288 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
existed, and the animal has managed to adapt itself to changed 
conditions. 
After a month of bliss in my palm-leaf hut I returned to 
Ambovombe and thence to Tsihombe, about forty miles farther 
west. This district is even more arid than the eastern side of the 
Androy country, the vegetation being very stunted in growth. 
The landscape is dominated by a few dwarf baobabs, some only 
twelve to fourteen feet high, the rest being made up of low bushes 
—leafless in the dry season—and some stunted euphorbias. 
In this district there are several large depressions, now dry, 
which according to native legend formerly formed a chain of 
lakes in which hippopotamuses abounded. This was not so long 
ago, for many of the older Antandroy maintain that their grand- 
fathers spoke of these animals in the live state. The story goes 
that the Manombovo River at that time had no outlet to the sea, 
but terminated in a series of lakes. After a big storm the flood 
waters of the river made an outlet to the sea, and so the lake 
dried up, causing the death of all the hippopotamuses. Now one 
frequently comes across their sub-fossil remains in these depres- 
sions. 
The river never flows in the dry season, and during my visit 
the Antandroy women were getting water from holes dug quite 
four feet deep in the sandy river-bed. 
The extinct giant aepyornis formerly roamed this district and I 
was shown a perfect egg showing no signs of age. It weighed 
eighteen pounds! 
Going from the extreme south to Tananarive, a distance of 
over six hundred miles, one can observe what we call the progress 
of the human race. At the southern end are the nomadic An- 
tandroy, contemptuously called pagans by most Europeans, with 
healthy bodies and a ready smile; then as we advance north we 
come to the Baras, who are not nomadic and who have not been 
greatly influenced by civilization except in the few towns; then 
come the Betsileos, who are very christianized and have lost most 
of their old tribal customs; and finally in Tananarive the Hovas, 
formerly the ruling tribe, who hold high administrative posts and 
wear morning jackets and striped trousers to work. These people 
