A TANÀLA CHIEFTAINESS
This “forest Ambòhimànga” was the home of Ihòvana, the Tanàla chieftainess of the tribe of the surrounding district, who, with her husband, was most kind and friendly, and I believe a sincere Christian. She was a remarkably stout old lady, getting grey, and a woman of considerable ability and force of character. On special occasions, when the Malagasy nobles and tributary chiefs were summoned up to the capital, Ihòvana would appear in the public assembly, and with làmba girded round her and spear in hand, would give assurances of loyalty and obedience to Queen Rànavàlona, and say “she was not a woman, but a man,” and would fight, if need be, at the head of her people in defence of their sovereign.
The situation of this place is exceedingly pleasant, on a hill about two hundred feet above the river flowing to the east and north. Around it are hills covered with bamboo, while to the lines of hill, the edges of the upper plateau are dark with forest. Here we and our bearers were glad to rest for a couple of days, including a Sunday, during which we were glad to find that these northern Tanàla, through Christian teaching and Ihòvana’s influence, had made wonderful advances compared with those farther south. There was a congregation of about three hundred, a school of about as many children, and nine village congregations connected with the central church here.
On the Monday morning, on leaving Ambòhimànga, we had to cross the river at the foot of the hill, and this made the thirtieth time we had to be ferried across a river with all our men and property, and glad we were that it was the last. A description of our water conveyances would include bamboo rafts, canoes great and small, especially the latter, canoes with one end rotted away or broken off, and stuffed with clay, and craft so small that they seemed rather fitted for children’s playthings than for business. The forest became thinner as we travelled to the north-west, and this was due to the custom of the Tanàla, who cut down the woods and sow the rice in the ashes of the trees which have been burnt; for the people do not plant much in one place, but remove their village to another spot after getting a crop or two. This morning we lost the traveller’s tree, which does not grow at heights much above two thousand feet above the sea; and in the afternoon we also lost sight of the graceful bamboo.
The following morning brought us to steep ascents of nine hundred and fifty feet, of four hundred and twenty, and then of six hundred feet successively, the last bringing us to Ivòhitràmbo (lofty town), well named, for it has a most elevated situation and higher than a good deal of the interior table-land to the west. I had noticed all the previous afternoon that on the very summit of the highest ground to the north was a lofty cone of rock. Perched upon this like an eagle’s nest was part of the village, the rest of the houses being a hundred and forty feet lower. The summit was forty-seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea; we were now on the high land of the interior and had come up twenty-four hundred and fifty feet since we breakfasted. As may be supposed, the view was most extensive; the plains of North Bétsiléo were not far distant, and soon we came to the long bare rolling downs of the central provinces. Uninteresting as these generally appear after four or five months without rain, they looked home-like, and the keen air seemed bracing and invigorating. We began to see rice-fields again and the scattered round vàla of the Bétsiléo. We had got into the country of a different tribe of people, with different houses, speech and customs. At the village where we stopped for the night was a good timber house, with elaborately carved central pillars, and we began to see again the carved memorial posts, which had so much interested us on our journey south.
PECULIAR TOMBS
We noticed again the peculiar tombs of the Bétsiléo; these, which consist of a large square of stones, are not, as in Imèrina, the real burial-places; for the actual tomb is often twenty feet below the ground, a stone chamber, to which access is gained by a long inclined passage opening out at a distance of eighty or a hundred feet from the tomb.
And now, as we reached the oft-trodden route between Antanànarìvo and Fianàrantsòa, this record may come to a close. We arrived safely at the capital on 5th August, having been away nearly eleven weeks, and having travelled by palanquin, on foot, and in canoes, more than nine hundred miles.
FIREFLIES
[30] These fireflies are not seen in the interior except in two or three localities, where portions of the original forest still cover the mountains on which old towns were built. I have seen them at Vòhilèna, a hill about fifteen hundred feet high, near the valley of the Mànanàra river, in North Imèrina.