VERTEBRATA FROM MADAGASCAR. 477 



river, and stopped at the little village of Begidro. Here with the aid 

 of the native inhabitants there was an organized hunt for a wild pig 

 for the Museum, and incidentallv for wild cattle for meat. The result 

 was one cow. Mr. Wulsin formed but a poor opinion of the efficiency 

 and ability of the natives of this immediate neighborhood. Indeed 

 one would judge that their imperfect contact with civilization had 

 resulted in producing specimens of humanity as nearly helpless as the 

 Fuegian, whom Darwin returned to his native heath. 



Continuing down stream, the expedition reached the Government 

 post of Berevo, on the Tsiribihina. Here Mr. Wulsin hired porters 

 and left the river. These porters were able to carry little, for it took 

 twenty-four men to carry what would have made twelve or thirteen 

 loads in East Africa. The Madagascan natives are said, however, 

 to be remarkable walkers, a good hammock crew is supposed to be 

 capable of from SO to 110 kilometres a day, for several days in suc- 

 cession. The Sakalava, the natives of this western watershed of the 

 island, are in general a big, well-built, good-looking people, not so black 

 as a negro, but dark chocolate, with features far nearer to our ideas 

 of beauty than those of the African. Both sexes do up their black, 

 crinkly hair in big loose balls. The men generally have pointed 

 beards and thin mustaches. The basic costume of the men is a loin- 

 cloth, and a sort of cloth-skirt. The women wear a graceful costume 

 which consists of a cloth wound around and hanging down from just 

 below the arms. This they keep in place with a solicitude not in 

 keeping with their poor reputation for virtue. The Sakalava, pure 

 and undefiled, is a savage. The Hova, is not seen pure and undefiled, 

 for white influence among them is old, and it is from the white man 

 that they have learned their present methods of life. Some of their 

 women are not only pretty but well-mannered and well-bred. Mr. 

 Wulsin considers them as far ahead of the Sakalava as the white man 

 is ahead of the Hova. 



The country to the southwest of Berevo was found to consist chiefly 

 of patches of forest, looking to the uninitiated like those of the Adiron- 

 dacks without evergreens. Interspersed with these forest patches 

 were stretches of open, rolling, stony ground, covered with long, coarse, 

 dry grass. A march of several days brought the party to the Moron- 

 dava River, at a point some two days' canoe-trip above the town of 

 that name. 



After some days spent in collecting in the neighborhood of Moron- 

 dava, Mr. Wulsin went by steamer with his Swahilis to Tulear, about 

 three degrees further south. Tulear is somewhat larger than Moron- 



