A DESERT 289 



valley with precipitous hills on our left, and perpendicular faces 

 of rock. All along were clumps of adabo-trees, making the 

 scenery much like an English park. We noticed a large number 

 of earthen mounds, often two and a half feet high ; these were 

 the nests of a large ant, which, like those we met on the eastern 

 side of the island, is said to kill a serpent which makes its home 

 in the lower part of the ant-hill. The native travellers often 

 use these mounds as a fireplace for cooking their rice, by knock- 

 ing off the top, scooping out the centre, and making a hole near 

 the bottom for draught. 



The route continued to be very easy travelling, with gentle 

 ascents and one long one, following generally river valleys ; and 

 in the afternoon along a river bank for some distance, with 

 pretty scenery of pandanus, adabo, dracaena and other trees 

 growing in clumps. This last-named tree, called hdsina by the 

 Malagasy, is believed to be a favourite with the Vazimba, the 

 supposed aboriginal inhabitants of the island, and was conse- 

 quently planted where their graves are and where their spirits 

 are thought to dwell in order to secure their good will. The 

 leaves, which are sword-shaped, grow in large clusters, so that 

 the tree makes a beautiful variety amongst other foliage. 



We stopped on Wednesday night at a large village called 

 Mangasoavina, and the next morning passed along the eastern 

 base of Andriba, a lofty and very peculiarly shaped mountain, 

 which had been prominent before us during the preceding day. 

 It appeared to have a large flat top, and in outline resembled 

 the stump of an immense tree left in the earth, its northern face 

 being a stupendous perpendicular mass of rock. (Here I may 

 remark, in parenthesis, that this Andriba was expected, in the 

 French war of 1895, to have presented the most formidable 

 obstacle to the advance of an invading force and, in the hands 

 of European troops, would certainly have done so.) In the 

 afternoon we entered on the part called in Malagasy, efitra, or 

 desert, but which simply means an uninhabited region, and 

 seemed to promise to be the most pleasant part of the whole 

 route. A long deep gorge which we entered was beautiful with 

 luxuriant vegetation, and in one of the lateral valleys I soon 

 perceived the traveller's tree, a sure sign that we were now from 

 two thousand to three thousand feet lower than Imerina. 

 Every hollow was filled with trees ; the hills became lower, and 



