106 ARTICLES OF FOOD 



the young plants ; the planting, by the women, of these again in 

 the soft mud of the rice-fields ; the bringing of water, often from 

 a long distance, to the fields, and the repairing of the water- 

 courses ; the weeding of the rice-fields ; and, finally, the cutting, 

 the threshing, the bringing home, and the drying and storing 

 of the rice all this bulks largely in their daily life through a 

 good deal of the year. Rice is the staff of life to the Malagasy, 

 and they cannot understand how Europeans can make a proper 

 meal without it. Mihinam-bdry, " to eat rice," is the native 

 equivalent for the Eastern phrase, " to eat bread " ; they eat 

 other things of course manioc root, a little meat or fish, and 

 various vegetables, but these are only laoka or accompaniments 

 to the staple food. 



The Malagasy have a saying, when speaking of things which 

 are inseparable, that they are " like rice and water." And 

 when we remember that rice is sown on water, that it is trans- 

 planted in water, that it grows still in water, that it is reaped in 

 water, that it is usually carried by water, in canoes, that it is 

 boiled in water, and that water is generally the only beverage 

 with which it is eaten, it will be seen that there is much force 

 in the comparison. 



Besides the above-mentioned additions to rice, the people 

 eat as a relish with it other things, many of them very repulsive 

 to our European notions for instance, snails, locusts, certain 

 kinds of caterpillars, moths, and even, so it is said, some species 

 of spiders ! But I never realised so distinctly what queer 

 things they will eat as when taking a ride one afternoon to the 

 north of Ambohimanga. Passing along one of the long rice- 

 valleys, we saw some girls dredging for fish in the shallow 

 water ; and thinking we might perhaps buy some to take home, 

 we called to them to bring the basket for us to see. They 

 immediately complied, but, on inspecting the contents, we 

 found no fish, but a heap of brown, crawling, wriggling, slimy 

 creatures, really very disgusting in appearance, considered as 

 possible articles of food. This mass of creeping animal life 

 consisted of shrimps, water-beetles, tadpoles, and the larvae of 

 many kind of insects. It is needless to say that we did not make 

 a purchase of these tempting delicacies; but I believe they 

 would all go into the pot in some Malagasy house that evening 

 and give a relish to the rice of some of our native friends. 



