The country immediately surrounding Tamatavé consists of nothing but sand, vegetation not beginning to show itself for one or two miles inland. I could not undertake long walks, as it rained every day, and it behooves Europeans in this country neither to expose themselves to wet nor to go out immediately after rain, for the slightest dampness is likely to bring on fever.
By chance I learned from Mademoiselle Julie that she was the possessor of two estates, lying seven miles from the town, very near the woods, and that her sons resided there. I hoped to be able to take good walks there, and to gather treasures for my collection of insects, and accordingly begged Mademoiselle Julie to have me taken there. In this country journeys are made in a light kind of sedan-chair, called tacon, suspended between two poles, and carried by four bearers. Even if one has to go only a few hundred steps, the sedan-chair is brought into requisition. No one goes on foot except the slaves and quite poor people. On long journeys eight or twelve bearers are taken instead of four, so that they can continually relieve each other.
I quitted Tamatavé betimes in the morning. The road to Antandroroko, as one of the estates of my hostess was called, was very good, particularly when we got out of the domain of sand into that of vegetation. Where there were no hills the bearers ran along with me as if I had been no weight at all for them, and we accomplished the seven miles in an hour and a quarter.
At Antandroroko lived Mademoiselle Julie’s younger son, a young man of twenty-two, who had been partly educated at Bourbon. I should not have suspected this, for he differed in nothing from his fellow-countrymen save in his European garb and his knowledge of French, and had again become a thorough Malagasey.
A clean little room was allotted to me in his house, with mats on the floor, but no furniture. I seated myself on my carpet bag and waited patiently for breakfast. Mademoiselle Julie had allowed me to depart fasting, and thus my anxiety on the subject of the commissariat was natural enough. But hour after hour went by, and no one called me to table. I ascribed this delay in the appearance of breakfast to my arrival, and flattered myself that some special dish was being prepared on my account—perhaps even a fowl was being sacrificed, and thus the meal was naturally retarded; so I waited and waited, until at last a slave entered, and said a few Malagasey words which I could not understand. But I very well understood the signs he made, inviting me to follow him, and obeyed joyfully.
I was conducted into another room, unfurnished like my own, and with a mat spread out on the floor in the midst. On the mat lay a large leaf, surrounded by several smaller ones; the first representing the dish and the latter the plates for the entertainment. They had been obliging enough to put a real plate, with a veritable knife, fork, and spoon for me, and likewise a chair. As for my hosts, they crouched upon the ground. A slave appeared with a kettle of rice, and emptied the contents into the improvised dish. Then he brought boiled beans, and a great pot containing a dried fish boiled up in water, and smelling so badly that I could scarcely remain at table. The much-desired fowl never appeared. I thought with a gentle regret of the Dyaks of Borneo, who are considered so savage and cruel, and who, while they themselves ate rice, could always find a chicken for me; and here, in the house of a semi-European host, and in a country where poultry is so cheap and plentiful, I had to content myself with rice and beans.
The manner in which the natives ate was any thing but appetizing. Instead of a spoon, they make use of a piece of leaf, which they fold very dexterously, and wherewith they manage not only to eat rice and beans, but even to carry fluids safely to their mouths. This leaf-spoon being very large, they distend their mouths to the utmost extent, and then shovel the provisions in. This might pass without comment, for it will not do to be too particular on one’s travels; but the worst of it is that they all take their supplies with their own spoons from the common store in the dish.
Near the fish-kettle a slave is generally posted, whose duty consists in ladling the broth out of the kettle, and pouring it over the rice as the company take it up in their spoons. The fish is taken in the hand in pieces, and eaten like bread. I do not wonder that a Malagasey who has never left his own country, or seen any thing better than its usages, should be content to live in this way; but how the young man who had been educated among Europeans could so entirely readopt the customs of his countrymen, I can not understand. Not only in the manner of eating and drinking was this peculiarity shown, but in every thing else likewise. He could sit for hours in his arm-chair without reading or otherwise occupying himself. In fact, he did nothing all day long but rest, smoke tobacco, and talk to the highly intellectual slaves who continually surrounded him.
With true sorrow I had already noticed at Tamatavé that the few Christians who lived there—namely, a few Europeans and some Creoles from Bourbon—instead of setting a good example to the natives, and seeking to improve them by their own respectable lives and the purity of their behavior, seemed to have sunk to the level of the people among whom they dwelt, and adopted all their immoral habits. Thus, for instance, they contract no regular marriages, but, like the natives, change their wives at their pleasure, and sometimes even keep two at the same time, besides being attended on exclusively by female slaves.
Some of these people send their children to Bourbon, or even to France; but for what purpose? When the young man has really learned something—when he has contracted better habits and customs—he returns, and every thing is spoiled only too quickly by his father’s bad example. But what passes my wit to understand is the fact that a European who has earned money enough to live comfortably in his native land, can of his own free will remain in this country; and yet such a wonder did I most certainly behold in the person of a certain Mr. N——.