlanaviboa, or dog-locust. This is large and is gorgeously coloured, the body being barred with stripes of yellow and black, while the head and thorax are green and blue and gold, witli shades of crimson, and the wings are bright scarlet. It seems a most desirable insect for a cabinet, but it is impossible to keep one, for it has a most abominable smell, and this, as well as its probable possession of a nauseous taste, appears to be its pro- tection, so that no bird or other creature feeds upon it. This insect seems, therefore, a good example of " warning colours " ; it has no need of " protective resemblance " lest it should be 102 MADAGASCAR IJEFORE THE CONQUEST. devoured by enemies ; it can flaunt its gay livery without fear, indeed this seems exaggerated in order to say to outsiders : "Hands off!" ''Nemo vie impune lacessit." The Malagasy have a proverb which runs thus : " Valdlanamboa : ny tonipony aza tsy tia ; " i.e., " The dog-locust, even its owner dislikes it." There are many species of beetles to be seen, although none of them are very handsome or conspicuous. The most common kind is a broad flat insect, about an inch long, and dull dark- brown in colour, which crosses one's path at every step. Another is seen chiefly on the bushes, a smaller insect, but bright shining jet-black. Another, which appears as if it mimicked a wasp in its habit of flight, is shot with brown and green, with very long legs, and is constantly taking short flights or running rapidly. Another one, but much more rare, has golden green and metallic tints on its wing-cases. But the insect which has puzzled us most is one that I have never seen but on one spot, viz., on a large bush of Roiiiiemy, a plant with acacia-like leaves, with prickles along the leaf-stalks, and on only one bush of this, which is within a few yards of the Rest- house at Ambatovory. It is like a beetle about five-eighths of an inch long, and almost hemispherical in shape. It is warm reddish-brown in colour, with a line of black and then of yellow next the head, and is perfectly flat below. These insects cluster closely, as thick as they can lie, in groups of from a dozen to more than a hundred together, all round the thicker stems, so that they look at a little distance like strings of large brown beads ; and in some of the topmost branches they form a con- tinuous mass for two or three feet. Amongst these shining brown insects are a few others of quite a different colour and shape, perfectly flat, like a minute tortoise, and of a uniform grey, exactly resembling the lichen on the bark of the tree, and the edges of the carajaace scolloped. ^ These grey insects are in ' Mr. Baron tells me that both kinds are certainly species of bug, and that they are common on other kinds of trees. They have a very bad smell. Nearer the forest are other kinds of bugs, but of the most brilliant colours, and also evil smelling. AMBATOVORY, ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS. 103 the proportion of, about one to forty or fifty of the darker- coloured ones. There are also a few individuals of the same shape as the brown one, but yellowish-green in colour. What these grey insects can be, and what relation they bear to the much more numerous brown one, I cannot make out. Nor can I ascertain why they all remain motionless and in the same position for weeks together. During the three weeks of our stay here, at any rate, they seem not to have altered in position, although I think the lower clusters are slightly diminished in number. I thought at first that they must be feeding in some way on the tree, as their heads seem closely fixed to the bark, as indeed is the whole body ; but on minute examination I can find no trace of any puncture or sign of their gnawing or eating the bark, although the branches on which they are most thickly clustered seem more dry and withered than the others. Their torpid condition certainly does not arise from inability to move, for, on being disturbed or shaken off, they will fly a considerable distance, and will creep along the branches. I have noticed these insects on the same bush, and nowhere else, during previous visits to Ambatovory at this time of the year (Decem- ber), but not during the cold season.^ [Since writing the above, I have had another inspection, in the cold season, of the tree with these curious insects. There are now (June) to be seen not a single one of the brown bugs, but the branches are thickly covered with hundreds of young ones, about one-fourth to one-third of an inch long, but these are all flat, and grey in colour, with the edge of the body serrated. The difference in shape and colour in insects so closely associated together certainly seems remarkable.] The ants are, as in all tropical countries, very numerous and of many species. All of them, from minute kinds not an eighth of an inch long to others half an inch to five-eighths of an inch in length, appear to make nests in the ground, with circular .shafts leading down to them from the surface. It is amusing to ' I have subsequently seen it in other places. I04 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. watch the busy industry of these Httle creatures, the sides of the shafts being covered with their shining black bodies, those coming up being laden with a little pellet of earth, which they deposit outside the slope, and then hurry back down below. All round the mouth of the entrance is a considerable mound of earth, all brought up grain by grain by the busy workers. 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 communicates the fact forthwith to its fellows, and they imme- diately fall on the spoil, cut it in pieces, and convey it to their stronghold. It is astonishing to see the heavy loads — pieces of sugar-cane, or yam, or other food — that two or three ants will stagger along with for the common weal. Truly, although they are small folk, they are " exceeding wise." The thinking power in that minute point, an ant's head, is certainly one of the most marvellous things in animated nature. While speaking of wingless insects, I may notice here a very different kind of one from the ants, viz., the ball-insect {Sphero- therium sp.), of which there are several species in Madagascar. These insects, called not very elegantly by the Malagasy Tain- klntana, or " star-droppings," have the power of instantaneously rolling themselves into an almost 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 animal 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 large plates, each of which fits into the other and makes a more perfectly fitting suit of armour than was ever worn by medieval knight. There are several species of these pretty and curious creatures. The most common kind here is one which forms a ball barely an inch in diameter, and shining black in colour. Another, more rarely seen here, but common enough in the upper belt of forest, is of a beautiful brown colour like Russia leather, and is quite double the size of AMBATOVORY, ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS. IO5 the first-mentioned one. In passing through the main forest in 1892, we came suddenly one day to a part of the road which was so thickly covered by such a great number of these creatures that our bearers could not avoid trampling on them. These were of a bronze-green tint and are probably a third species. In all parts of Madagascar the spiders are very conspicuous members of the insect-world. The most common kind is a species of Epeira, which spins large webs and may be seen by scores between the branches of trees and the angles of buildings. These are large insects, their legs stretching over four or five inches, and their bodies being handsomely coloured with red and gold and silver markings. From the way in which these spiders cross with their great webs the fosses round the old villages they are called by the Malagasy Mampitahady, i.e., " fosse-crossers." The main " guys " or stays of their webs are strong and thick yellow silk cords, which require an effort to break. Another species, also common, is somewhat crab-like in shape, with curious spiny processes on the abdomen and thorax. Other smaller species of spider, found on leaves and in flowers, are coloured exactly like their surroundings, some being of various shades of green, and others pure white, apparently that, with these protective resemblances, they may more easily pounce upon the smaller flies and other insects attracted to the flowers. In these bare upper highlands of Madagascar butterflies are not found in as great variety as in the warmer regions of the island. Still there are a few species which are common enough, the most plentiful being one which is satiny-blue above, and spotted with brown and grey underneath. This is to be seen all the year round, especially hovering over the Euphorbia hedges which divide plantations from the roads. Another, also toler- ably common, is a large reddish-brown butterfly, the wings edged with black and white. Much more rare is an insect with four large round white spots on dark chocolate-brown wings ; and another, dark-brown in colour, with eye-like spots of blue I06 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. and red. Several small species, yellow, white, or brown, or silvery-grey and blue, are found hovering over, or settling on, damp places ; and there are two or three white species, with black spots or lines on the edges of the wings. In the warmer season a handsome large Papilio is rather common in our gardens, with dark-green and sulphur-yellow spots and markings. And lastly, but rather scarce, is one of the hand- somest butterflies in the world (more strictly speaking, it is a diurnal moth), the Urania riplioea. This insect, with its colour- ing of green and gold, and scarlet and black, and its delicate fringing of pure white on the edges of the wings, is indeed one of the most lovely productions of Nature. The Malagasy call it Andriajidblo, i.e., "king butterfly" (or moth;. We do not see many bees in this Ambatovory wood, but there are several species of solitary wasps, whose habits are very interesting. One species excavates a hole in the ground or on the side of a bank, and then, capturing some unfortunate spider or caterpillar, which she benumbs with her sting, carries it into the hole and lays an egg in its body, so that the little grub, when hatched, finds itself surrounded by food, and then eats its way out into the daylight. The hole is, after being filled up, so carefully concealed that it is quite impossible to discover it. Another species of wasp builds a series of cells of clay, which the busy worker brings in pellets and builds up layer by layer, fixing them to the sides of houses and rocks, and storing each cell with living food for its progeny in the same fashion as its mining cousin.