The articles sold form an excellent index of the degree of civilisation which has been reached by the people. There is a loose classification of them to be found in various divisions of the market. Firewood is brought in large quantities from the forest: but it is not large wood, it is mostly brush. Huge piles of hérena also are close by, a broad-leafed papyrus, most useful for thatching: beams, boards, poles and door-posts are brought in considerable quantities: they are prepared in the forest solely by the hatchet: a noble tree makes but one board, which sells for half-a-crown; and the waste in preparing it is enormous. The principal meat sold is beef, of which there is abundance throughout the island. Good mutton also may be had, of the fat-tailed sheep; and plenty of pork, which I do not recommend. The sheep are tied together by their legs. Turkeys, ducks, geese and fowls appear in large quantities. Rice abounds, of several kinds; and is sold both cleaned and in the husk. Potatoes are provided more for the English families than for the natives generally; and with green peas, are usually brought to their houses. Yams and sweet potatoes are abundant; and also Indian corn. Green vegetables are not common; some twelve or fifteen kinds are known and eaten by the people: but they do not form so decided an element in their food as in England. Rice is all in all to the Malagasy. There is a good supply of fruit in the market; the bananas, large and small, are good: pine-apples are abundant, good and bad; also green lemons, large, red tomatoes, mulberries, wild peaches, and a little round fruit, the Cape gooseberry. There is plenty of honey: also of tobacco, of native growth. The tobacco is sold in leaf, stalk and powder: with little snuff-mulls made from bamboo; and the people do not smoke, nor smell, but suck and eat it!
All varieties of the common native lamba appear on the stalls; whether made from cotton or from the palm-fibre; with English chintzes, printed cottons, calicoes and long-cloth: and in wearing imported dresses the natives seem to consider as an ornament the name of the English manufacturer or merchant stamped on the cloth in large blue letters. Lambas with striped borders are favourites with the natives: but there is a fashion in these things, and the fashion changes in Antanánarivo, as well as in Paris. Fine straw hats are common: they are worn by the Hovas with a broad black velvet band, and make a handsome headdress. Flimsy umbrellas with double cover, through which the sun shines powerfully, are numerous and cheap. Good mats also may be purchased, as well as coarse and common mats. Silk lambas are not exposed for sale in the market, for solid reasons: but baskets of cocoons, both yellow and white, may always be seen: they are small in size. Hanks and skeins of the silk are common, white, yellow and brown.
There is a good supply of iron work in the market: but it is rough and coarse. Heavy spades; nails of various sizes; hinges, locks, pincers and tweezers, hatchets, choppers, hammers and trowels, are sold in abundance, all of native work. Many articles of a superior kind, saws, hatchets, padlocks, hinges and the like, are English. Of native crockery and glass there is nothing: it is all English: and the English houses that import it seem to think that flaming patterns suit the native taste. A great deal of crockery is gradually being introduced among the people, who find dishes, bowls, plates and cups exceedingly useful. A bottle is much prized in Madagascar, as in India. The native pottery is very poor: it is ill-burnt and very brittle. Still water pitchers, jars, plates and saucers (both red and black) are brought to the market in large quantities. The potter’s wheel is not known in Madagascar, as it is in India; where excellent tiles are made on it, as well as vessels of many kinds. There is good tin ware in the market: cups, water-scoops, and blue boxes with round and flat lids. Neat wooden boxes also are sold; but they are heavy. There was one stall in the market, for lozenges and tea: and a Christian schoolmaster had one, for the sale of slates, books, pencils, steel pens, note-books and paper. Lastly there were always for sale a few slaves.
Many things that may now be purchased in the city are not brought to the market at all. Good boots and shoes are increasing in numbers: and the natives work them neatly: but the sole-leather is poor and ill tanned. House furniture on English patterns can be made to order: sideboards, wardrobes, tables and chairs, can be purchased at moderate rates. The native carpenters also produce all the fittings of schools and churches, window frames, and Venetian shutters, and doors and flooring for houses.
