232 ELABORATE CARVING 



(5) Still another kind was a great block of dressed granite, 

 with iron hooping round the top, in which were fixed a dozen or 

 more pairs of slender iron horns. 



All the way along the road to Ambohinamboarina we came 

 across different combinations of memorial posts, and of dressed 

 fine white granite in upright blocks, in many cases arranged in 

 couples, so that they were very conspicuous all over the 

 surrounding country. Before leaving the subject of ornamenta- 

 tion among the Betsileo, I may notice that the window shutters 

 of their houses, the wooden fixed bedstead looking more like 

 a cupboard than a sleeping-place and other portions of the 

 interior, are (or were) elaborately carved with the patterns 

 already mentioned and other designs. 2 



In the early part of June we left the Betsileo capital for the 

 south, intending if possible to make our way through the forest 

 to the south-east coast, and thence travel to Fort Dauphine, the 

 southernmost Hova military station. The route south from 

 Fianarants6a is for many miles through a valley between lofty 

 hills ; and there one gradually ascends to a point where the 

 valley ends, and at a place called Ivatoavo (" high rock ") one 

 gets a most extensive prospect, of a comparatively level plain 

 stretching away for many miles, and dotted all over with the 

 green ring-shaped vdla or homesteads of the Betsileo. This 

 plain is surrounded with the grandest and boldest mountains, 

 many of them rising sheer from the level in many hundred feet 

 of bare gneiss rock, and in the most picturesque outlines. To 

 the north-west one lofty spire of rock has a flat-topped head, 

 much resembling the Pieter Botha mountain in Mauritius. I 

 was afterwards told that it was formerly obligatory on a young 

 man wishing to marry a girl from the district that he should 

 carry his bride on his back to the summit of this rock, and bring 

 her down again. It appeared as if one might almost as well 

 attempt to scale a church spire ; but probably there are crevices 

 and hollows which would make such a feat not altogether 

 impossible. 



Our Sunday at a village on the plain was employed in our 

 usual way, preaching there, and visiting other places. After 

 speaking at a short service myself, I left my companion at mid- 

 day to go to T V'V A i I "il 1 i^ njtfflitfi fijT^^Hin-^Ttf 1 f r* nhflTf 

 the level ; but it really looked insignificant compared with the 



