174 THE SIHANAKA 



valley or plain, for it is enclosed on each side by forest-covered 

 ranges of hills, is about thirty miles across ; it is perfectly level, 

 and the greater portion of it is marsh ; and at the north-eastern 

 corner of the marsh is a fine lake called Alaotra, which communi- 

 cates with the sea by the river Maningory. It seems probable 

 that the people came up from the coast by the valley of this 

 river, and then settled on the edges of the plain, as their villages 

 are most numerous around the north-eastern bay of the lake ; 

 while there is a large tract of fertile country to the south of 

 them which is almost entirely without inhabitants. The name 

 of the people is no doubt derived from the character of the 

 country they inhabit, for the verb mihdnaka means to spread 

 out as a liquid, as ink on blotting-paper, for instance. Handka 

 is also used as a synonym for the words meaning lake, pool, 

 etc. Until about the commencement of the past century the 

 Sihanaka were independent of any external authority, but at 

 that period they were conquered by the Hova, although not 

 without a severe struggle. After that they quietly submitted 

 to the central government, and until the French conquest (1895) 

 their two chief towns were garrisoned by Hova officers and 

 soldiers, as at the time of our visit. No European missionary 

 had then lived in Antsihanaka, and the congregations and 

 schools we saw, wherever we went, were largely the result of 

 the work of a Hova evangelist, who lived among the people for 

 two or three years. 1 



After two days' journey over high moory country, and then 

 over a range of mountains called Ambohitsitakatra, from which 

 we took a number of compass bearings, we arrived on a Friday 

 afternoon at the village of Anjozorobe (" At much papyrus "), 

 a place containing about seventy houses pretty closely packed 

 together within a circular fence of prickly pear and other spiny 

 shrubs. It was built on rising ground overlooking a level plain 

 to the north-west, evidently a former lake-bottom, through which 

 the river Mananara flows in a very serpentine course to join the 

 Betsiboka. We crossed the river, here about thirty yards wide, 

 with a strong body of water, by a bridge of two massive balks of 

 timber supported by a rough pier of stones in the centre, and 

 then ascended by a very steep path to the neat chapel, which 

 stood in a compound a little way from the village. We took 

 up our quarters in this clean whitewashed building ; and here 



