SIHANAKA MATS 185 



places was a kind of snare for taking them on the wing, consist- 

 ing of several stout bamboos fixed in the ground a few feet apart, 

 with cords stretched between them, and loops of string sus- 

 pended from these cords. We were only able to stay a short 

 tune at the village, and then pushed on, crossing the level 

 ground at the southern extremity of the Antsihanaka plain and 

 coming at sunset to Ambddinonoka, a good-sized village on 

 its western edge. Here we had reached our farthest south in 

 our journey round the province. 



We have just seen the interior of a Sihanaka house, and 

 we ought to have noticed the fine and strong mats with which 

 they are furnished. From the immense extent of marsh, the 

 material for making these is very abundant, and all women can 

 make them ; so no Sihanaka buys a mat, for they think that a 

 disgrace. Of the zozoro outer peel, or skin, the very long mats 

 called the Queen's are made, which are from eighteen feet to 

 twenty-four feet long. The houses of many people here are 

 clean and neat from the abundance of such mats. The largest 

 kind of zozoro, called tery, is as strong as wood, and the firm 

 triangular stems are used for the walls of the houses. 



We were off early on Saturday morning, for, as we wished to 

 get to the second town in size, Amparafaravola, for Sunday, we 

 had a long day's journey northward of nine or ten hours before 

 us. We were now skirting the western edge of the great level, 

 now and then crossing patches of swamp, and then following 

 the windings of a small river, which we had at last to cross by 

 canoes. The whole country appeared to abound with wild 

 birds of different kinds herons, black and white storks, wild 

 geese, wild ducks, partridges and many others. The fen 

 country of the eastern midland counties of England, before the 

 great drainage works were carried out and the waters led off to 

 the sea, must have been very much like this Antsihanaka plain, 

 which is certainly a paradise for sportsmen. There are said to 

 be no fewer than thirty-four species of aquatic birds found on 

 the Alaotra lake and in the surrounding marshy country. In 

 the little museum at the L.M.S. College at Antananarivo we 

 have, among other Malagasy birds' eggs, a number from 

 Antsihanaka, chiefly of water-fowl ; most of these are white, 

 showing probably that they are well protected and so have no 

 need of imitative colouring. 



