RICE-FIELDS 79 



an unrivalled one, in Madagascar at least, for its variety and 

 extent, as well as for the human interest of its different parts, 

 as shown by the large population, the great area of cultivated 

 land, the embanked rivers, and the streams and water-channels 

 for irrigation seen in every direction. 



SPRINGTIME : SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER. With the early 

 days of September we may usually say that springtime in 

 Imerina fairly sets in, and that the year in its natural aspects 

 properly commences. By a true instinct, arising doubtless 

 from long observation of the change of the seasons, the Malagasy 

 call this time Lohataona i.e. " the head, or beginning, of the 

 year " when nature seems to awake from the comparative 

 deadness of the cold and dry winter months, during which the 

 country has looked bare and uninviting, but now begins again to 

 give promise of fertility and verdure. The keen cold winds and 

 drizzly showers of the past few weeks give place to warmer air 

 and clearer skies, and although usually there is but little rain 

 during September, the deciduous trees begin to put forth their 

 leaves, and flower-buds appear as heralds of the fuller display 

 of vegetable life which will be seen after the fains have 

 fallen. 



The great rice-plain to the west of Antananarivo still looks, 

 during the early days of the Lohataona, bare and brown ; but, 

 if we examine the prospect more closely, we shall see that in 

 various places, where the plain borders the low rising grounds 

 on which the villages are built, there are bright patches of vivid 

 green. These are the ketsa grounds or smaller rice-fields, where 

 the rice is first sown thick and broadcast, and where it grows 

 for a month or two before being planted out in the larger fields, 

 which are divided from each other by a low bank of earth, a few 

 inches broad and only a foot or two in height. 



As the season advances, the people everywhere begin to be 

 busy digging up their rice-fields, both large and small, the clods 

 being piled up in heaps and rows in order to give the soil the 

 benefit of exposure to the sun and air. All this work is done by 

 the native long-handled and long and narrow bladed spade, 

 driven into the ground by the weight of the handle, as the 

 Malagasy wear no shoes and so could not drive down the spade 

 by the foot, in European fashion, while the plough is still an 

 unknown implement to them. The water-courses, by which 