^ Our longest excursion was one to the grand mountain of Angavokely, which is two or three hours' ride to the east, to the south of the Tamatave road. Angavokely is one of the highest and most conspicuous mountains in Imerina, rising 1,300 or 1,400 feet above the general level of the province ; and it ' For a ver}- full and illustrated account of these insects, see a paper by the Rev. C. P. Cory, " Notes on the Habits of the Solitary Wasps of Madagascar," Annual xiv., 1890, pp. 163-170. AMBATOVORY, ONE OF OUR HOLIDAY RESORTS. lO/ extends for two or three miles east and west, with two summits nearly equal in height, and quite a mile apart. The easternmost of these rises steeply from the surrounding valleys, and is crowned by enormous piles of rock, while the western summit rises with much gentler slopes covered with bush, except on the south side, where great masses of granite appear, looking like the towers of some Titanic castle. A couple of hours' ride brought us to the rice-valley immediately under the eastern peak, and from which we commenced the ascent, a pretty steep one. At about a third of the way up is a large bare sloping surface of rock, on which we were glad to rest and take breath. Again we climb up, the grass being very slippery, and foothold very dif- ficult. As we get higher we come into a dense shrubbery of bush and small trees ; and all around are hundreds of the large showy white flower called Tsingdtsa (a species of Crinuni), with its long ribbon-like petals and powerful scent. One more halt at the base of the immense bare rocks which form the summit, and which tower grandly for 300 or 400 feet above us, and make us all look like pigmies in contrast, and then we make a final effort, scrambling up among the huge stones, until at length we come to a rough staircase between two walls of granite, with beautiful embroideries of moss and lichen and fern. Up, up we go, and at last come upon a level platform several hundred square yards in extent, and are glad to throw ourselves down on the grass and recover breath after our climb. From this " coign of vantage," many hundred feet above the valley, we have of course a very extensive and varied prospect. To the north-west is the round mass of Lohavohitra in Voni- zongo, and the long serrated ridge of Andrhigitra, with its cave (the Malagasy Delphi) ; away north is the line of Ambohimia- katra, and the point of Ambaravarambato (" Stone-gateway "), on the way to Antsihanaka ; from north-east to south-east is the long dark line of the upper forest, with Angavo and Ifody mountains, over which we cross on our way to and from the coast ; beyond this again is the treeless plain of Ankay ; and I08 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Still beyond and bounding the view, 50, 60, or 70 miles in the blue distance, is the larger and lower forest, and ridges and peaks which we can see clearly from Tamatave. Only due west is the view interrupted, for we are not yet on the topmost pinnacle, there being still a mass of rock 100 feet higher still, up to which our bearers scramble, but which we are quite content to leave them the honour of scaling, as the ascent appears somewhat difficult. Still, by going round the edges of the platform, we can catch all the more prominent points to the south and south-west : Iharanandriana, on the road to Betsileo ; many familiar-looking hills west of the capital ; Antananarivo on its long rocky ridge, crowned by the group of royal palaces and two of the memorial churches ; and, rising gradually but unmistakably far above all, the mass of Ankaratra, the highest point of the island, 40 miles away, and its three or four central peaks nearly 9,000 feet above the sea, and about half as much as that from the general level of Imerina. Truly a grand prospect, for, except from Ankaratra itself, there is hardly any point where we could command such an extensive view as this. Steep down below us to the east is a pretty rice-valley stretching in a remarkably straight line for several miles both to north-east and south-west. The houses and hamlets below look as if a stone could be thrown upon them from this 1,000 or 1,200 feet of elevation ; and as our eyes follow the green rice- fields, village after village appears on the promontory-like tanety or gentle rising grounds, so that we think what a fine field of work there would be in this valley alone for a resident missionary. CHAPTER VII. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES, Mixed nomenclature of coast and interior places — Early European influence — Arab and Portuguese names — Influence of Fady or Taboo — Name of Mada- gascar — Mountain names — The name-prefixes An- and Am Height and prominence — Mj'stery and dread — Size — Words meaning rock and stone — Animals and birds — Personal names for hills — Grandeur of mountain scenery — River names — Descriptive epithets — Lake names — Town and village names — Dual names — Names of capital and its divisions — Town names from natural features — Forests — River banks from animals — Personal — Tribal — Province names — Appendix on Betsileo place-names. PLACE-NAMES, it is now acknowledged, form one of the most reliable sources of information as to ancient and prehistoric times, and are among the most enduring and un- altering records of the past. In all the older countries of the world the names of the mountains and rivers, of the fields and the valleys, of the farms and villages and towns, as well as of all other geographical features, reveal the existence and successive occupation of the soil from remote epochs by many different races of mankind. And in the newer countries the names given to places tell in the plainest terms of their discoverers, and often fix the date of their becoming known to the civilised world. An inspection of a map of the island of Madagascar shows a curious difference between the nomenclature of the coast and that of the interior. In the latter the names are entirely native, for no European power has ever succeeded in establishing itself in the country for any lengthened period ; but the coast is fringed with a variety of European words — English, French, no MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. and Portuguese — as well as with Malagasy names. Thus we find "William Pitt" Bay, "Chatham" Island, and Port "Liver- pool," commemorating the leading English statesmen of the time when the first complete survey was made of the coast by Capt. W. F. W. Owen, R.N., whose ships' names are also perpetuated in " Leven " Port and "Barracouta" Island. The treachery of the native population is remembered in " Murder " and " Grave " Islands, where some of Owen's crews were killed by the people ; English Admiralty and other officials' names were given to Port "Croker," Point " Barrow," " Dartmouth" River, Point " McClure," " Dalrymple " Bay, and " Barlow " Island ; and British surveys of the western coast have also left their mark in " Barren " Isles, and in "Crab," "Coffin," and "Sandy" Islands, in the Mozambique Channel ; and at the northern extremity of Madagascar we find " British " Sound (more properly Diego Suarez Bay), with four deep inlets called respectively by the names of "English," "Welsh," "Scotch," and "Irish" Bays. The earlier French intercourse is marked by the names of Fort Dauphin, Port Choiseul, Foule Pointe, and Louisbourg, a record of the monarchical times, nearly two centuries ago, when so many disastrous attempts were made by the French to establish themselves on the eastern side of the island.^ And going back further, to the discovery of Madagascar by Europeans, the maritime enterprise of the Portuguese three hundred and seventy or eighty years ago is marked indelibly on the map, together with their religious fervour, by the names of various saints which they gave to the chief capes all round its shores — • St. Mary, St. Andrew, St. Vincent, and St. Sebastian 2 — as well as the Isle of St. Mary, the Bay and River of St. Augustine, the Bay of St. Luce, the Shoal of St. Bonaventura, the town of St. ' In certain old French maps Madagascar was called " He Dauphine," but this name did not obtain any permanence. = The most northerly cape of Madagascar, now known as Cape Ambro or Amber, was formerly called Cape Natal, from its being discovered on Christmas Day (rfrVs Xahilis Domini). MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. Ill Thomas (now called Tamatave i), and the name of San Lorenzo, by which the island was known for long after its discovery.2 Two or three of their famous captains are also kept in remem- brance in " Antongil " (Antonio Gil) Bay, " Diego Suarez " Sound, and "Juan de Nova" Island. Going back earlier still, to the Arab settlements both on the south-east and north-west coasts of Madagascar, although these have left enduring traces of their presence in the language of the Malagasy, they do not seem, as far at least as our informa- tion at present extends, to have affected the place-nomenclature of the country. The Arabs have given the names used by many tribes to the days of the week and of the months, the terms connected with superstition, witchcraft, divination, &c., and words employed in the arts of civilised life — dress, money, bedding, music, &c. ; but their influence does not appear to have extended to the names of towns or geographical features, with two or three possible exceptions.3 Thus the name of the extensive lake of Alaotra, in the Antsihanaka province, which, according to the Rev. L. Dahle, is probably the Arabic Al-lutat, "the dashing of the waves," is the same word which is given as a name to the Arabs from beyond the Mozambique Channel, who are called by the Malagasy the " Talaotra." 4 The object of this paper is, however, to call attention to the Malagasy place-names in Madagascar ; to show how they illus- trate the mental habits of the people and their powers of ' " Tamatave " is called by the Malagasy " Toamasina," probably a corruption of " San Tomaso." ^ Mr. A. Tacchi suggests that " Antongil " is rather a corruption of " Santa Angelo," as nothing seems to be certainly known of any "Antonio Gil." Ngontsy, the name of a place on the north-west coast, is thought by Mr. Tacchi to be a corruption of " Saint Gontran " and another word of Portuguese origin. 3 M. Grandidier has, however, pointed out several other names of places on the western coast which he believes are of Arab origin, although he does not give their meanings ; these are Kisimany, Kongony, Sada, Mibany, Kivinja, Sangoa, and Boinaomary. I should doubt some of these, which seem Malagasy words in whole or in part. * In Dumont D'Urville's Vocahiilairc Madckass-Franfuisr, alaotr is translated "au large." 