376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



shoulders of four strong fellows, the traveler is master of his destiny. 

 The measured step of the porters, the resulting rhythmic movement, 

 hardly disturbed each minute by the interchange of the bushmen, are 

 not without charm and induce revery. 



In the plain, on a track well marked, the Malagasy loves to take a 

 sinuous course, but just as soon as the land changes, he uses nothing 

 but the straight path. It happens sometimes that one is almost erect 

 in the stirrups during steep descents, or the head is lower than the 

 feet on steep ascents. The inexperienced sufferer makes sad reflections 

 on certain proprieties, new to him, of the shortest way from one 

 point to another, but he soon reassures himself as he learns the skill, 

 the wonderful steadiness of tiis servants, and without fear trusts to 

 them, and feels himself carried at a bound over all obstacles. 



This mode of transportation is not slow, for it is possible to make 

 70 kilometers in a day, though about 50 kilometers is a good average, 

 and can be maintained for several weeks with the same men on con- 

 dition that some village be reached from time to time, when the 

 bushman may find fresh meat, a good night's lodging, and rest. 



The Malagasy porter is a big child, laughing, talkative, obliging, 

 temperate, easily contented, and from whom one can gain a great deal, 

 when he is treated in an equitable, kindly way, but with firmness. 



At the end of my four months of uninterrupted round in the bush, 

 I was alarmed about them only once. One morning, their humorous 

 stories, related as usual at the time of departure, were longer than 

 was customary. The stories were told in an animated dialogue 

 between two of the band, who repHed to each other in a tone growmg 

 sharper and sharper, and they became more and more excited by 

 the applause for some story well told, until the two chief actors 

 caught each other by the hair on some trifling pretext. I had to 

 mtervene to prevent a general fight. My cook, who was interpreter, 

 having stayed beliind, forced me to await his arrival to learn the real 

 cause of the conflict. The debate was in a way philosophical. The 

 question was whether it is best to be economical each evening with 

 one's wages or if it be not better to spend them as most of these 

 talkers had very certainly done the night before. 



It was in that equipage that I thoroughly explored the region of 

 precious stones, which forms a great rectangle about 200 kilometers 

 long from north to south and 60 or more wide from east to west.^ 



1 The principal centers are to the northwest of Antsirab^, the outskirts of Miandrarivo (Anipangab<5 in 

 particular); to the west of Antsirab^, the region situated to the west (Anjanaboana) and to the south of 

 Betafo (Tongafeno, Antsongombato, Zamalaza, etc.); to the south of Antsirab^, the valley of the Sahatany 

 and its vicinity; Sahanivotry, to the cast of Mount Bity, then more to the south on the other side of the 

 Manandona, a series of beds situated to the northwest and to the west of Ambositra and then still farther 

 south, the region of Ikalamavony (see vol. 4 of the "Min6ralogie de la France et ses colonies"). 



