PECULIAR TOMBS 283 



much in one place, but remove their village to another spot 

 after getting a crop or two. This morning we lost the tra- 

 veller's tree, which does not grow at heights much above two 

 thousand feet above the sea ; and in the afternoon we also lost 

 sight of the graceful bamboo. 



The following morning brought us to steep ascents of nine 

 hundred and fifty feet, of four hundred and twenty, and then 

 of six hundred feet successively, the last bringing us to Ivdhi- 

 trambo (lofty town), well named, for it has a most elevated 

 situation and higher than a good deal of the interior table-land 

 to the west. I had noticed all the previous afternoon that on 

 the very summit of the highest ground to the north was a lofty 

 cone of rock. Perched upon this like an eagle's nest was part 

 of the village, the rest of the houses being a hundred and 

 forty feet lower. The summit was forty-seven hundred and 

 fifty feet above the sea ; we were now on the high land of 

 the interior and had come up twenty -four hundred and fifty 

 feet since we breakfasted. As may be supposed, the view was 

 most extensive ; the plains of North Betsile'o were not far 

 distant, and soon we came to the long bare rolling downs of 

 the central provinces. Uninteresting as these generally appear 

 after four or five months without rain, they looked home-like, and 

 the keen air seemed bracing and invigorating. We began to see 

 rice-fields again and the scattered round vdla of the Betsile'o. 

 We had got into the country of a different tribe of people, with 

 different houses, speech and customs. At the village where 

 we stopped for the night was a good timber house, with elabor- 

 ately carved central pillars, and we began to see again the 

 carved memorial posts, which had so much interested us on 

 our journey south. 



We noticed again the peculiar tombs of the Betsile'o ; these, 

 which consist of a large square of stones, are not, as in Imerina, 

 the real burial-places ; for the actual tomb is often twenty feet 

 below the ground, a stone chamber, to which access is gained by 

 a long inclined passage opening out at a distance of eighty or a 

 hundred feet from the tomb. 



And now, as we reached the oft-trodden route between 

 Antananarivo and Fianarants6a, this record may come to a 

 close. We arrived safely at the capital on 5th August, having 

 been away nearly eleven weeks, and having travelled by 