112 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. observation ; to point out some few historical facts which are probably preserved in certain names ; and to note a number of words of obscure or doubtful meaning which are embodied in many of the names of places, and which are possibly relics of an occupation of the island anterior to the arrival of the present prominent Malayo-Polynesian element in the population. Our knowledge of the various dialects of the Malagasy language is still too fragmentary and imperfect to allow of much being done at present in the direction indicated in this last point ; but one chief result aimed at in noting down here some of these par- ticulars is to provoke inquiry and research on the subject. Madagascar will prove an exception to almost every other country if a careful analysis of the names of its mountains and rivers, valleys and plains, towns and villages, and other geographical features, does not throw some light upon the earliest occupation of the island, and the successive waves of population which have passed over its surface. There are several reasons for believing that an earlier and less civilised race than the present inhabitants once occupied the interior of Madagascar, and it is possible that some of the obscurer words embodied in certain place-names are relics of this aboriginal people. There is, unfortunately, a peculiarity in the habits of the Malagasy, in common with all the Polynesian races, with regard to names, which introduces an element of uncertainty into geographical nomenclature, viz., the practice of tabooing words or particles which enter into the composition of the names of their chiefs. As all personal names have some distinct meaning, and are largely composed of commonly-used nouns, verbs, and adjectives, as well as the names of animals, plants, &c., it con- stantly occurs that the names of most farniliar objects and actions have to be changed through forming part of their sovereign's or chief's names. From this cause, writes Mr. Hastie, British Agent at the Court of Radama I. (i 817-1826), " the names of rivers, places, and things have suffered so many MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. II3 changes on the western coast that frequent confusion occurs ; for, after being prohibited by their chieftains from applying any particular terms to the accustomed signification, the natives will not acknowledge to have ever known them in their former sense " {Tyernian and Bennefs Voyages, p. 276, 2nd ed.). There is reason to believe, however, that this cause of change and un- certainty applies much less to the place-names of the central and eastern districts of the country, and that the taboo (Malag. fady) there more affects the names of objects and actions than those of places. Before considering the names of places in Madagascar, a word or two may be said about the name of the country itself There seems much reason to believe that the wowj^^adagas- car " is not a native name, but is one that has been given it by foreigners. There appears to be no Malagasy root in the word, and the combination of the consonants sc, or sk, is one not allowed by the genius of the language. The island used to be termed by the people Izao rehetra izao, " This whole," in accord- ance with the belief of many insular nations that their own island is the principal part of the world ; and in the time of Radama I., and subsequently, it was also described as Ny anlvon' ny 7iaka, " The [land] in the midst of the flood." According to some accounts, an old designation of the country was Nosin-dambo, " Island of wild-boars," these animals being the largest wild creatures of the forests. The only attempt at explaining the derivation of the word " Madagascar " which I have seen is that given in one of the earliest books upon the island, a German work published at Altenbourg, in Meissen, in 1609, and entitled Beschreibung der MccJitigcn und Weitber- huvibten hisiil Madagascar, by Jerome Megiser, in which it is affirmed that tlf^ African kings of Madagascar and Adel conquered the coast region of the island ; that " the inhabitants have also been forced to swear to recognise no other for their king, and the island also is to be called nothing else but Magadaxo. This word was afterwards corrupted into Maga- 9 114 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. dascar, and at last became Madagascar, which name it kept until the Portuguese afterwards gave it another name, as has been mentioned before." Whether or not this contains any historical fact it is now difficult to decide.^ Besides the names for the island already mentioned, this German work also gives many others, most of them applied by the Arabic geographers, one being "The Island of the Moon"; they wrote the name either Kamar or Komr, the same word which enters into the name of the " Comoro " Group, to the north-west of Madagascar. These islands are called by the Arabs Komair, or the Lesser Komr. The name as applied to the whole island survived until the arrival of the Portuguese, for on one of the oldest maps, the Charta Marina Portugalensiuvi, of the first decade of the six- teenth century, the name Komortina occurs for the island in addition to those of Madagascar and San Lourenco. Coming now to the place-names in Madagascar, we may first look at those of Mountains, the most prominent and awe-inspiring of all natural features, and to which the imagination of simple peoples soon affixes descriptive epithets. The interior provinces of the island (from which regions almost all these illustrations are taken) constitute an extensive elevated mountainous region, occupying rather more than a third of the total area of the ■ The Rev. Canon Isaac Taylor (author of Words and Places) offers the follow- ing suggestion as to the meaning of the word : — " My guess is that the name Madagascar, which we got from Marco Polo, did not apply to the island, but to the Somali coast. He got the name from Malay sources. The question is whether Mala-gossc or Mada-<^ossc is its earlier form ; gossc meant ' men ' (=' Bantu ') in the old Swahili. Ma (J) a gosse would be Ma(^^yi-incn, the -ar being the Malay suffix in Zanzib-ar, Xicoba-ar, Malab-nr, &c., and meaning ' land ' or ' island.' " The Hova language is a Malay dialect ; ' Malay ' means ' mountains.' Hence Mala-gosc-ar might be 'The land of the (^^^^^) men,' while Mada-gasc-ar would be ' The island of the Mada or Madai men,' either the present Madai tribe south- east of the Victoria Nyanza, or else the land of the coast people in the present Somali Land, formerly called Maditn or Madiiin. On this hypothesis, Polo's name would apply to the Somali Land. He describes Madagascar as Moham- medan and full of elephants, plainly not the island. " We have another old form in one of the Polo MSS., Magastcr, where the il/rt- would be the Bantu plural prefix." MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. II5 country, and raised from 3,CK)0 to 5,000 feet above the sea. This hilly region is composed of primary rocks, and the loftiest sum- mits are of granite, gneiss, and basalt. It will be seen, however, that one prominent descriptive class of names for mountains in most countries is wanting in these Malagasy names ; there are none denoting the whiteness given by snow, i^lthough the highest points are only a little under 9,000 feet above the sea level, this is yet, in that part of the tropics, too low for snow to He ; snow is indeed unknown in Madagascar, and so there are no equivalents in its mountain-names for the Snowdon, Ben Nevis, Snafells, or Sierra Nevada of Europe, or for the Hormus, Lebanon, or Himalayah (" Abode of Snow ") of Asiatic countries. It will also be noticed that almost all these mountain-names commence with the letters / or A. The former is merely a particle (it might almost be termed an article) which is prefixed to denote place-names, as well as tribal and personal names. The other letter is part of the preposition and demonstrative adverb Any^ contracted to An- (changed for euphony to Am- before certain consonants), " at," giving a localising sense to the word it precedes. Further, it will be also remarked that the syllables following An- or Am- are, in a great number of cases, bbhi-, contracted from vbliitra, a word now usually taken as meaning a " town," and indeed forming the first part of a vast number of Malagasy town-names.^ But as there are quite as many mountains as towns having Anibbhi- as the first part of their names, it is probable that vbJiitra originally meant a " hill," especially when it is remembered that the root of this word is the same as that from which a number of words, such as bbhy, bbhibbhy bbhitra, &c., are derived, all of which have the idea of " swelling," " puffing," " convexity," and " protuberance." 2 One of the grandest mountains in Madagascar, situated near the ' Ambohimanga, "At the blue town" ; Ambohidava, "At the long town " ; Ambohitrandriana, "At the prince's town;" Ambohimanjaka, "At the king's town," &c., &c. ' I am confirmed in this opinion by seeing that the word used in the Malay Peninsula for " hill " is biikit, no doubt the same word as vohitrn.i Il6 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. northern extremity of the island, is' called Ambohitra and is said to be more than 6,000 feet high. The usual word for moun- tain, tendrovibbhitra^ i.e., " point of the town " or " hill," also con- firms this ; the old towns in the centre of the island were always built for security on the tops of hills, so that the names of hill and town seem quite interchangeable.^ Before proceeding to point out some of the most interesting characteristics of Malagasy place-names, I will venture to trans- late a rather long extract from an essay by M. Alfred Grandidier on this subject, which forms an appendix to the volume treating of the Historical Geography of the island (vol. i.), forming part of his monumental work Histoire Physique, Naturelleet Politique de Madagascar (Paris : 1892). M. Grandidier says : " At a first glance at a list of Malagasy place-names, one is struck by the fact that a larger number, more than half of them, commence with the syllable Am or An, which is combined with one, two, and sometimes even three words, the sum of which very often describes, as we are about to show, some peculiarity characteristic of the place. This syllable Am or An is a con- traction of the demonstrative adverb Any, which signifies wJiere there is, where 07ie is found, near to, upon. The first word which comes after this adverb is usually one of the following : bbhi, bdto, bbdi, ala, kazo, tana, tsaha, drano, pasi, bdla, kadi, kdra, or ddka, but the most frequent of all these is the first ; about a quarter of these place-names in fact begin with Ambohi, which is a contraction of Any vhhitra, lit, 'Where there is the moun- tain which '...,' Where there is the village which ' . . . Then come, approximately in the order of frequency : Ambato (from Any vcito, lit, 'Where there is a rock which' . . .) ; Ambodi (from Any vody, lit, 'At the foot of . . .) ; Anala (from Any dla, lit, ' Where there is the forest which '...); Ankazo (from Any Jiciao, lit, ' Where the trees are' . . .) ; Antana (from Any tandna, lit, 'Where there is the village which' . . .) ; Antsaha ' A hill is havbaua, lit a " height. