STONE GATEWAYS 119 



French authorities have obliged them to leave the old sites and 

 build their houses, with plenty of space round each, on the sides 

 of the newly made roads. But a good number of the old style of 

 village still remain, and it is these I want to describe. They 

 mostly have deep fosses, cut in the hard red soil, surrounding 

 them, about twenty to thirty feet across, and as many feet deep, 

 sometimes still deeper ; and before guns and cannons were 

 brought into the country they must have formed very effective 

 defences against an enemy, especially as there is often a double 

 or even treble series of them. The gateways, sometimes three 

 deep, are formed of stone, often in large slabs, and instead of a 

 gate a great circular stone, eight or ten feet in diameter, was 

 rolled across the opening and was fitted into rough grooves on 

 either side, and wedged up with other stones inside the gate. 

 I have slept in villages where it was necessary to call several 

 men before one could leave in the morning, until they had 

 answered our inquiry : " Who shall roll us away the stone ? " 

 In these fosses, which are of course always damp, with good 

 soil, ferns and wild plants grow luxuriantly ; and the bottom 

 forms a plantation in which peach, banana, guava and other 

 fruit trees are cultivated, as well as coffee, arums and a variety 

 of vegetables. Tall trees often grow there, so that these hady 

 or fosses are often the prettiest feature of the village. It must 

 be added that the paths between and leading to the gateways 

 are often winding, and formed by a thick mass of prickly 

 plants. 



In some parts of the central provinces the villages have no 

 deep trenches round them, but they are protected by a dense 

 and wide plantation of prickly pear. The thick, fleshy, twisted 

 stems, the gaily tinted flowers, and even the fruits, are all 

 armed with spines and stinging hairs ; and it is no easy matter 

 to get rid of the minute little needles, if they once get into one's 

 skin. So one sees that a thick hedge of prickly pear was a very 

 effectual defence against enemies, especially since the people 

 wore no shoes or any protection for legs and feet. In many 

 places, instead of prickly pear, the fence round the village is 

 made of tsiajakomby (" impassable by cattle "), a shrub with 

 bright yellow flowers and full of hook-like prickles. In some 

 cases, instead of a door at the gateway, a number of short poles 

 are hung from a cross-piece at the top, which passes through 



