[9] I am indebted for the information here given about wasps to an interesting paper contributed by Mr Cory to the fourteenth number of The Antanànarìvo Annual for 1890.

CHAPTER VIII
THE CHANGING MONTHS IN IMÈRINA: CLIMATE, VEGETATION AND LIVING CREATURES OF THE INTERIOR

AUTUMN: March and April.—It will be understood from what has been previously stated as to the divisions of the seasons in the Imèrina province that, as with the seasons in England, there is some variety in different years in the times when they commence and finish. 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 it 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, 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 or Fàraràno (March and April). In January those portions of the great rice-plain which lie north-west of the capital, as well as many of the lesser plains and valleys, become golden-yellow in hue, very much indeed like the colour of an English wheat-field in harvest-time; 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 Ambòhimanàrina, a large village to the north-west of Antanànarìvo, 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.

THE RICE CROP

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 very 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 kòlikòly, 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 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, sometimes plastered with mud, and generally on the sloping side of the rising ground close to the rice-field. Here the sheaves are piled round the threshing-floor like a low breastwork. (Occasionally the rice is threshed in a space in the centre of the rice-field, mats being spread over the stubble to prevent loss of the grain.) No flail is used, but handfuls of the rice-stalks are beaten on a 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 pits with a 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.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS