Anàlamazàotra a Village in the Great Forest
Cattle pens and characteristic forest trees are shown
FOREST DWELLERS
Someone may perhaps ask: Where are the people of these woods? In the upper belt of forest there are few inhabitants except woodcutters, and in small hamlets on the side of the main tracks passing through it; but farther south, where the two lines unite, we shall find, as we travel past the Bétsiléo province and east of it, a considerable number of people, who are loosely called “Tanàla,” which simply means “forest-dwellers,” and of these there are many subdivisions. There are vague and uncertain accounts given by the Malagasy of a tribe of people whom they call Béhòsy, and who are said to live in a wooded country in the west of the island. Their food is honey, eels and lemurs, which latter are caught in traps and fattened. They are very dark in colour and are much like the Sàkalàva in appearance, and are said to jump from tree to tree like monkeys, and cannot easily be followed, as the country is rocky. They make network of cords, hence their name (hòsy, string, twine). They are extremely timid, and, if captured, die of fright. These Béhòsy seem to resemble in some of their habits the “monkey-men” of Dourga Strait, New Guinea; but it is much to be wished that more definite information could be obtained about them, for, if what we hear of them is correct, they are probably of a different stock to the rest of the inhabitants of Madagascar.
An apparently well-authenticated account was given by a Mauritius trader of a wild man of the woods having been caught by some Malagasy in the year 1879. He was asleep on the branch of a tree, and when taken resisted violently, biting his captors severely; after a few days’ confinement, however, he ceased to be aggressive. He was described as a powerfully built man, his face and body being thickly covered with long black hair. His mode of walking was very peculiar, as he travelled very fast, occasionally going on all-fours, his eyes being invariably fixed on the ground. When caught he was perfectly nude, but wore clothes when provided with them. He could never be induced to eat flesh, but lived entirely on manioc and other roots; nor would he sleep in a recumbent position. After some months he learned a few words, and by means of these and signs it was understood that he had a father and two brothers in the forest. These were found, and surrounded by a search-party one night, but easily eluded their pursuers, jumping from tree to tree and running on all-fours. The captured man died five months after being taken (see Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc., May 1889).
CYCLONES
The central part of the Indian Ocean is well known as the region of cyclones, and these dreaded storms often include in their revolving course the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, and occasionally touch the eastern shores of Madagascar. A notable example of this was the cyclone of November 1912, which stranded the S.S. Salazie, and wrecked Diego-Suarez and many villages in the north of the island. It is very seldom, however, that these storms reach the interior; but in the month of February 1876 a cyclone did ascend to the upper region of the island and did considerable damage. With my wife and children I was staying for a holiday at that time at Andràngalòaka, a small village on the edge of the upper forest, but five or six miles south of Ankèramadìnika, where our good friend, Dr A. Davidson, had a country house, which he often placed at the disposal of ourselves and other friends; and never shall we forget the experiences of that night of peril.
It was a Sunday evening and the sun set with a radiance which covered the whole sky with a crimson glow, in a very remarkable manner. We settled down after our evening meal for a little reading aloud, but the wind rose rapidly, and after a time the roar was so great that we could not go on. We found that its violence increased, and at length we perceived that it was slowly changing in its direction. We went to bed, but not to sleep, for the rain poured in from the roof, and the howl of the wind made sleep impossible. We lay trembling on our beds, fearing every now and then, as a more violent burst shook the house, that it would be blown down over us, and we buried in its ruins. Such would have been the case, I believe, had not the gables been built of burnt brick and strengthened by the chimney-stacks. During the night the metal roofing of the verandah was torn off with a fearful clatter, and soon after dawn—and how long that dawn seemed in coming!—the outer roof of the house, which was of grass, fixed over the tiled roof, was bodily seized by the wind and carried off altogether with its timbers, with a great crash, and then we thought the house itself was all going. But towards nine A.M. the wind gradually subsided, after having blown from about three-quarters of the circle of the compass.
Scores of country chapels as well as houses were unroofed and greatly damaged by this storm. A day or two after it we tried to take one of our usual walks through the woods, but the paths were almost obliterated by fallen trees and branches. In the valleys scores of great trees had been torn up by the roots, with masses of soil clinging to them; in other places they had been broken off short, snapped as if they had been mere twigs; and in the prostrate branches were numbers of arboreal creatures—chameleons, lizards, serpents and tree-frogs—dashed down from their homes. It was all striking evidence of the force with which the fierce wind had roared, especially up the valleys, and had laid low everything in its path.
[13] For most of the information here given about the Madagascar bee, I am again indebted to the Rev. C. P. Cory, formerly of the Anglican Mission in Madagascar.