io6 EUROPEAN AND ARABIAN ELEMENTS. 



as is possible what we know positively about the Malagasy 

 people ethnologically considered. But it must be premised that 

 our information is still very defective, for no careful and syste- 

 matic examination of the differences between the various tribes 

 found in the island has yet been made ; and in addition to 

 the want of cranial observations we much need a series of 

 photographs, both in full face and profile, of typical specimens 

 of the different races, together with particulars as to their 

 colour, hair, height, &c., &c. 



From the long intercourse Europeans have now had with 

 the people of the eastern coast and of Imerina, these are the 

 best known of the various tribes ; but there are in both 

 cases certain extraneous elements intermingled, so that it is 

 not quite easy to determine how far these have modified the 

 original stock. On the eastern coast there is an undoubted 

 European mixture in the population, arising partly from 

 the intercourse which the pirates of the early part of the 

 eighteenth century had with the people, and also from the 

 Creole settlers and planters, who take native wives, and 

 whose children become absorbed in the native population. 

 There is also a certain amount of foreign blood derived from 

 sailors and others who touch at the ports. When coming 

 down to the east coast in 1867, after nearly four years' 

 familiarity with the Hovas only, I was much struck with the 

 lighter colour of the B^tsimis^raka women as compared with 

 the Hova women. 



In addition to this European mixture there is also an 

 Arabian element in the eastern tribes, derived from the 

 ancient Arab settlements, both in the province of Matitanana 

 on the south-east coast, and in the island of St. Marie's and 

 the mainland opposite to it, farther north. It is possible, 

 however, that this did not materially affect the mass of the 

 people (although it has left ineffaceable traces of its influence 

 on the language), since the white settlers became the princes 

 and nobles of some districts, and kept themselves apart from 

 the rest of the people. In some tribes these white chiefs 

 are said to have been exterminated by the French, to whose 

 settlement in the country they were strongly opposed ; but, 

 on the other hand, the chiefs of some of the Tanala or forest 