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. II7 (from Any sdka, lit, ' Where there is the valley, the water-course, which' . . .) 5 Andrano (from Any rdno, lit, 'Where the water is' , . .) ; Ampasi (from Any fdsika [Hova], fdsy or fdsina [prov.], lit, 'Where the sand is ' . . .) ; Ambala (from Any vdla, lit, ' Where there is an enclosure, a compound '...); Ankadi (from Any hddy, lit, 'Where there is a fosse, a trench which' . . .) ; Ankara (from Any hdrana, lit, ' Where there is a rock which '...); &c. "This first syllable A)n, An, And, Ant often disappears, and in this case the meaning of the name slightly changes ; one may, in fact, say indifferently Ambohibe and VOHIBE (which signify respectively : At the great mountain, and The great mountain') ; Analasora ( Where there is the wood of hedgehogs) and Ala- SORA {The wood of hedgehogs) ; Andranomamy {Near the sweet water) and Ranomamy {The sweet water); Antsahaondry {In the valley of sheep) ; Ampasimena {On the red sand) and Fasimena {The red sand); Ambalanosy {Where there is an enclosure for goats) a.nd Valanosy {The enclosure for goats); Ankadivory {Where there is a circular fosse) and Hadivory {The circular fosse) ; Ankaranandriana {Near the rock of the noble) and Haranandriana ( The rock of the noble), 8ic. But in the second form of these names, the Malagasy often prefix to the word the article denoting a proper name, which is a simple I, and they say; IvoHiBE, Ialasora, Ifasimena, Ivalanosy, Iharanandrl\na, &C. " Leaving out of consideration, amongst the words which commence with any other letter than A, those whose initial root is VOHI, VATO, VODI, HAZO, ALA, TANA, SAHA, RANO, FASI, VALA, HARA, or IHARA, and which, as we have said, are to some extent identical with those which have the prefix, we find that the greater number commence with Be- (large, numerous), Fara- (the last), Maha- (that which is able to . . ., which is proper to . . ., which becomes . . .), Man- (a verbal prefix which, joined to the root, forms the verbs), Manjaka- (he who reigns, who governs), Maro- (much of . . .), NOSI- (island), Il8 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Sara- (?), Saro- (by contraction from Sarotra, difficult, dangerous, dear), SOA- or TSARA- (beautiful, good, pleasant), Tsi (that which is not, or which has not . . .). Tsiafak- (that which cannot be attained by . . . ), ViNAN- (the mouth of a river), &c. All these words are often preceded by an I, which is, as we have observed, the article denoting a proper name ; thus, Imanakana, Inosifito, Ivinanimalaza, are the same names as Manakona, Nosifito, Vinanimalaza." As might be supposed, the idea of height d^nd projuinettce is one of the most frequently occurring in mountain-names in Mada- gascar. Thus we find several called Angavo, " The lofty," and one of the grandest mountains in eastern Imerina is Angavokely, " Liitle-Xohy" to distinguish it from the Angavo which forms a magnificent tower or outwork, so to speak, of the mountain wall on the eastern side of the upper plateau. There is also Avoma- sina, the " Sacred-high " (place) ; and one of the loftiest peaks in the Vavavato district in southern Imerina is lavohaika, " The- lofty-defying-one," a mountain nearly 7,000 feet high. The word ambony, " above," also occurs in several names, as Ambo- niloha, " Overhead," Ambonivohitra, "Above-the-town" (or hill) ; as well as /c'/^*?, "head," in lavoloha, " Lofty-headed," Lohavohitra, " Head-of-the-hill " (or town), one of the highest mountains in Vonizongo. Asdndratra, "raised," "exalted," forms part of several names, as Nasandratany ; as also does drina " set up," " lifted up," in such words as Ambohimiarina. There are numerous mountain-names in which the root ringy, meaning " loftiness," " conspicuousness," comes in ; thus we find Andringiring}-, Mahakiringy, and Andringitra, a very prominent ridge fourteen miles north of the capital, and closely connected with the old idolatry ; a cave in its steep southern slopes being a Malagasy Delphi, the former abode of the god Ranakandriana. The same meaning of height and eminence is found in Milangana (from the root Idnga, " tall, lofty "), a lofty point north of the old capital Ambohimanga. Much the same idea is implied in the MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. II9 root ranga " having, the ears erect," a word applied to animals, and found in the name ' Andrangaranga.' " The commanding position of some eight or ten Imerina hills is implied in their name Mahatsinjo, " Able-to-gaze " (from), tsinjo being a word meaning to look at distant objects. ^ From an almost exactly synonymous root, tdzana, comes the name of another mountain, Fitazanana, "The Outlook." The sharply-pointed peaks of some hills, again, have suggested the idea of a " spur " 2 (Mai. fdtitsj'), which is accordingly given to some of them ; while another is called Ambohimaranitra, " Sharp-hill " ; another is Antendro, " At-the-point " ; and others are Itsiloabo, " Lofty- thorn," and Ivatotsilo, " Thorn-rock." One mountain name, Madiotandroka, " Clean-horn," reminds one of the Matterhorn and Schreckhorn, &c,, of the Alps. Height of course involves some degree of mystery and dread, which ideas are accordingly embodied in several mountain- names. Thus we find Ambohijanahary, " God's-hill," in several districts ; the word Zanahary (Creator) being vaguely applied by the Malagasy to many things which they cannot understand ; as is also the other word for God, Andriamanitra, as in Andria- manitravato, " God's-rock," and Ambohitrandriamanitra, " God's- hill " (or town). Of names of this class are Imanondrolanitra " Sky-pointing," and Itsiandanitra, " Not-in-the-sky." A moun- tain in the Tanala (forest) region is the Malagasy Hades, the caves in it being supposed to be the dwellings of departed spirits, and is called Iratsy (or Iraty), *' The-evil-place." The few Europeans who have ascended the peaks of Ankaratra, the highest mountain-mass in the island, have described the great reluctance of the natives to accompany them, and their terror of some supposed malignant influence on those lofty summits. Zdvona, " mist," enters into the composition of several mountain- names, as Ibezavona, "Much-mist," Ifotsizavona, "Mist- whitened," • A hill from which the Imamo district can he surveyed is called Mahatsinjo- imamo, i.e., " Able-to-look-over-Imamo." = Also found in reduplicate form, as Ampantsifantsj'. I20 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. and Manelozavona, " Mist-shaded " (?), and Tsiafajavona, " Not- free-from-mist," the name of one of the highest peaks of Anka- ratra. Inaccessibility is involved in several other names ; as Tsiafabalala, Tsiafakalika, and Tsiafakafo (another Ank^ratra peak), which three names mean respectively " Impassable by a locust," " by a dog," and " by fire." Almost exactly the same meaning is giving in the names Tsiazomborona, Tsiazonamboa, and Tsiazompapango, which mean " Unattainable by a bird," " by a dog," and " by a hawk." The sharp cutting wind of these elevated points gives a name to one hill, Sarodrivotra, " Difficult (through) wind " ; while the variety of blasts has probably^sug- gested another name,Umarorivotra, " Many-winds." Possibly^the howling of the wind round the top gives the name of another hill, Ambohimitrena, " Bellowing-hill." Somewhat poetical names occur in Ambohijanamasoandro, " Hill-of-children-of-the-Sun," in Fonovaratra, " Thunderbolt- covering," in Tompombohitra, " Lord-of-the-hills," in Andria- nambo, " King-of-the-heights " (or " Kingly-height "), and in Malakialina, " Quickly-night," the name of a hill north of Ambo- himanga, whose height causes a deep gorge to the east of it to be soon in darkness after sundown. As height also involves size, the word be, " big," is found in many names, as Ambohibe and Ivohibe, " Big-mountain," Anta- nambe, " Big-town," Mangabe, " Big-blue " (probably referring to the colour of the basalt rock), Ivatobe, " Big-rock," and Bongabe, " Big-hill." The first part of the last-named word also enters into several hill-names ; it means a clod, a turf, and also a round hill, so we find Bonga, Bongabe, and Bongakely, i.e., hills, big and little.i It has already been noticed that the primary rocks form most of the highest points of Madagascar, and the word vato (euphoni- ously changed after am- to batd), " stone," is therefore a very fre- ' Probably the same idea of rounded convexity comes in, somewhat indeHcately to our English notions, in Bevohoka, " Pregnant " (lit., " Large-wombed "), and Kitroka, " Belly," both names of hills in Imerina. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 121 quently occurring one in these mountain-names, and in one connection or another forms part of about a fourth of all the names of hills in which natural features are referred to. Thus we find it in its simplest forms of Ambato and Ivato, and then in combination with the words for the colours blue, black, white, red, and speckled, as Ambatomanga, Ambatomainty, Ambato- fotsy, Ambatomena, and Ambatovandana ; with those for size — little, big, and immense, as Ambatokely, Ambatobe, and Amba- tovaventy ; and with those for height, length, roundness, steep- ness, bareness (lit., " baldness "), and wooded outline (lit., " hairi- ness"), as Ambatoavo, Ambatolava, Ambatovory, Ambatomi- hantona, Ambatosola,^ and Ambatovaloina. Besides these are King's-stones, Prince's-stones, many Famous-stones, as well as some Level-topped-stones, Sharply-pointed stones, and Double- peaked-stones.2 Some hills which terminate in a solitary column of rock, have the same name as that given to the memorial erected stones, so common in Central Madagascar, Vatolahy (lit, " Male-stone ") ; one with a double-head is called Baka, that is, V-shaped, a term applied to the horns of cattle ; others, with three points, are the "Three-sisters'-rock" — Ambato- telomirahavavy (a hill with a grand mass of rock of this name is conspicuous near the eastern edge of Imerina, and looks from some points like a Titanic cathedral) ; while others again are the " Three-men-rock " (Ambatotelolahy) ; and one is called Ambatomandrindry, probably from a root meaning "thickly studded," here, of course, with boulder rocks. Others, solitarily conspicuous, are called Ambatotokana, " Separated-stone " ; and the idea of an upright column gives another name, Mahitsy, " Straight " or " Upright " ; and we also find Antanjombato, " Rocky promontory." A very remarkable rocky region south- west of Ankaratra is termed Vavavato, " Stone-mouth " ; another hill is Ambatofidirana, " Entrance-stone," while both in Northern ' Also simply as Antsola, " Bald-one." ' Ambatomanjaka, Ambatonandriana, Ambatomalaza, Ambatomarina, .