[16] Subsequently, my friends, the late Rev. J. Pearse and his wife, lived and did a great work, both medical and religious, among the Sihànaka for several years; and after them, the late Rev. E. H. Stribling and other missionaries continued that work until 1895. For some years past Christian teaching has been carried on by Malagasy sent by the native missionary society.
OLD TINS
[17] It may be remarked here how ubiquitous are the disused tins in which various provisions made by English manufacturers are packed. We were amused during our tour by the evidence of this in different parts of Antsihànaka. It is usual in the Malagasy congregations for a small tin box to be fixed near the door of the church to receive money contributions and “the weekly offering.” We found that in some villages old jam tins were employed for this purpose; in others again sardine boxes were the favourite receptacle for the gifts of the congregation; while in yet other districts a military feeling was apparently the prominent one, for old powder flasks were suspended from the wall for the Sunday contributions.
CHAPTER XV
LAKE SCENERY
WE were up early on Monday morning, the doctor to prepare paper for photographs, Mr Pillans and I to survey. He and I walked up a rounded scarped hill, about a mile to the north-east of the town. This was the only place we had seen in the neighbourhood which showed this rude kind of fortress, so common on the hills of Imèrina and the Bétsiléo country. It was a dull cloudy morning, and we could not get any distant points, but took the bearings of a few neighbouring villages. But we were greatly interested to find that the hill had certainly been the centre of volcanic action, was, in fact, an extinct crater, for large masses of lava were scattered all over the hill, from the base to the summit. We afterwards found, as we proceeded on our journey round its north-western slopes, that the crater was on that side, and that from it a stream of molten rock had poured down, spreading over a considerable surface of ground. After bidding our good friends farewell, although they much wished to keep us longer, we left at nine o’clock, still going northward. We crossed over the head of the large bay of the plain formed by the long promontory, passed a little cluster of villages called Mòraràno, and then ascended the ridge of hills, coming out on some very high ground which forms the western boundary or shore of this part of the plain. From it we had an extensive view over the great level surface, and could see the whole length of the Alaotra lake from north to south. There was a fine variety of outline in the eastern line of hills and mountains, and towards the north end of the plain there was a great opening between the hills, showing the valley through which the Màningòry river runs from the lake to the sea. We soon left the high ground and came down to the plain, skirting its edge, generally on low hills, and occasionally crossing great arms of it running westward. Several of these were very boggy and difficult to cross, with the most complicated and impracticable bridges we had yet seen, even in Antsihànaka; some of them were in three stages, one a steepish ascent, the middle span on the level, and another going down again into water, not on to dry land, and none boasting more than a slippery round pole as roadway.
A CURIOUS CUSTOM
Our journey of six hours and three-quarters to-day was only broken by half-an-hour’s halt on a low hill to take observations; indeed there was no village, nor even a house, where we could have stayed, for we were travelling over a perfectly uninhabited country. After we left Mòraràno, about an hour north of Ampàrafàravòla, we saw not a single human habitation nor trace of cultivation, although there were numerous fertile and spacious valleys, until we arrived at Ambòhijànahàry. The only object we saw that gave any sign of man’s presence was a large herd of fine cattle. I was afterwards told of a curious custom formerly practised by the Sihànaka at the time of the circumcision. They used to choose one of the largest oxen to be found and sharpened his horns to a fine point; after two or three days’ continuous drinking, when they had got perfectly maddened with spirits and were ready for any foolhardy adventure, a party would rush out to attack this ox, but without any weapons. As the animal became infuriated, he of course defended himself by goring his enemies, many of whom he generally seriously hurt, and some occasionally killed outright, while the man who escaped without injury was considered as born under a lucky star, and was resorted to by numbers of people to give them charms to protect them from various kinds of calamity.
Soon after four o’clock we reached Ambòhijànahàry, a large village of about a hundred houses, on rising ground, and approached by a long narrow passage between dense thickets of prickly pear. It is a poor dirty place, and the chapel the smallest one we had yet seen in the district, being only twenty-two feet by sixteen wide. However, it was clean and neatly matted, and after stopping up a door and a window on the windward side we put up the tent as a canopy for sleeping under, as the gables were exceedingly well ventilated. Then came speeches, beef, etc., etc., and replies as usual, my oratorical efforts becoming very brief; my companions remarked that the flowery parts of my speeches in reply were gradually curtailed as we proceeded farther on our journey. To the north of the village is a lofty point, called Ankìtsika; it has a double cone-shaped outline—that is, a small cone upon a large truncated one—and is doubtless of volcanic origin. The word Ankìtsika means “at a cave,” and there is said to be a cave at the top, where, in former times, the people took refuge when their enemies, the Sàkalàva, made a raid upon them.
The village which we had now come to was “our farthest north,” for from here we began to turn our faces homewards; and as we had now seen the largest villages in the province, I may as well say something here about the Sihànaka, and their occupations and means of subsistence.