Tanàla Girls Singing and Clapping Hands
During our stay at Ivòhitròsa we were surprised and delighted with the brightness and intelligence of many of the native boys. Although the dialectic differences of the Tanàla speech are many as compared with the Hova form of Malagasy, we obtained a large vocabulary from them as well as names of the forest birds and animals, and also those of trees and fruits. And as these forests and their vicinity are the home of several of the lemurs which have not yet been noticed in these pages, I will here give some particulars of four or five species.
The ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) is perhaps the best known of all the lemuridæ, from its handsomely marked tail, which is ringed with black and white bands, thus clearly distinguishing it from all the other species of the sub-order. And while almost every other lemur is arboreal, this species lives among the rocks, over which they can easily travel, but can be only followed with great difficulty. The palms of their hands are long, smooth and leather-like, and so enable these animals to find a firm footing on the slippery wet rocks. The thumbs on the hinder hands are very much smaller than those of the forest-inhabiting lemurs, as they do not need them for grasping the branches of trees. Their winter food is chiefly the fruit of the prickly pear; while in summer they subsist chiefly on wild figs and bananas. This species bears a sea voyage fairly well, so that they are often seen in Mauritius and Réunion, and even more distant places.
Another species of lemur, which inhabits the south-eastern forests, is the broad-nosed gentle lemur (Hapalemur simus). This animal is found among the bamboos, and it appears to subsist in a great measure on the young shoots of that plant. For biting and mincing up the stalks its teeth seem admirably adapted, as they are nearly all serrated cutting teeth, and are arranged so as mutually to intersect. It eats almost all the day long, and has a curious dislike of fruit. It is furnished with a remarkably broad pad on each of the hinder thumbs, so that it is able to grasp firmly even the smallest surfaces.
MOUSE-LEMURS
Perhaps the most beautiful and interesting—as well as the smallest—lemuriæ animals inhabiting Madagascar belong to the group called Cheirogale, or mouse-lemurs, of which there are seven species. As their name implies, they are very small, the dwarf species (Cheirogaleus minor) being only four inches long, with a tail of six inches. This pretty little animal is remarkable also for its large and very resplendent eyes, for the eye admits so much light at dusk that quite an unusual brilliancy is produced. The brown mouse-lemur ( Cheirogaleus major) is larger than the last-named species, being seven or eight inches long. Most, if not all, of the species live in the highest trees, and make a globular nest of twigs and leaves; they all appear to be nocturnal animals, as one might suppose from the structure of their eyes. The smallest, or dwarf, species, is said to be very shy and wild, very quarrelsome and fights very fiercely. Some of these little animals, if not all of them, have a time of summer sleep; and the tail, which is grossly fat at the beginning of that period, becomes excessively thin at its close, its fat being slowly absorbed to maintain vitality. The two (or three) species of mouse-lemur here noticed inhabit the south-eastern forest region; others appear to be confined to the north-western woods.
[26] A writer in a defunct newspaper, The Madagascar Times, of 10th August 1889, describes in so true and graphic a fashion the old style of Malagasy filanjàna bearers, in the following rhymes, that I think they are well worth preserving in these pages:—
Bearing their burdens cheerily, laughing the livelong day,
Pacing o’er dale and mountain, wending their toilsome way;