202 A GRATIFYING CHANGE 



varied outline of hills and mountains in the far background to 

 west and north all lit up by bright sunshine made as charming 

 a picture as an artist could desire to transfer to canvas. But 

 we had little time to spare, and so after hastily taking bearings 

 we went to Marosalazana, the next village to the south, which 

 we could see on a high hill at three or four miles' distance. On 

 entering the village, a place with about sixty houses, we found 

 a crowd of about four hundred people waiting to receive us. 

 These were not all inhabitants of the place, for many of them had 

 come from Amb6hits6a to meet us. After a formal reception 

 by the authorities we found the school children assembled on an 

 open raised space in the centre of the village, a group of nearly 

 a hundred altogether, dressed in their best. Many of the girls 

 had a peculiar kind of collar to their dress, consisting of seven 

 or eight massive silver chains of different patterns ; they also 

 wore armlets of silver. Many of these children and young 

 people had most intelligent and pleasant faces. We heard them 

 read, and then I was delighted to find they knew the smaller 

 catechism well. I talked to them a little about it, and then 

 addressed a few words to the numbers of people crowded round 

 the children, speaking to them of the great love of God in sending 

 His Son. It was an interesting scene, and one we did not soon 

 forget : the bright intelligent group of children in the centre ; 

 the crowd of wondering Sihanaka on each side ; the little knots 

 of women in their dark blue dresses and silver ornaments ; and 

 the lovely scene around us all made a picture attractive in its 

 outward aspects, but still more interesting when one thought 

 of these people as seemingly prepared to welcome a fuller 

 teaching than they had yet received. 



The pleasant scene at this village, as well as what we had 

 witnessed at others, gave a cheering promise of what might be 

 expected were the people more thoroughly instructed. In a 

 short report supplied by Rabe, the native evangelist, he says 

 that when he first went to Antsihanaka, " only a person could 

 be found here and there who washed their clothes, for everyone's 

 dress was smeared with castor-oil, and they thought it would 

 spoil their clothes to wash them, as they would soon be worn 

 out ; so that the clothing of the people was offensive to the last 

 degree. For that reason the dark blue cotton was generally 

 worn, as it was nearly black to begin with. But now there is 



