AN UNSAVOURY CAMPING PLACE 287 



or rather sandal market, with scores of pairs of rough bullock- 

 hide sandals for sale. I noticed also that everyone we passed 

 carried a pair fastened to his or her burdens. Although we had 

 to go up and, of course, down again, a long ascent, the route 

 was less difficult and fatiguing than are those we often traversed 

 in Imerina, and far less so than the roads to the eastern coast 

 through the forest. The increasing temperature told us that 

 we were getting to a lower level ; indeed all the western side of 

 Madagascar is hotter than the eastern side, as it is deprived of 

 the cool south-east trade-wind from the Indian Ocean. At the 

 village where we stopped for the night, all the dwelling-houses 

 were made of the gigantic bamboo-like grass called bdrardta, 

 although the school church which served us for a lodging was of 

 clay. The place had a double entrance gateway, one of them 

 being a low narrow tunnel ; and like most of these villages had 

 a great quantity of cattle brought into it, for security every 

 evening. In consequence, the whole place was covered with 

 a foot or two of manure ; and it was here that our friend, Mr 

 Grainge, stopping for the night the previous year, had an 

 experience which I will give in his own words. 



" On entering," he says, " we raised a considerable amount of 

 dust and general astonishment ; for wishing to pitch our tent 

 inside the village, we set a few of our men to sweep away the 

 filth from the cleanest spot we could select. You may guess 

 the result. I first tried to get to the windward of the horrible 

 cloud, but not being able to find that desirable quarter, as there 

 happened to be no wind at the time, I sent a man to fetch 

 water and then ran away until the atmosphere cleared. I had 

 better have stopped, for, running through the first hole in the 

 entrenchment of the village, I heard a cry of ' Omby 6 1 ' (' The 

 cattle ! '), and saw the head of an ox, closely followed by his 

 tail, coming through the gap. As the people evidently ex- 

 pected to see me run, I stood my ground with true British 

 pig-headedness and waited in the narrow ditch for the big 

 beast to pass ; but this one was closely followed by another, 

 and that by a third the whole of the herds were coming in 

 for the night, and the fosse was soon as full of oxen as of 

 dust. There was no escape ; grunting, puffing, blowing, 

 and bellowing, in they came, and with nothing but bare 