-^mbato- fisaka, Ambiitosampana. 122 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Imerina and in Southern Betsileo are Varavarambato, " Stone- gateway," names given to mountain-passes in those provinces. But it would be tedious to particularise all the varied combina- tions into which vato enters in Malagasy mountain-names, the more so as many are now obscure in meaning.^ Another word for rock, hdrana, is also found in many names for hills. Ankarana is the name of the most northerly province in the island, and is so called on account of its famous rocky fastness (see Antan. Annual, No. III. p. 27); and this word is probably the root of the word Ankaratra, the name, as already mentioned, of the loftiest mountain-mass in Madagascar. We also find Haranambe, " Big-rock," Ankarankely, " Little-rock," Iharana, Iharanarivo, " Thousand-rocks," Ankaramena, " Red- rock," Iharanandriana, " Prince's-rock," Ankaramaina and Iharandava, " Dry-rock " and " Long-rock," and several names' include both the words for stone and rock, as Ambatoharanana. While mountain summits in Central Madagascar are usually of bare rock, here and there their names show that wood, more or less extensive, once covered their heights, and in many names ala, " forest," comes into combination. Thus we find lalaroa, " Two-woods," Analabe, " Great-wood," Ivohialabe, " Hill-of- much-wood," Analamanantona, " Hanging-wood," Analamira- viravy, " Overhanging-wood," Analamanara, " Cold-wood," Ana- lamahitsy, " Upright-wood," Analambano, " Heron's-wood," Analambato, and also Isomotra, " Beard," probably a fanciful allusion to woods ; and several others, including words of obscure meaning. Hazo, " tree," also occurs in several hill- names, as Ankazotokana, " Solitary-tree," Ankazobe, " Big-tree," and Ankazomirohitra (perhaps miroh(?tra, which would mean " a company of trees "). The names of separate trees or grasses distinguish other hills, as Amberobe {z'ero is a long grass), Inatobe, " Much-nato," the name of a tree whose bark yields a red dye, Ambolobe, " Much-bamboo," Ivoara, " Fig-tree," and ' One of the tribal divisions of the Hova Malagasy bears the name of Mandia- vato, " Treaders-of-the-i'ock." MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 23 Ambiaty, the name of a shrub. Vdiy, " rice," a.nd/d7y, "sugar- cane," also occur in the names of three or four hills ; Ambo- hibary is a very lofty mountain in S. Betsileo ; and we also find Tamponketsa, " Summit-of-rice-ground," and Antsahafary, " Sugar-cane-field." The fragrant grasses found in many places have suggested names for several hills, the word inanitra, " fragrant," forming parts of the following : Isaha- manitra, Ivohimanitra, and Avomanitra. A beautifully wooded mountain in the Anativolo ^ district is called Vohilena, " Wet- hill " (?), probably from the moisture attracted by its numerous trees. The generally waterless character of the hills is, however, indicated in several of their names, as Andranoritra, " Dried-up- water," Fasina, " Sand," Ampasimavo, " Brown-sand," Vovotany, " Earth-dust " ; while some others, which have lakes and springs as the source of rivers, are called Andranofito, " Seven-streams," Imarorano, " Many- waters," Masinony, " Sacred (or salt) river," Farihilava, " Long-lake," and Manjarano, perhaps, " Dun- (coloured-)water " (this is also the word for plumbago). One hill is called Anivonirano, " In-the-midst-of-waters." The pleasant situation and pure air of many hills is recog- nized in their names, as Ambohitsara, " Good-" and Ambohi- tsarabe, "Exceedingly-good-hill," Ambohitsoa, "Pleasant-hill" (a frequent name), Nosifaly, " Joyful-island," Nosisoa, " Pleasant- island," Bemasoandro, " Much-sun," and Tokotanitsara, " Good- settlement " ; while the steep ascents and difficulty of climbing to their tops are shown in the names of others, as Mahake- traka, " Disheartening," and Mahareraka, " Exhausting." The deep liddy or fosses with which many hills are scored, and dug as defences for the town on the summit, give in various combi- nations several names, as Ankadivory, " Circular-fosse," Ankadibe, " Big-fosse," Ankadifotsy, " White-fosse," Ihadimanga, " Blue- fosse," &c. So also the word vdla, an inclosure, is a part of a few hill-names, as Ambalahirana and Ambalafasana, although it • I.e., " Amonest-the-bamboos." 124 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. is more strictly and frequently, as might be supposed, a town- name. From a large number of extinct volcanic cones in the interior provinces of Madagascar, extending probably almost in an unbroken line from the south to the north and north-west, one might suppose that in the names of some of them at least we should find some reference to fire or heat. I can, however, find only two or three instances where possibly some remem- brance of igneous forces is preserved, viz., in Ambatomay, " Burnt-rock," and lamboafo, " Lofty-fire," the names of two mountains in the Tanala province, and in another named Kitroka, a word which means " lava." A considerable number of mountains are designated after the names oi Animals and Birds. Most numerous are those called after the guinea-fowl, akdnga, there being probably at least a dozen named Ambatonakanga, " Stone-of-the-guinea-fowl." Then come several called after the cock, Ambohitrakoholahy ; the large hawk, Ambatomboromahery; the kestrel, Ikitsikitsika; the kite, Masiapapango, i.e., " Fierce-with-kites " ; the dove, Ambohiboromailala ; the cardinal-bird, Ifody ; the peacock, Vorombola ; and there is one called " Feather," Volomborona. (As already mentioned also in speaking of names denoting height, there are numerous hills called "Impassable" by birds hawks, kites, &c.) The largest and most valuable animal of the country, the humped ox, binby, gives names to a good many hills ; in its simplest form, Ambohitromby, " Ox-hill," and Ambohitrombalahy, " Bull-hill," and in Andraokomby, " Licked- up-by-oxen," Antandrokomby, "Ox-horn," xA.ntrafon6mby, "Ox- hump," and in Ambohimanoto, " Butting-hill." The words for sheep {bndry), goat {bsy\ and wild-hog (Idmbo), are found in several hill-names ; as Ambatonondrilahy, Antsahanondry, Ambohitrondry, Ambatonosy, and Lohalambo, " Hog's-head." Even the crocodile also appears in these mountain-names, as in Mamba, although, as might be supposed, it is more frequently found in river-names ; and also the hedgehog, in Ambohitsokina. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 12$ We also find " Many-rats," Marovoalavo ; " Many-fleas," Maro- parasy (a rather frequent and uncomfortably appropriate name for many villages) ; " Many-ants," Marovitsika ; and two or three " Honey-hills," Ambohitantely. A smaller number of mountains have received names which may almost be termed Persofial, and are derived either from some renowned king or chief, or have some obscure refer- ence to people, their numbers, relationships, &c. Thus we find the " mountains " of Ratrimo, Rasomotra, Razaka and Rafilo ; the "cattle-fold" (fahitrd) of Andriamandroso; and the "hill " of the renowned chief who founded the Hova monarchy and supremacy, in the unconscionably long name of Vibr\^d,nandrian- impbinimerina ! The name of the supposed aboriginal tribe of the interior is contained in Soa.vashnda, and that of the Hovas in Famohilan/^^t^^. An Oriental exaggeration of numbers comes in in Ambohitrarivobe, " Hill-of-many-thousands," and in Ambohipoloalina, " Hill-of-ten-ten-thousands " ; we find also " People's-hill," " Son-of-men's-hill," " Hill-of-the-old," " Slave's- hill," " Prince's-hill," " King's-hill " (in Manjakabe, " Great-king," simply) ; and the hills of the " Good-father," the " Grandchild," and of " Sacred-chanting " ( Ambohimirary). Two or three Imerina hills have a strictly personal name, as Ramanarivo and Rantoandro. A very numerous class of mountain-names I have grouped as of doubtful signification, meaning thereby not that the words themselves are obscure in meaning, but that the reason for giving such names is doubtful. They comprise verbs, adjectives, and nouns, and while in some cases an examination of the particular hill, or inquiry among the nearest inhabitants, might very likely afford some clue to the origin of the name given, in many cases the reason is probably hopelessly lost. A few examples may now be given ; and of nouns used as names we find the following : Anjomba, " Conch-shell," Ambohibola, " Money-hill," Amperifery, " Pepper-place," Betongotra, " Big- footed," Antemitra, " Matted," Sompitra, " Rice-basket," Vinany 126 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. " A Guess," Ambilany, " At-the-pot," Ambohimizana, " Money- scales-hill," Ankafotra, " At-the-hafotra " (tree), Laona, " Rice- mortar," &c. Of adjectives employed as hill-names there are only a few, as Mangidy, " Bitter," Mora, " Easy," and Maneva, " Beautiful " ; but a large number of verbs are used as hill-names ; e.g., Ambohitsimioza, " Not-bathing-hill," Manana, " Having," Ambo- himanahy, " Disquieting-hill," Ambohimanoa, " Tribute-paying- hill," Ambohimahalala, " Knowing-hill," Mahasarotra, " Making- difficult," Ambohimandray, "Receiving-hill," Ambohitsileo, " Unconquered hill," Manadala, " Making-foolish," Manalalondo, (perhaps) " Throwing-off-drowsiness," and Mahasoa, " Benefit- ing." A curious name occurs in Mantsihoaiza, which is, literally, "Say, where to?" It will be thus seen from these examples, from a few groups of Madagascar mountain-names, chiefly taken in the centre of the island, that there is much variety in them ; and that some of them give evidence of considerable imaginative power on the part of the early inhabitants of the country. I do not here attempt to speculate on the facts possibly embodied (fossilised, so to speak) in another large group of names whose meanings are obscure, and which may probably in some cases prove to be archaic words, and may in others preserve obsolete forms of the verbs and other parts of speech. The T^zL'^r-names in Madagascar next claim a little notice, although they are less striking in their descriptive character than we have seen the hill-names to be. A glance at a map of the island shows that the largest rivers flow to the west, the water-shed being comparatively near the eastern coast, so that, except the Mangoro, few very large rivers flow into the Indian Ocean ; but there are a great number of small streams, many of which have cut deep gorges in the chains of hills, and are broken by numerous cataracts and falls. Two words are used for " river " in Malagasy : renirdno, which is literally " mother of waters," and any, a word which, it will be seen, is MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 27 frequently combined with others in forming river-names. (This latter