CHAPTER VI 



THE CHANGING MONTHS IN IMERINA : CLIMATE, VEGETATION AND 

 LIVING CREATURES OF THE INTERIOR 



MY object in these chapters is to describe, as vividly as 

 I am able, the varied aspects of the different months 

 throughout the year in this central province of Imerina, 

 as they present themselves to anyone who lives in the capital 

 city of Antananarivo, and is frequently travelling in the country 

 around it. I want to show the variety of nature during the 

 changing seasons, as the result of the heat or cold, and of 

 the moisture or drought of the climate. And it must be 

 remembered that although this central province of Madagascar 

 is by several degrees well within the tropics, our climate for 

 some months of the year is by no means the " tropical " 

 one supposed in our ordinary English use of that word. On 

 these interior highlands, from three to five thousand feet 

 above the sea-level, the south-easterly winds blow from June 

 to August with a keenness and force which it needs thick 

 clothing to withstand, and makes a wood fire during the 

 long evenings a very pleasant addition to the comforts of 

 home life. 



The seasons in the central regions of the island are practically 

 only two : the hot and rainy period, from the beginning of 

 November to the end of April ; and the cool and dry period, 

 during the other months, from May to October. The Malagasy 

 are, however, accustomed to speak of four seasons of their year 

 viz. the Ldhataona i.e. " head of the year " during September 

 and October, when the planting of the early rice is going on, 

 and a few showers give promise of the coming rains ; the Faha- 

 vdratra i.e. " thunder-time " when severe storms of thunder 

 and lightning are frequent, with heavy downpours of rain, from 

 the early part of November to the end of February or into 

 March ; the Fdrardno i.e. " last rains " from the beginning 

 of March and through April; and lastly, the Rinmina i.e. 



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