THE ZAHITRA 247 



be done in our tent, which was crammed full, and in our 

 house. 1 



That there was great need for enlightenment may be seen 

 from what we heard from the people themselves viz. that 

 there are (or were) eight unlucky days in every month, and 

 that children born on those days were killed by their being 

 held with their faces immersed in water in the winnowing-fan. 

 So that on an average, more than a quarter of the children 

 born were destroyed ! The Tanala names for the months are 

 all different from those used in Imerina ; they have no names 

 for the weekdays, and indeed no division of time by sevens, 

 but the days throughout each month (lunar) are known by 

 twelve names, some applied to two days and others to three days 

 consecutively, and these day names are nearly all identical 

 with the Hova names for the months. Each of the days 

 throughout the month has its fddy, or food which must not 

 be eaten when travelling on that day. 



After our four days' stay at Ivohitr6sa, we managed to get 

 on our way towards the coast, not, however, without having 

 considerable difficulty with our bearers, who were afraid of 

 any new and hitherto untried route, for we were the first 

 Europeans to travel in this direction. By tact and firmness 

 we managed to secure our point ; and on the Thursday after- 

 noon we came down to the river Matitanana, which is at this 

 point a very fine broad stream, with a rapid and deep current. 

 It flows here through a nearly straight valley for four or five 

 miles in a southerly direction, with low bamboo-covered hills 

 on either side, and its channel much broken by rocky islands. 

 To cross this stream, about a hundred yards wide at this place, 

 no canoes were available, but there was a bamboo raft called a 

 zdhitra. 



Of all the rude, primitive and ramshackle contrivances ever 

 invented for water carriage, commend me to a zdhitra. This 

 one consisted of about thirty or forty pieces of bamboo, from 

 ten to twelve feet long, lashed together by bands of some tough 

 creeper or vdhy, which said bamboos were constantly slipping 

 out of their places and needed trimming at every trip, and the 

 fastenings had to be refixed. The zdhitra would take only two 

 boxes and one man at a trip, besides the captain of the raft, 

 and when loaded was from a third to a half of it under water, 



