126 betsilP.o—bara. 



amount of property in law-suits about some trifling matter. 

 Of this propensity ]\Ir. Gr. A. Shaw gives some extraordinary 

 instances.'" Drunkenness is also prevalent, but the people are 

 more simple and unsuspicious than the Hovas ; the clannish 

 feeling is very strong among them, and they show much 

 family affection and hospitality. In former times their 

 government was very despotic, and there is still much 

 reverence paid to their chiefs, although these are shorn of 

 most of their former power. Curiously enough, the Betsileo 

 kings used to be called " the Hova," as if some feeling of 

 Hova superiority had impressed them even before being con- 

 quered by their northern neighbours. Their superstitions, 

 burial-customs, &c., will be noticed in other chapters. 



The Hova authority being very firm among the Betsileo, 

 idolatry has been abolished, and a considerable number of 

 the population are under instruction, for the people have no 

 lack of intelligence. Indeed, next to the Hovas, no tribe has 

 made greater advances during the last ten years than have 

 these " many unconquered " of the southern highlands of 

 Madagascar. 



3. The Bdra. — Proceeding farther south, through the 

 centre of the island, we come next to the Bara people, about 

 whom, until very recently, hardly anything definite was 

 known. But a Hova army having passed through part of 

 the country in 1873, some information was obtained from 

 the native officers about them.t In 1876 two English mis- 

 sionaries made a journey through the eastern part of the pro- 

 vince; and in the following year a journey across the Bara 

 country to the south-west coast (St. Augustine's Bay), and 

 attended with considerable peril while among a west-coast 

 tribe called V^zo, was made by the Eev. J. Ptichardson, who 

 has contributed some valuable information about the Biira 

 and their country in his pamphlet, entitled " Lights and 

 Shadows ; or. Chequered Experiences among some of the 

 Heathen Tribes of Madagascar." These people inhabit a 

 series of undulating plains divided by lofty ranges of hills, 



* See Antaniinarlvo Annual, Nos. iii., iv., "The Betsileo: Country and 

 People. " 

 t Antananarivo Annual, No. ii., pp. 45-50- 



