Then there was the elaborate system of rice cultivation, far surpassing anything that can be seen in Imèrina. This was noticeable after four days’ journey, but it appeared to be carried to the highest point of perfection in the wide valley south of Ambòsitra. Not only are the valleys and hollows terraced, as in Imèrina—the concave portions of the low hills and lower slopes of the high hills—but the convex portions also are stepped up like a gigantic staircase for a great height. It was a pleasant sight to see, speaking of industry and skill and practical knowledge of hydrostatics; for how water could be brought to some of the lower elevations surrounded by lower ground was more than we could discover. Many of these were terraced up to their highest point, the narrow lines of rice-plot running round them in concentric circles, so that there was not a square yard of ground left unproductive.
ORNAMENTAL TOMBS
The third particular in which the Bétsiléo country differs—although the past tense would be now more appropriate—from Imèrina is in the variety and ornamental character of the tombs and other memorials of the dead. Leaving out of consideration the modern stone tombs erected in the vicinity of the capital, it is a remarkable fact that there is no native Hova style of carving or ornamentation. Neither in their dwellings nor their tombs, neither in their household utensils nor their weapons, does there ever seem to have existed among the natives of Imèrina anything like indigenous art. But in Bétsiléo there is carving both in the houses and the tombs; the central posts of the former are elaborately ornamented, and also portions of the exterior woodwork; and the curious massive timber posts, with framework for holding the skulls and horns of bullocks killed at funerals, have a variety of decoration which is well worthy of study.
Hide-bearers Resting by the Roadside
Ambàtovòry rock and wood are in the distance
Bétsiléo Tombs with the Horns of Oxen Killed at the Funeral
The first thing that attracted my attention in travelling south, after four or five days’ journey, was that the upright stones placed near graves were not the rough undressed slabs common in Imèrina, but were finely dressed and squared and ornamented with carving. Coming after that to Ambòsitra, I first met with one of the memorial posts just mentioned. This was a piece of timber, seven or eight inches square and about ten feet high, with pieces of wood projecting from a little below the top, so as to form a kind of stage. Each face of the post was elaborately carved with different patterns arranged in squares. Some of these were concentric circles, a large one in the centre, with smaller ones filling up the angles; others had a circle with a number of little bosses on them; others had a kind of leaf ornament, and in others parallel lines were arranged in different directions. The narrow spaces dividing these squares from each other had in some cases an ornament like the Norman cheiron, and in others, something similar to the Greek wave-like scroll. The whole erection with its ornamentation bore a strong resemblance to the old runic stones, or the manorial crosses of Ireland and the Scottish highlands.
A day or two’s journey farther south brought us to a tract of country where there was a profusion of carved memorials scattered along the roadside, and in all directions visible on either hand. And on reaching a rounded green hill west of the road, the old and deserted village of Ikangàra, we saw that there was a large number of tombs and memorial posts close together, so we went to inspect them more minutely. Within a short distance were some forty or fifty tombs, and on further examination there appeared to be at least half-a-dozen different kinds:
(1) The largest tombs—there were two of them—were of small flat stones, built in a square of some twenty to twenty-five feet, and about five feet high. But all around them was a railing of posts and rails, all elaborately carved with the patterns just described.