A LEGEND OF MADAGASCAR loi 



Tamatave for years ; we may conclude, perhaps, that the 

 French Consul did not know to whom it should be for- 

 warded — there was no English Consul. Probably Wilson 

 travelled on his own account ; certainly none of the great 

 orchid merchants employed him. He was young and inex- 

 perienced ; glad to attach himself, no doubt, to a big and 

 self-confident old hand like Leboeuf. 



Some weeks or months afterwards we find the pair at a 

 large village called Malela, which lies at the foot of Ambo- 

 himiangavo, apparently a well-known mountain. Ellis men- 

 tions it, I observe, but only by name, as the richest iron 

 district of the Central Provinces. They had had some 

 trouble on the way. Among the hints and instructions 

 which Crossley furnished, one in especial counselled Leboeuf 

 to abstain from shooting in the neighbourhood of houses. 

 Each tribe, he wrote, holds some living creature sacred — it 

 may be a beast or a bird, a reptile, or even an insect. 

 ' These must not be hurt within the territory of such tribe ; 

 the natives will readily inform you which they are. But, in 

 addition, each village commonly has its sacred creature, and 

 it will be highly dangerous to shoot until you have identified 

 the object. As you do not speak the language you had 

 very much better make it a rule not to shoot anything on 

 cultivated ground.' 



This was not a man to heed fantastic warnings, but he 

 learned prudence before they had gone too far into the wilds. 

 At a short distance from Tamatave, in a field of sugar-cane, 

 Leboeuf saw a beautiful bird, new to him, which had a tuft 

 of feathers on each side the beak — so Wilson described it. 

 He followed and secured the prize. The semi-civilised 

 natives with them paid no attention. But when, an hour 

 later, surrounded by the people of the village, he took out 

 his bird to skin, there was a sudden tumult. The women 

 and children ran away screaming, the men rushed for their 



