The long period without rain at this season naturally dries up the grass, and the hills and downs become parched and brown. Maìntàny—i.e. “the earth is dry”—is one of the native names for this season, and it is very appropriate to the condition of things in general. The rice-fields lie fallow, affording a scanty supply of grass for the cattle; and many short cuts can be made across them in various directions, for the beaten track over embankments, great and small, may be safely left for the dry and level plain.
ANCIENT TOWNS
In travelling about Imèrina, and indeed in the southern central provinces as well, one cannot help noticing the evidences of ancient towns and villages on the summits of a large number of the high hills. These are not picturesque ruins, or remains of buildings, but are the deep fosses cut in the hard red soil, often three or four, one within the other, by which these old villages were defended. These show very conspicuously from a great distance, and are from ten to twenty feet deep; and as they are often of considerable extent they must have required an immense amount of labour to excavate. These elaborate fortifications are memorials of the “feudal period” in central Madagascar, when almost every village had its petty chief or mpanjàka, and when guns and gunpowder were still unknown. These old places are now mostly abandoned for more convenient positions in the plains or on the low rising grounds; and the fosses or hàdy are often capital hunting-grounds for ferns and other wild plants.
HOVA TOMBS
Perhaps more noticeable even than the old towns are the old tombs, as well as more modern ones, which meet one’s eye in the neighbourhood of every village. The Hova tombs are mostly constructed of rough stonework, undressed and laid without mortar; they are square in shape, from ten to twenty feet or more each way, and generally of two or three stages of three to four feet high, diminishing in size from the lowest. This superstructure surrounds and surmounts a chamber formed of massive slabs of bluish-grey granitic rock, partly sunk in the ground, and partly above it. In this chamber are stone shelves, on which the corpses, wrapped in a number of silk cloths or làmba, are laid. The tombs of wealthy people, as well as those of high rank, are often costly structures of dressed stonework, with cornices and carving; some are surmounted with an open arcade, and have stone shafts to carry lightning conductors. Within the last few years some large tombs have been made of burnt brick (externally), although no change is made in the ancient style of interior construction, with single stones for walls, roof, door and shelves. Near some villages are a large number of these great family tombs; and at one place, on the highroad from the present to the old capital, a long row of such tombs, from thirty to forty in all, may be seen. In many places a shapeless heap of stones, often overshadowed by a Fàno tree, resembling an acacia, marks a grave of the Vazìmba, the earlier inhabitants of the country. These are still regarded with superstitious dread and veneration by the people, and offerings of rice, sugar-cane and other food are often placed on them. The winter months are a favourite time for the native custom of famadìhana—that is, of wrapping the corpses of their deceased relatives in fresh silk cloths, as well as removing some of them to a new tomb as soon as this is finished. These are quite holiday occasions and times of feasting and, not infrequently, of much that is evil in the way of drinking and licentiousness.
CHAPTER IX
AUTUMN AND WINTER
OTHER noticeable objects when travelling about the central provinces are tall stones of rough undressed granite, from eight to twelve feet high, called Vàtolàhy (i.e. “Male stones”), which have been erected in memory of some bygone worthy, or of some notable event, now forgotten, and which often crown the top of prominent hills. They are also sometimes memorials of those who went away to the wars of olden times, and who never returned to their homes. In these cases a square of small stones—at least three sides of one—is formed as part of the memorial, as a kind of pseudo-tomb. These little enclosures are from eight to ten feet square. A wonderful variety of lichens is often to be seen on these tall stones—red, yellow, grey of many shades, black, and pure white embroidering the rough stone. Some have supposed, from the name of these memorials, that we have here a relic of phallic worship.
MARKETS
A very prominent feature of the social life of the Malagasy is the system of holding large open-air markets all over the central province on the various days of the week. The largest of these is naturally that held in the capital every Friday (Zomà), at which probably from twenty thousand to thirty thousand people are densely crowded together, and where almost everything grown or manufactured in the province can be purchased. But two or three of the other markets held within five or six miles of Antanànarìvo do not fall far short of the Zomà market in size, especially those at Asabòtsy (Saturday) to the north, and at Alàtsinainy (Monday) to the north-east. To a stranger these great markets present a very novel and interesting scene, and a good idea may be obtained as to what can be purchased here by taking a stroll through them and noticing their different sections. In one part are oxen and sheep, many of which are killed in the morning, while the meat is cut up and sold during the day; here are turkeys, geese, ducks and fowls by the hundred; here are great heaps of rice, both in the husk, and either partially cleaned, as “red rice,” or perfectly so, as “white rice”; here are piles of brown locusts, heaps of minute red shrimps, and baskets of snails, all used as “relishes” for the rice; here is màngahàzo, or manioc root, both cooked and raw, as well as sweet potatoes, earth-nuts, arum roots (saonjo) and many kinds of green vegetables, and also capsicums, chillies and ginger. In another quarter are the stalls for cottons and prints, sheetings and calicoes from Europe, as well as native-made cloths of hemp, rofìa fibre, cotton and silk; and not far away are basketfuls and piles of snowy or golden-coloured cocoons of native silk for weaving. Here is the ironmongery section, where good native-made nails, rough hinges, and locks and bolts, knives and scissors can be bought; and formerly were the sellers of the neat little scales of brass or iron, with their weights for weighing the “cut money,” which formed the small change of the Malagasy before foreign occupation. (The five-franc pieces were cut up in pieces of all shapes and sizes, so that buying and selling were very tedious matters.) Then we come to the vendors of the strong and cheap mats and baskets, made from the tough peel of the zozòro papyrus, and from various kinds of grass, often with graceful interwoven patterns. Yonder a small forest of upright pieces of wood points out the timber market, where beams and rafters, joists and boarding can be purchased, as well as bedsteads, chairs and doors. Not far distant from this is the place where large bundles of hèrana sedge, arranged in sheets or “leaves,” as the Malagasy call them, for roofing, can be bought; and near these again are the globular water-pots or sìny for fetching and for storing water. But it would occupy too much space to enumerate all the articles for sale in an Imèrina market. Before the French occupation it was not uncommon to see slaves exposed for sale, but happily that and slavery are now things of the past.