234 AN AWKWARD CROSSING 



heard in the outskirts of the woods. The grey species (Cora- 

 copsis obscurd), which is the larger of the two, is fddy or sacred 

 with the chiefs of the Vezo Sakalava, as they say that one of 

 their ancestors was saved from death by hearing the shrill 

 piercing cries of a flock of these birds. The black species 

 (Coracopsis nigra) is about a third less in size. Both kinds are 

 more terrestrial and less arboreal in their habits than most 

 parrots, nor do they make much use of their claws to convey 

 food to the mouth. 



The following day, passing over a river close by Ambdhi- 

 mandrdso, we had a most awkward bridge to cross. The native 

 engineer had made it in two spans, not, however, in a straight 

 line, but forming almost a right angle with each other. There 

 were two or three massive balks of timber ; but as these were 

 not on a level, and some had slipped down three or four feet, 

 the passage over was neither easy nor pleasant. Many of our 

 bearers hesitated a good deal, as the bridge was sixteen to 

 eighteen feet above the water, which roared like a mill-race 

 between the rough pier and the river banks. 



All about this neighbourhood we noticed great numbers of 

 ant-hills, of a much larger size than any we had seen elsewhere. 

 They are conical mounds of a yard or so high, and are made by 

 a white or yellowish ant, the one spoken of in a well-known Mala- 

 gasy nursery tale. Breaking off a piece of one of the mounds, 

 the ants could be seen in a state of great excitement, running 

 in and out of the circular galleries which traverse their city. 

 There are vast numbers of these ants in one ant-hill ; they have 

 a queen, who is nearly an inch long, while her subjects are not 

 half that size. A serpent is said to live in many of these ant- 

 nests, and the people maintain that it is eventually eaten by the 

 inhabitants. " 



Between the point we had now reached and the sea is a great 

 wooded and rounded mountain which we could see about 

 twenty miles away, and which we found was the celebrated 

 Ambondrombe, the Malagasy Hades, in which they believed 

 that the souls of their ancestors had their abode. There are 

 said to be large caves in the mountain, and it is regarded with 

 much superstitious fear by the people. The mountain looked 

 dark and gloomy, and has a very regularly curved outline from 

 north to south, looking like the segment of an immense circle. 



