122 HOVA CHILDREN 



view." Round some of them tall trees, called dvidvy, a species of 

 ficus, grow, which are something like an English elm in appear- 

 ance. In others one or two great amontana trees may be seen ; 

 these are also a species of fig-tree, and have large and glossy 

 leaves. The amontana is evergreen, while the dvidvy is decidu- 

 ous. A beautiful tree, called zdhana, is also common, with 

 hundreds of pink flowers and sweetish fruit like a pea-pod. In 

 the fosses is often seen the amlana, a tall tree-nettle, with large 

 deeply cut and velvety leaves with stinging hairs. Many 

 kinds of shrubs often make the place gay with flowers, especially 

 in the hot season. 



But what are the Hova children like ? How are they dressed ? 

 And what do they play at ? They are brown-skinned, some 

 very light olive in colour, and some much darker. As a rule 

 they have little clothing ; perhaps some of the boys may have 

 a straw hat, but no shoes or stockings, and they are often dirty 

 and little cared for. On Sundays and on special occasions the 

 girls are often dressed in print frocks, and the boys in jackets of 

 similar material, and with a clean white calico Idmba overall ; 

 but on weekdays a small Idmba of soiled and coarse hemp cloth 

 often forms almost their only clothing. Of course the children 

 of well-to-do people are sometimes very nicely dressed, although 

 they too often go about in a rather dirty fashion. I am here, 

 however, speaking of the majority of the children one sees, 

 those of the poorer children of a village. 1 One day some of us 

 went for a ride to a village about two miles from Ambohimanga. 

 A number of children followed us about as we collected ferns 

 in a hddy, and, as a group of seven or eight of them sat near us, 

 we calculated that the value of all they had on would not amount 

 to one shilling ! 



Poor children ! they have little advantages compared with 

 English boys and girls, and they have few amusements. They 

 sometimes play at a game which is very like our " fox and 

 geese " ; the boys spin peg-tops and play at marbles ; the 

 little children make figures of oxen and birds, etc., out of clay ; 

 the boys are fond of a game resembling the lassoing of wild 

 oxen, by trying to catch their companions by throwing a noose 

 over them ; and the big boys have a rough and violent game 

 called mamely dia manga, in which they try to throw an opponent 

 down by kicking backward at each other, with the sole of the 



