128 TAN ALA. 



right side, he carries his scarf of charms. Eound his loins he 

 wears a few yards of cloth, coloured or plain. Slung on his 

 gun are a pair of sandals, and thus equipped he stands ready 

 for any fight." 



" What he, tkinlis : Give me my gun, my powder and ball, 

 my spear ; leave me my rum, my wives, my oxen, and my 

 king ; let me rob, plunder, kill, and destroy anything or any- 

 body I please. Let me despoil every man, and carry away 

 any man's cattle, his wives, his children, his slaves, to my 

 heart's content. Let no man molest me ; and then, who 

 cares who governs the country !" (pp. vii. viii.) 



Neither education nor Christianity has yet obtained much 

 influence among this degraded people, but something is now 

 being done to enlighten the easternmost portion of the B^ra. 



4. The Tancila. — To the east of the two last-mentioned 

 tribes runs a line of dense forest, dividing the interior high- 

 lands from the lower maritime plains, and separating the 

 Betsileo and Bara from the east-coast tribes. Here, amongst 

 these almost impenetrable woods, live the Tanala, or forest 

 people, as their name implies {dla, forest). They stretcli 

 over an extent of forest region about 200 miles long, but 

 only a few miles in width, many of their villages being 

 perched upon lofty hills amidst the trees. The northernmost 

 of the people acknowledge the Hova supremacy, and are 

 ruled by an energetic old chieftainess named lovana, who 

 lives at Ambohimanga. Many of the southern Tanala are 

 independent, especially those of the district called Ikongo. 

 The people here have never been conquered by the Hovas, 

 having bravely and successfully resisted them more than 

 once ; their chief town, of the same name, is situated on a 

 lofty and almost inaccessible mountain, about five miles long, 

 and more than a thousand feet high. As there are springs 

 of water at the top of this hill, and also rice-grounds, the 

 inhabitants cannot be overcome by famine ; and the sides 

 of the hill are mostly precipitous, the only ascent being so 

 narrow and difficult that a very few men could secure it 

 against a considerable assaulting force. Another almost 

 equally inaccessible position is Ivohibe, a detached and very 

 lofty conical mountain-fastness. These forest people are 



