A MALAGASY VILLAGE 121 



being well floored with wood, and the walls covered with fine 

 mats. Similar houses might be seen at most of the chief towns 

 of Imerina ; but the house I have just described was the largest 

 and finest of any, not excepting those in the capital and at 

 Ambohimanga. Sad to say, except at these two places, where 

 two ancient timber houses at the first one, and one at the other, 

 are still preserved as a kind of curiosity, almost all these fine 

 structures have been demolished in order to get well-seasoned 

 timber for furniture and buildings. They have been superseded 

 by much less picturesque, but perhaps more comfortable as well 

 as cheaper, houses of sun-dried or burnt brick. 



There is no privacy or retirement about the houses in the 

 village, no back-yard or outbuildings, although occasionally 

 low walls make a kind of enclosure around some of them. 

 Here and there among the houses are square pits, four or five 

 feet deep, and eight or ten feet square, called fdhitra. These 

 are pens for the oxen, which are kept in them to be fattened, 

 formerly especially for the national festival of the New Year. 

 As may be supposed, these are very dirty places, and in the wet 

 season are often just pools of black mud ; indeed the village, 

 as a whole, is anything but neat and clean. All sorts of rubbish 

 and filth accumulate ; there are no sanitary arrangements ; 

 frequently the cattle used to be penned for the night in a part of 

 the village, and the cow-dung made it very muddy in wet 

 weather, and raised clouds of stifling dust when it was dry. 

 Frequently the cow-dung is collected and made into circular 

 cakes of six or eight inches diameter, which are then stuck on 

 the walls of the houses to dry. This is used as fuel for burning ; 

 and splitting off large slabs of gneiss rock, which are employed 

 by the people in making their tombs. 



In the centre of the village may often be seen the large 

 family tomb of the chief man of the place, the owner of much 

 of the land and many of the neighbouring rice-fields. If he is 

 an andriana, or of noble birth, the stonework is surmounted 

 by a small wooden house, with thatched or shingled roof, and a 

 door, but no window. This is called trdno mdsina, " sacred 

 house," or trdno mandra, " cold house," because it has no 

 hearth or fire. 



Seen from a distance, these Malagasy villages often look very 

 pretty and picturesque, for " distance lends enchantment to the 