word is Malayan in origin, and is the same as the Malayan sugnie^ a river ; s being in both languages a very loose noun prefix ; u is the Malagasy ; and the coast n is nasal and equal to gn:) Descriptive epithets of natural features are of course found in a good many river-names, as in Onibe and Onive, " Big- river," Andranobe, " Much-water," Lempona, " Concave " or " Hollow," Ampontany, " In-the-heart-of-the-land," Ampiva- lanana, " /^.t-the-descending " (water), and Andranomavo, " Brown - water." We also find Onimainty and Onifotsy, " Black-river " and " White-river," Onilahy, " Male-river," and Imaintinandro, " Black-by-the-day " (?). The power of some small streams when swelled by sudden and heavy rain is noticed in such names as Kelimahery, " Little-(but) strong," Kelilalina, " Little-(but) deep " ; the difficulty of fording them in Fitamalaina, " Unwilling-ford " ; the noisy character of some, in Andriamamovoka, " Dust-raising-prince " (probably alluding to the spray or mist caused by the rapids or falls) ; the broken channels of others in Imanandriana, " Having-cataracts," while another bears the ominous name of Matiandrano, i.e. " Drowned." The largest river in Madagascar is the Mania, a word meaning "To go astray," and called in the lower portion of its course Tsiribihina, i.e. " The unfordable," so it is said, but probably meaning " The impassable." Of this river Capt. Larsen, of the Norwegian mission-ship, says he believes that it brings down more fresh water than the Ganges ; at its mouth the sea is fresh three miles from land. The meaning of Betsiboka, the large river flowing from Imerina to the north-west, is " Much-fresh- water," as its waters are still potable at a mile's distance from its outlet. The names of Animals are applied to a few Madagascar rivers, as in Mamba, " Crocodile " (almost every river swarms with these reptiles), Ombifotsy, " White-ox," Amborompotsy, " At-the-White-bird " (an egret), Antanandambo, " Wild-hog's- 128 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. foot " (lit, " hand "), Sahalambo, " Wild-hog's-field," and Sahan- amalona, " Eel's-field." This word saha, " field," is found in some other river-names, as Sahasarotra, " Difficult-field," Saha- omby, "Spacious-(?) field," or perhaps "Ox-field," and Isahanonja, "The-field- (or place) of-waves" ; also Sahafilo,j^/(C=" needle," or possibly 7f/<2(?, name of a fish. Ambato, " At-the-stone," is found in several river-names, as well as in those (as already seen) of mountains and towns ; in these cases it probably refers to some hill or rock where the stream takes its rise or near which it flows, or possibly from its rock-impeded channel. Thus we find, Ambatolampy, " At- the-rock," Ambatomiady, " At -the -fighting- stone," Ambato- mainty, " At-the-black-stone," and Ambatotsipahina, " At-the- kicked-stone " (probably with some reference to giant legends). One river is called Ankazotsipihina, " At-the-ruled-(or straight- ened) tree," another is called Fantara, a name also given to meteoric stones, and another is Varahina, " Copper." As with mountains, so also a few rivers have names referring to persons ; two or three have the personal prefix Andrian-, as Andriambilany, and Andriamenakely, " Prince-of-the-estate." One is curiously called Ikotoratsy, " Bad-boy," another, Zana- kolona, " Son-of-men," and another, Andranonandriana, " At-the- prince's-stream." It must be said, however,'that the above examples include (excepting the Mania and the Onilahy) few of the largest streams of the island, such as the Betsib6ka,i with the Ikiopa, the Mangoro, the Matsiatra, the Sofia, the Mananara, and Mananjara^ (there are several examples of these two names), the Mahajilo,3 the Sisaony, and many others, the meaning of whose names is obscure. We probably need a fuller acquaint- ance with dialects other than the Hova to understand many of the names applied to rivers. In the name of the Matit^nana, i.e. " Dead-handed," a S.E. coast river, a piece of legendary ' Lit., " Many-not-lepers." - Lit., " Having-a-share." 3 Jilo is " sharp-pointed." MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 29 history of a giant having thrown his hand across the stream at an enemy, is said to be preserved ; but it is probable that the story has been invented to account for the name. In some portions of the east coast of Madagascar the names of tribes and of the rivers flowing through the territory are identical, and it is often difficult to say whether the people took their name from the river, or vice versa. Curious superstitions cling to some of the rivers, e.g., of the Matsiatra in Betsileo, Mr. Shaw says, it is " a splendid river, though on account of the superstition of the people deterring them from putting a canoe upon it, it is one of the greatest obstacles in travelling to and from the capital in the wet season. In one itinerating journey, the only way of getting the writer's goods across was by balancing them upon the native water- pitchers, a man swimming on each side propelling the cranky vessel forward." The Za/^^-names in Madagascar will not detain us long, as they are very few in number for so large an island. The largest one, of Alaotra, in the Antsihanaka province, has already been mentioned as probably embodying one of the few Arabic words in Malagasy place-names. (It will be remembered that the allied word " Laut " is largely used for " island," i.e., " sea- surrounded," in the Malayan archipelago ; as Timor Laut, &c.) The next in size is Itasy, whose name at first sight would mean " shallow," the word tds)' being applied chiefly to plates and dishes. It is said that this lake is of recent formation, at least tradition goes back to a time when it is said to have been formed by the breaking down of some embankment by a Vazimba chieftain. As, however, a considerable stream, which in the rainy season forms a grand waterfall, always issues from Itasy and forms the river Lilia (a word of unknown meaning, to myself, at least), this seems a little mythical. In a map of the lake made by Mr. W. Johnson (see Antananarivo Annual, No. I., 1875), every bay and division of it has a separate name applied to it, a proof of the minute distinction 10 I30 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. by the Malagasy of places by giving appropriate names.^ The full name of the lake is Itasi-hanaka, the latter word being a root signifying " to run out as a liquid," as ink on blotting- paper, for example ; the word is also used as a synonym for others meaning lake, pool, &c., but is not much employed. This word is also found in the name of a northern central tribe, the Sihanaka, probably from the character of the country they inhabit, with extensive marshes, and the lake Alaotra, just mentioned, in its north-east corner. It is worth notice that the word idsjy is found in several of the Malayan island dialects, and there means "sea." A lake in the province of Pahang in the Malay peninsula is called Tassek Bera, evi- dently the same word as in the Malagasy. A small lake south-west of Ankaratra is called Vinaniony ; vindny is a word frequently used on the east coast for a river-opening through the bars of sand which partly block up the mouths of most of them, and means "breach," "irruption." On the south-west coast are two lakes called Heotry (or Hoetry) and Tsimanampetsotse, but the meaning of neither of them is clear. On the eastern coast of Madagascar is a remarkable chain of coast lakes or lagoons, into which the rivers fall. These have doubtless been formed by the incessant strife between the rivers and the ocean, for there is a constant heavy surf raised by the south-east trade-wind. So nearly continuous are these lagoons that by cutting about thirty miles of canal to connect them, an unbroken water-way of two hundred and sixty miles in length could be formed along the eastern coast. These lagoons are distinguished by separate names, as Nosibe, Irangy, Rasoabe, &c. There are two or three examples of small but profoundly deep lakes formed in the extinct craters of some of the old ' These are: (i) Tarazo, "Hereditary" (?) ; (2) Ampefy, " At-the-embank- ment " ; (3) Kavanta, possibly " Opening," as this is the point where the river issues from the lake ; (4) Ambavanandriana, " At-the-prince's-mouth, or opening," a strait between broad reaches ; (5) Loholoka, meaning doubtful ; (6) Anjiva, ditto ; (7) Fitandambo, " Wild-hog's-ford." MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. I3I volcanoes. One of these, Tritriva, is said to be unfathomable, and is the traditional abode of the Fanany, a seven-headed dragon or monster, about which marvellous stories are told {see Chapter V.). We now turn to the last division of the subject, that of the names applied to Towns and Villages in Madagascar. Before giving a few examples of these under the different classes into which the mountain-names have been divided, there are two or three points which should be kept in mind in con- sidering town and village names found among the Malagasy. The first of these is the fact already mentioned in speaking of the hill-names, viz., that on account of the ancient practice of the interior tribes of building their villages on the summits of hills and mountains, in very many cases it is impossible to distinguish exactly between what are strictly the names of hills and what are those of the villages. It is possible, therefore, that some of the examples already given of moun- tain-names may be names really applied to the settlements formed on their slopes or loftiest points ; while, on the other hand, it may be the case that some of the town or village names to be presently mentioned are really those of the hills on which they are built. Another point which should be borne in mind is, that while in the central and eastern provinces the population has a stable, settled character, having remained probably for centuries in many of the towns or villages originally founded by their ancestors on their first occupation of the country ; those on the western side, on the contrary, the Sakalava tribes, are much more nomadic in their habits. They do not practise agriculture so much as the other peoples ; rice, which in the wet method of culture, as followed by the Hova and Betsil^o and east-coast tribes, requires a good deal of earth-work, embankments, aqueducts, &c., is little used by them ; and they are more exclusively pastoral, keeping large herds of cattle. Besides this, their superstitious fear of death, or rather of some 132 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. malign influence exerted by the spirits of the departed, leads them, it is said, to break up their villages when a death occurs, so that their settlements must be more like camps than villages, properly so called. The Sihanaka have the same superstition, but they avoid most of the inconvenience