THE SÀKALÀVA
As we proceeded, the country became more hilly and with more extensive woods; but as for population, not a soul did we see, except two women at one spot, and again we asked, where are the people? And here a few words may be said about the inhabitants of this part of the country. Along about two-thirds of the western side of Madagascar, the people are loosely called Sàkalàva; but every district has its people with its own tribal name, for “Sàkalàva” was originally the name of one particular tribe, which, through European or Arab admixture and the possession of fire-arms, conquered the other tribes and founded two kingdoms, Ibòina to the north, and Mènabé to the south. These Sàkalàva kingdoms were the dominant ones in the island until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the Hovas gradually obtained the leadership. Physically, these people are taller and stronger than the Hovas, are darker in colour, less civilised, and have an African strain in them, from their proximity to the continent. Still, they are not of African stock, but are no doubt, Melanesian in origin. Their language presents a good deal of difference from the Hova form of Malagasy, both in vocabulary and in pronunciation, yet the groundwork and the grammar is essentially the same. They are more nomadic in habit than the Hovas, breaking up their villages at the death of any of its inhabitants, and not cultivating rice like most Malagasy tribes, but subsisting largely on manioc root, bananas, fish and vegetables.
AN OFFENSIVE TREE
We stopped to lunch under a fine adàbo-tree; all along the main branches of this tree, the small fig-like fruits were clustered by hundreds, most of them being ripe and scarlet in colour. During an afternoon’s voyage the river became narrower, but with a deep and strong current. We lost the fan-palms, but passed for some miles along a beautifully wooded portion of country, with fine large trees, like those in an English park, and growing close to the water’s edge. One of these beautiful trees, however, has a very vile odour when cut up for timber, so that although the wood is good for carpentry, when new it is in the highest degree offensive. It is called Komàngo, and the people say that its smell, as a tree, is so strong that birds settling on its branches die immediately. A high price is given for chips or twigs of the tree, to be used as charms, for few are daring enough to cut it down.
[31] Mòka is the native word for “mosquito”; Mòkafòhy is, literally, “short mosquito”; but the insect is not a gnat, but a fly, and its name is, more correctly, Alòy.
CHAPTER XXIII
TO THE NORTH-WEST COAST
CROCODILES are not the only reptiles to be seen in the river, for we also saw many large tortoises. They were chiefly of the genus Pyxis, the Geometric or Box tortoise, having the carapace divided into large hexagons beautifully marked, and were basking in the sun on small spits of sand rising just above the surface of the water. A carapace which I afterwards procured on the coast was about eighteen inches long. Two other species are also found in Madagascar, named respectively, Testudo geometria and Testudo radiata.
In former times the lakes and marshes of the island were inhabited by an immense species of tortoise, whose remains have been found together with those of the gigantic birds (Æpyornis), the hippopotamus and the great extinct lemurs, all of which were no doubt contemporaneous, lasting until the arrival of man on the scene. But although extinct on the mainland of Madagascar, they seem to have survived on the Mascarene group of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodriguez until a very recent date, and they are still living in the little island of Aldabra, which is about two hundred and sixty miles north-west of Cape Ambro. There are two living examples of these huge creatures in the Regent’s Park Gardens. The male tortoise, which is much the larger of the two, is five feet five inches in length, and five feet nine inches in breadth, broader, in fact, than it is long. It weighs about eight hundred pounds, and is believed to be able to carry a ton weight on its back. It is now at least a hundred and fifty years old, but is still young and is likely to grow to a much greater size. From the geometric-shaped plates of its carapace, it seems to be allied to the geometric tortoise, still plentiful in Madagascar, as we have just seen. Until lately, it was supposed that these great tortoises were becoming extinct on Aldabra, but by the most recent accounts of the island, it appears that this is not likely to be the case, the dense jungle of pandanus giving them ample protection, as it is at night when they leave this shelter, and go in search of food.[32]
Although we saw no villages during this day’s voyage, there was evidence of some population, in people fishing along the river bank, canoes moored by the shore, and women drawing water, carefully avoiding going into the stream, and filling their vessels with a small gourd fastened to a long bamboo. The scenery also was more varied, there being lines of low hills, partly covered with wood, and the banks of the river lined with large trees.