To me the prices of all these things were an object of constant amusement; they were so low. A lady would tell her cook to bring home from the market six-pennyworth of sirloin; and receive some five lbs. of beef as the result. I once sent into the Capital a bushel and a half of potatoes for which I paid a shilling. Common pine-apples came into the market, five hundred for a dollar, that is ten for a penny: beautiful pine-apples were a penny each: a large dishful of good mangoes cost twopence. Beams and rafters, four inches by six, and twelve feet long, would cost from sevenpence to tenpence each. We used to get forty eggs for a shilling in the city: in the country they had a fancy price and were a penny each. A large turkey cost a shilling: a fat fowl, twopence. Wages are of course low in a country like this: they are lower even than in India: but food is also much cheaper. In one district we found that sixty lbs. weight of maize was sold for threepence: rice was equally cheap and plentiful. With improvements, expenses are increasing, and prices are slowly rising: security, honesty, diligence properly demand higher wages; and they furnish in abundance those increased resources by which such wages are paid.
With increase of civilisation, production and sales there has naturally arisen an increased demand for money. The Malagasy have no coin of their own: and the want is supplied by a constant importation of French silver. The only coin which passes current with the people is the five-franc piece, which has the value of a dollar, i.e. four shillings. The whole piece represents what is a large sum to a Malagasy. To provide therefore for small payments the dollars are cut into halves, quarters, eighths, and smaller pieces. Some men can get six hundred pieces out of a dollar, each piece having a portion of the stamp on it. This broken money is sold or paid by weight: and every household, English or native, has its little weights and scales for the purpose. Coins of the Malagasy government, both silver and copper, of various values, will be a great improvement on this inconvenient system. But it will take time to introduce them. I learned in India that on no subject are natives so sensitive as on that of coined money.
The European community live principally in the northern parts of the city: a goodly number reside near the earliest seat of the mission in Análakély: a large group again occupy the upper part of the Faravohitra hill, among whom the Friends are conspicuous. Three of the public roads were in constant use amongst us, as they united the various houses and settlements together. The road along the top of Faravohitra going south climbs a steep part of the city-hill and terminates in the Andohalo plain. Close by its termination a road runs westward: it passes the Girls’ Central School, the Normal School and the London Society’s Press: then turns down the hill at the head of the Analakely valley, and passes the Norwegian Church to Ambátonakanga. Turning north under the walls of the Memorial Church there, it descends into Analakely, then keeps up the side of the Faravohitra hill, until it joins the first of the roads at the north end of that hill. I was anxious to see these three roads well paved: to see them made a model of what the city roads and paths should be. But difficulties were suggested and it was thought that the expense would be heavy. Nevertheless a good beginning would have been worth something; and I yet hope to hear that the project will be carried out. At present all the city roads are in a bad way, even at their best. At Ankadibevava, the road which enters the city on the east has a yawning gulf at its side, which would not only swallow one Curtius and his steed, but would bury a dozen enterprising young Malagasy similarly mounted. A strong stream of water from open drains pours into this gully, which year by year is growing deeper. The heavy torrents of rain which fall in a single thunderstorm cut up the ground badly wherever they are permitted to run uncontrolled. And it is because so little is done both to check them in their fall, and to repair the damage when once produced, that the city roads are in such an uncivilised condition. If once put right, they must also by constant care be kept right. But the need of that care is no reason why they should not be repaired at all.
In moving about during the day my Indian experience led me to be careful of exposure to the sun. I wore a light woollen dress: my Indian helmet of pith proved most useful; and I carried a large double umbrella. We had all to guard against the morning mists and the strong east winds: and there was a constant tendency to get chilled by changes of temperature in the pure, thin air. Such chills, I found, were far more frequently the cause of fever in our native bearers, than anything else. We walked as much as we could without suffering fatigue: or were carried by four men, in the usual filanzan; which is the back and seat of a chair hung on to a pair of well-fitted poles. We observed with interest that after sunset the streets of the city are completely deserted by the natives: and in moving about we always carried lanterns.
THE QUEEN’S RESIDENCE.