by removing any one who appears dangerously ill out of the village and placing him in a hastily-constructed hut, which is afterwards pulled down and left to decay. We shall therefore probably find little of interest in the village-names of the Sakalava. There is, how- ever, this noticeable point in the principal names, whether of towns or geographical features, all round the island, that the majority of them are distinctly recognisable as containing roots which are Malagasy as spoken by the Hova, and thus they confirm the fact, supported also on other grounds, of the essential unity of the Malagasy language, notwithstanding various dialectic differences. One more point may be here mentioned, viz., that in many places there occurs a rather perplexing duality of names, arising from the fact that the Hova, when forming military posts for the maintenance of their supremacy over various parts of the island which they have conquered, have generally given them a name differing from that of the native village on the same site or close to it. These latter usually retain the original appellation, so that sometimes a stranger is puzzled to understand where he his going, or what place the people are speaking about. A word or two may be said first about the capital and chief towns of Madagascar, before proceeding to classify the smaller towns and villages according to the divisions already observed in other place-names. The name of Antananarivo, the capital city, signifies, somewhat in an Oriental vein of exaggeration, " City of a Thousand," that is, probably, settlers or military colonists, who were placed there after its conquest by the Hova chieftains. Some have considered the name as referring rather to the homesteads or compounds, which clustered probably for MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 33 a long time as detached settlements round the slopes of the long steep ridge on which the city is built. There are no street- names in the city, indeed there are only three or four streets or principal roads through the dense mass of houses, but the position of most houses is ascertained tolerably exactly by the numerous names which are given to different portions of the varied and broken ground over which the capital extends, every prominent hollow or slope or level portion having some special and often very appropriate name. Thus we find Faravo- hitra, " Last-village " (or hill), at the northern extremity, and Ambohipotsy, " White-hill," from the white soil of that part, at the southern end of the ridge ; while Ambohimitsimbina, " Hill- of-observation " (or attention), is the highest point. Then there is Antsahatsiroa, " Not-two-fields " or valleys, a steep descent near the centre ; the precipices of Ampamarinana, " Hurling- place," the Tarpeian Rock of the capital, on the west side of the hill ; the open triangular space of Andohalo, the coronation ground and place of public assemblies, on the upper part of the city ; and the level square plain of Imahamasina, " Place- of-consecration," at the foot of the hill to the west, where military reviews take place and where some of the sovereigns were publicly recognised by their subjects. Near this is Anosy, " At-the-island," an artificial lake with a small island in the centre. (Each royal house has its proper name, as Manja- kamiadana, " Reigning-peacefully," Trano-vola, " Silver-house," Masoandro, " Sun," Manampisoa, " Adding-good," &c.) In other parts of the city are Ambohitantely, " Hill-of-honey," Ambato- nakanga, " Guinea-fowl-stone," Amparibe, " Much-sugar-cane," Analakely, " Little-wood," Zoma, " Friday," the great market- place, so called because the market is held on that day, &c., &c. South-west of the city is a large timber palace which was built by Radama I. on the site of a hill which he partly levelled, and called Isoanierana, " Good-for-inquiry," or consultation, ix, a convenient place where he might hear complaints and dispense j ustice. To the east of the capital is Ambatoroka, " Craggy-rocks," 134 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. a rough piece of ground covered with boulders, and a former place of execution ; further south is Mah^zoarivo, " Having-a- thousand " ; while to the west is a rounded hill called Amho- hij^nahary, " God's-hill " ; and stretching for many miles west, north, and south is the immense rice-plain of Betsimitatatra, " Great-undivided," a name evidently given before its enclosure and cultivation, for it is now much divided by tatatra or water- channels. Ambohimanga, " Blue-hill " or " Famous-hill " (or town), is the ancient capital, eleven miles north of Antananarivo, and possibly so called from the mass of bluish gneiss rock which forms the highest point of the triangular hill on which the town is built. The slopes are entirely covered with woods, which form a refreshing contrast to the generally bare and treeless character of the greater portion of Imerina. As at Antananarivo, various parts of the more ancient capital are distinguished by special names, as Amboara, " The fig-tree " {vodra), Ambatomitsangana, " The standing-stone," Antsahamanitra, " The fragrant-field," Andakana, " At-the-canoe," &c. Ambohimanga is also the name of the chief town of the northern Tanala, or forest people, and is given to some other towns as well, both in this form and in that of Ambohimangakely {kdy = little). The capital of the Betsileo province has a name probably given by the Hova on their conquest of the country — Fianarantsoa, " Good-learning " ; it is a town with about 6,000 or 7,000 inhabitants. The chief port of the N.W. coast of Madagascar, the town of Mojanga (incorrectly called by Europeans and on charts Majunga), derives its name from " a colony of Swahili-speaking Arabs, who were the first occupants of the site. They found, so say their descendants, the shore lined with flowering shrubs, which, as the most remarkable thing about the place, led them to call their village viji-angaia, ' the town of flowers.' " This was subsequently corrupted to Mojanga. The Bay of Bemba- tooka takes its name from a small village formerly existing on MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 35 its shores, and called Fombitoka =^fomby tbkana, " One-rofia- palm," and corrupted by foreigners into Bembatooka.'' Turning now to the names of Towns and Villages generally, we find, as with those of the mountains, that natural features have frequently suggested their appellations. As already noticed, the building of all ancient towns of the interior on the summit of hills has made it difficult, if not impossible in many cases, to be sure whether the name given to a town on a hill is not more strictly that of the hill itself So that, as with mountain-names, we also find the ideas of " height " in a few town-names ; as Avomalaza and Avomanitra {avo, " high "), Ambodinambo, " At-the-foot-of-height," Amboniloha, " Upon- the-head " ; that of " ascending " in Fiakarana and lakaranosy, " Goat's-ascent " ; and that of " lifting up " in Ambohimiarina, Man^rinarina, &c. The two words for rock, vd^o and Mrana, form frequent combinations in village-names from the presence of bold rocks and precipices near many of the places thus named ; as Ivato, Ivatovkvy, " Women's-stone " (probably from there being near to it one of the stones resorted to and anointed by women, from a belief in its virtue to give them children), Ambatosoa, Amb6divato, " At-the-bottom-of-the-rock," Ant6n- gombato, " At-the-foot-of-the-rock," Ivatofotsy and Ambatofotsy, " At-the-white-rock," Ivatolavo, Ambatofisaka, Ambatotokana, "At - the - solitary-rock," Amparafaravato, "At - the - stone - bed - stead " ; this is one of the three Malagasy towns to which entrance is forbidden to Europeans by an article in the 1865 treaty, since they were then the seats of the chief idols. In the Sihanaka province is a town called Amparafaravola, " At-the- silver-bedstead," and there are several Ambatomalaza, " Famous- stones." Then there are found Iharana, Ankaranila, Ankara- malaza, and Ankaratsinanana. The colour of the soil also gives frequent names, as Antanifotsy, "White-earth," Ambohipotsy, " At-the-white-hill," Ankadifotsy, " At-the-white-fosse," Ampasi- ■ See paper by W. C. Pickersgill, Esq., in L.M.S. Missionary Chronicle, Oct. 1882, p. 323 ; and Atitaiiauanvo Annual, No. XIL, 1888. 136 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. mena, " At-the-red-sand," Ivohimena, " Red-hill," &c. We also find Ambohidroa, " Two-towns," and Ifitobohitra, "Seven-towns." Trees and woods give many town-names, as Ambolobe, " Much -bamboo," Anakakondro, " At-the-plantain-shoots," Ambodirofia, " At-the-foot-of-the-rofia " (palm), Antapiabe, " Mnch-tapia " (a tree with edible fruit, and used for silkworm culture), Ampangab6, " Much-fern," Ivohidroy, " Bramble-town," Amboatavo, " At-the-gourds," Ankazomasina, " At-the-sacred- tree," lalamalaza, " Famous-wood," Analamaizina, " At-the-dark- wood," Ambaniala, " Below-the-wood," Beravina, " Much-foliage," Tamponala, " Top-of-the-wood," &c. The pleasant situation of many villages gives appropriate names to not a few of them, which contain the words isdra (good) and soa (pleasant), the latter of which is especially frequent, as Antanantsara, Ambo- hitsara, Itsarafidy, " Well-chosen," Itsarahonenana, " Good-for- dwelling-in," Ambohitsoa, Ambatos6a, Ambalasoa, Antsahasoa, Ikianjasoa, Isoaririnina, " Pleasant-in-winter," and Soamonina, " Pleasant-to-dwell-in." The latter word also comes in frequently in villages called Soavina and Soamanana ; one is termed Soa- tsimanampiovana, " Unchangeably-pleasant," and the same idea of security is expressed in Fiadanana, " Peace," and Mahavelona, " Causing-to-live." ^ The open position of many villages, exposed to sunlight, gives a name to several ; as, Masoandro, B6masoandro, " Much-sun," and Ambohibemasoandro ; and the extensive prospect from others gives their names of Mahatsinjo, " Able-to-overlook," and Tsinjoarivo, " Overlooking-a-thousand." New settlements, now probably very ancient (like our own Newports and Newcastles), have left their traces in Ambohibao, "Newtown," a very common village name in Imerina ; in Ant6by, " At-the-camp," and Andranovao, " At-the-new-house " (?) ; while the advance of settlers upon ground previously unoccupied seems to have given a name to the many places called Ambo- himandroso, " Progressing-town," and Mandrosoa, " Advance " * I remember this name, a rather common one, is that of one of the filthiest villages I ever stayed a night in ; the whole place being a foot deep in cowdung. