THE HOVAS
We were now nearing the country of the Hovas, and could see an evident difference in the appearance of the inhabitants. They were lighter in colour and had longer and straighter hair than the coast tribes. But owing to the fashion, at that time, of both sexes wearing their hair done up in a number of knots, and from the apparent absence of whisker or beard, I was sometimes puzzled to know at first sight whether the people we passed were men or women; and there was little difference in dress, the làmba being worn by both. Not only were the people different in appearance to those we had mostly seen, but the dwellings also had a much more civilised look. Several of the houses at Ambòdinangàvo were of the true Hova type, with high-pitched roofs, made of strong timber framing and filled in, for the walls, with thick upright planking, instead of the slight bamboos and leaves of the coast and forest houses. Some had boarded floors and had a room in the roof; and the crossed rafters at the gables were carried up for two or three feet above the ridge. The house in which I stayed had a much more comfortable appearance than any I had been in before, having two rooms on the ground floor, the walls covered with matting, and there were actually chairs! a luxury I had not experienced since leaving Tamatave. I felt that I was getting near civilisation again.
While dinner was preparing I strolled out into a ravine near the house and was struck with the beauty and variety of the insects, as indeed I had been in many parts of the journey. There were butterflies of gorgeous hues, dragonflies, crimson, blue and dull gold in colour, grasshoppers with scarlet wings, and the very spiders with gold and silver markings. Some species of these latter were of great size; we saw hundreds of them in their large geometric webs stretching over the paths as we came along.
A COMBINATION OF BEAUTY
On Monday morning, 12th October, we left the village before sunrise and immediately began the ascent of Angàvo, which rises from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet above the valley. It is an enormous mass of granite, capped with clay, the summit being scarped and fortified with earthworks; it is, however, not a detached mountain rising from a plain on every side, but rather a vast natural bastion or outwork of a higher level of country. There was a gorgeous sunrise, which covered the greater part of the sky with a crimson light, unlike anything I had ever seen before. Then for another hour or two we were passing through the upper belt of forest, here very narrow, being only ten or twelve miles across, but as dense and as beautiful as the lower and wider belt. And it was just as difficult to travel through as the other forest, descending into the gorge of the Mandràka river and then scaling the steep ascents. One place especially, where we crossed the stream, was a perfect combination of beauty—rushing waters, luxuriant foliage of fern and palm and bamboo—and hundreds of large blue and black papilio butterflies hovering over the river.
At eight o’clock we reached Ankèramadìnika, a village close to the last ascent of the forest, and waited for a few minutes while my bearers bought manioc root at the little market. The people crowded round me, bringing various articles of food for sale—sweet potatoes, honeycomb, and wild raspberries. We had now left behind us the forest region and were on the bare open uplands of Imèrina, the air being clear and keen. The hills were less steep and more rounded, reminding me of some parts of the English chalk downs, and there was hardly a tree to be seen. In several places the granite or gneiss takes a dome-like form; and in others the same rock formed the highest points. For many miles I could see them rising high over every other hill; one of these, on the southern side of a huge mountain called Angàvokèly, was like a titanic castle; another, which is divided into three and called Tèlomiràhavàvy (“Three Sisters”), was like a vast church.
AMBÀTOMÀNGA
There were signs of approaching the capital in the number of villages which came in sight. The country also was much more cultivated, chiefly, however, in the valleys, where the bright green patches of the newly sown rice gave a refreshing contrast to the bare and brown appearance of the hills and downs, now parched and dry after five or six months without rain. In many places great black patches showed where the dry grass had been set on fire. This is done shortly before the rains come on, and the rank hay-like grass is succeeded by a crop of fine short herbage suitable for pasture. About noon we caught sight of the large village of Ambàtomànga, then two or three miles distant. This place had an important and picturesque appearance, being considerably larger than any town on the road. Over a number of smaller dwellings one large house rose conspicuous, with its lofty high-pitched roof and double verandah. Close to the village is a lofty mass of blue gneiss rock, about a couple of hundred feet in height, and crowned by a stone tomb and other buildings, giving it the air of a fortification. Passing through a large weekly market, where hundreds of people were buying and selling, we at length entered the last station on the road to Antanànarìvo.
Ambàtomànga had quite the appearance of a fortified town, having walls of clay surrounding it, and deep fosses outside them. I stopped at the large house which I had noticed at first, and found it a well-finished timber structure, with venetian shutters and framed doors, quite a contrast to the mere sheds in which I had slept for ten nights past. It was divided into three rooms on the ground floor, with walls, floor and ceiling all well planed and finished. The owner, a fine-looking man and a native noble, gave me a welcome in a little broken English; but his knowledge of European tongues was apparently confined to half-a-dozen short phrases, for he repeatedly said, “Thank you, sir,” giving me a hearty shake of the hand at the same time, as if he thought that was the proper formula to be observed. A little before dusk I walked out with him to the fort-like tomb on the top of the rock. In the light of the setting sun the red clay hills gave back the warm rays with an intensity of colour that was remarkable. The tomb at the top is a large stone structure, well worked, with an open balustrade and bold mouldings. Walking round the house after dusk, I saw a lurid glare in the sky on all sides, and then found it was produced by the grass burning on the hills and downs, which showed in lines of fire for many miles in all directions.