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 37 (verb imp.). Many village-names include the Malagasy equiva- lents for our Anglo-Saxon words ton, ham, burgh, btuy, &c., and the Danish by and thorpe, in the words vala, " a homestead," as Ambalavotaka, Ambalatany, Ambalavola, Ambalasakay, and Ambala, &c. ; in hady, " a fosse," one at least of which surrounds every old village (and homestead), and very frequently several deep trenches are found one within the other ; as Ankadibe, Ankadisarotra, Ankadimainty, Ankadifotsy, Ambodihady, and Ankadivorib^, " Big-round-fosse " (the ordinary name for a country house is hadivbry') ; and in sdha, " field," as Antsahape- traka, Antsahafilo, Antsaharoaloha, " Two-headed-field," Isaha- fary, "Sugar-cane-field," and Isahabato, " Stony-field," &c. There are a very few village-names referring to roads, or rather paths, as Antsampanimahazo, freely translated, " You may choose your path," applied to two or three places at the junction of cross- roads ; another bears the (probably often too appropriate) name of Ampotaka, " In-the-mud." From the situation of many Malagasy villages on the banks of rivers are derived several descriptive names, as Antsam- pandrano, " At-the-branching-of-the-waters," Ambodiriana and Ambonirlana, " At-the-foot-of- " and " Upon-the-cataract," Ifara- hantsana, " Last-rapids " (on the river Ikiopa), Isarahanony, (perhaps) " At-the-separating-of-the-streams," Andranomandry, "By-still-waters," Amparihy, " At-the-lake," Andohatinjona, " At- the-head-of-the-promontory," and Imavorano, " Brown-water " ; while we find an exact equivalent of " Oxford " in Ampitanomby, and an approach to " Cambridge " in Tetezambato, " Stone- bridge." One name seems to complain of a lack of moisture, Itsimisirano, " There's-no-water ! " On the sea-coast several village-names include the word i;/«^«j'," river-mouth," as Ivinany, Vinani6ny, &c., and also Masondrano, a word of similar meaning, found both in this form and in that of Masondranokely. A considerable number of village-names include the word nosy, which is generally translated " island " ; it appears, how- ever, in many cases to mean, more exactly, a rising ground 138 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Standing up from marshes and rice-fields, and more or less sur- rounded by them, a very near parallel to our Anglo-Saxon ea or ey, " an island," as in the names Chelsea, Thorney, Putney, Chertsey, &c.i Thus we find Nosivato, " Rocky-island," Nosi- manjaka, " King's-island," Nosisoa, Nosivola, Nosipatrana, Nosikely, Anosivarika, N6sizato, " Hundred-isles," Nosiarivo, " Thousand-isles," and, simply. Nosy or An6sy. In the central district of Imerina a number of village-names include that of the province, with some additional descriptive word ; these are probably, in some cases at least, memorials of certain additions of territory or change of boundary ; thus we find Imerimandroso, Imerinavaratra, Imerintsiadino, Soavini- m6rina, and Im^rinarlvo. The western division of Imerina, the Imamo district, also gives a name to a few villages, as Arivoni- mamo and Tsinjovinimamo. The habit of the central Malagasy of assembling at large open-air markets for the sale and pur- chase of every kind of native product gives a name to many villages near such markets, according to the days of the week on which they are held. So we find numerous places called Alahady (although markets are no longer held on Sunday in the central provinces), Alatsinainy, Talata, Alarobia, Alakamisy, Zoma, and Asabotsy. As with mountain-names, so also in those of some towns and villages, the words for various animals enter into their formation ; the words mamba and vody, " crocodile," dznfa, " leech," ambba^ "dog," bsy,'' ^ozX." fbza, "crab," hdla, "spider," and many others, all occurring ; thus, Mambazato, " Hundred-crocodiles " (no exaggeration this in numberless places) ; less definite, but very suggestive, is Marovoay, " Many-crocodiles," a Hova post and Arab settlement near the mouth of the Betsiboka river ; Masom- boay, Antsahadinta, Amboatany, Ambohitrosy, Antsahamaro- foza, and Antohokala. Most frequent are those compounded with bniby, " ox," as Mamiomby, " Sweet-to-oxen," probably referring to good pastures (Soaronono, " Good-(for) milk," is ' Cf. Words and Places, p. 367 ct seq. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. 1 39 probably of similar meaning to the foregoing), Antandrokomby, " Ox-horn," Lohaomby, " Ox-head," Ambohitromby, " Ox-town," and Ambositra,! " At-the-ox " (or oxen). Fahitra, the word for the sunken pen or fold in which cattle are kept and fattened, enters into many village-names, especially places where these fdhitra were numerous or of great size, or made by some famous chief of former times ; thus, Ampahitra, Ampahitnzana, Ambo- difahitra, Ampahimanga, &c. Here we have a similar use of the word to that in our English place-ending by or byr (cf Scot. byre, " a cow-stall "). A few villages take their name from some prominent or numerous tree or plant growing plentifully near it, as Amboatavo, " At-the-gourds," Amboasary," At-the-lemons," &c. The most common village-names of the class already grouped as personal are those derived from chieftainship, fre- quently including the words manjdka, sovereign, and andrianay prince, noble ; and our English Kingstowns, Kingstons, and Princetons find a Malagasy parallel in numerous places called Amb6himanjaka, Ambohitrinimanjaka, Ambatomanjaka, Man- jakanandriana, Miadamanjaka, " Reigning-peacefully," Ambohi- trandriana, Ambatonandriana, and Iharanandriana ; some of these being probably the chiefs village in earlier times. Of some- what similar meaning is Ikianjamalaza, " Famous-courtyard," and Ikianjasoa ; while the principal village of a former petty state, often a very little place, is remembered in many an Amb6hib6 and Ivohibe, " Big-village," and in frequent Antan- amalaza and Ambohimalaza, " Famous-towns " and " villages," We also find Ambohitompo, " Lord's-town," and Ambalampi- tsara, " Judge's-homestead." Other villages preserve the name of a former famous king or chieftain, as Ambohidrabiby,^ • Vdsitra is the ox, strictly so called ; oviby being a wider word for cattle generally; hence oJiibilaliy, "a bull," ZLiuakbmby, "a calf," &c. - Rabiby was an early king in Imerina, who is said to have slain an enor- mous wild-boar ; and he is also remembered as the first who discovered that beef was good to eat. This tradition is probably true so far as it recalls an early period when the ox was considered a sacred animal, and its flesh was only eaten as part of a religious service. I40 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Ambohidratrimo, Ambohidrapeto/ Ambohidratamo, Ambohi- dramijay, and Ambatondrazaka.^ Some tribal divisions or boundaries are probably preserved in the many village-names which include the word a7ivo, " thou- sand," sdto, "hundred," and/olo, "ten," as, Ivohitrarivo, Ambo- hipoloarivo (io,ooo), Soavinarivo, Iharinarivo, Ambohijato and Ambijato, and Ampolo. Tribal names are given to some villages, which were formerly perhaps their chief settlement ; as, Anjanadralambo (the Zanadralambo are the sixth and lowest rank of andnana, the noble or royal clans ; Ralambo, their ancestor, was the same as the Rabiby just mentioned, and was so called from his slaying the wild-boar or lambd) ; and Ampahidralambo, "Ralambo's-ox-fattening pit" ; and Ambodila- langina (the Lalangina are the easternmost division of the Betsileo people). Bits of local and tribal or family history are probably fossilised in such names as Itelolahy, " Three-men," Ivohidraivo, " Raivo's-town," Imarovavy, " Many-women," " Imarozaza, "Many-children," Fierenana, "Dividing-place," Fierena, " Refuge," Isoanierana, " Good-for-inquiry " (an open- air court), Ampihaonana, " Meeting-place," Ambohidray, " Father's-village," Ambohijatovo, " Youth's-village," Ambohi- janaka, " Children's-village," Ifenovahoaka, " Full-of-people,' Tsarahavana, " Good-(by) relations," Itsiazombazaha, " Not- taken-by-foreigners," &c., &c. Old sacred places and shrines are indicated by many an Ambohimasina and Ambatomasina, {indsina, sacred), and perhaps in Ambohijanahary and Am- bohitrandriamanitra, " Creator's-" and " God's-town." Sacred and venerated trees ijidzo) also give a few village names, as Ankazomasina and Ankazobe. About the other two divisions in which Malagasy town and village names may be classed, viz., those of " doubtful " or " obscure " meaning, it is unnecessary to speak here, for the reasons given in speaking of the names of mountains and rivers. ' Rapeto is said to have been a giant, and to have performed marvellous feats of strength. = The chief town of the Sihanaka province. MALAGASY PLACE-NAMES. I4I Some local allusions, obvious enough on the spot, would pro- bably explain many of the first class of names ; while fuller knowledge of old and obsolete or provincial Malagasy, and careful inquiry among the natives, will be required to elucidate the meaning of many of the second of these classes. Before concluding, a few words must be added upon one other class of Malagasy place-names yet unnoticed, viz., those of Provinces and Districts. Here, however, a difficulty occurs in distinguishing many of them from those of the tribes who inhabit these various regions ; since in many cases it is difficult to say whether the people take their name from the country they live in, or whether the country is called after the people. So that here the study of place-names is almost inseparable from that of personal, or rather, tribal, names. In other cases, as on the coast plains, river-names and tribal-names are equally difficult of exact discrimination, that is, as regards the priority of the two. These points cannot be now fully discussed, but a few examples may be given. The meaning of the name of the central and leading pro- vince of Imerina is obscure (to myself at least) ; the district is also occasionally termed Ankova, from its Hova inhabitants. Among the subdivisions of Imerina are Vakinankaratra, the district " Cut-off-(lit. " broken-") by-Ankaratra " (mountains), Vakintsisaony, " Cut-off-by-(the river) Sisaony," Imamo, Voni- zongo, Valalafotsy, " White-locusts ' a (tribal name), and to the north, Avaradrano, " North-of-the-water," Anativ61o, " Among- the-bamboos," &c. But the smaller district names are very numerous, and would require a separate article for their full treatment. South of Vakinankaratra is the Manandriana district, the northernmost division of the populous Betsileo province, home of the " Unconquered " tribe (so named, although they have been overcome by the dominant Hova) ; with the other sub- divisions of I Sandra, so called from the river flowing through its centre, and this, again, traditionally said to be named after a 142 MADAGASCAR BEFORE THE CONQUEST. Hova, one Andriantsandra ; Ilalangina (literally, " Ouiet-road," but there is probably some other meaning) ; and larindrano " There-is- water,"i probably from the numerous streams. Further south still is the Bara country. In this province, with its widely scattered population, there appears to be necessarily a