SIHANAKA—BETSIMISARAKA. 131 



reckon tlieir rice by the number of tliese stores, of wliicli the 

 richer Sihanaka have seven and eight. 



In one of the villages in the dense papyrus thickets 

 among the marshes to the south of the lake live a strange 

 tribe of people, who seem quite isolated from the other Sihtl- 

 naka, and more barbarous in their habits, and have a distinctly 

 different dialect. In the rainy season, when the water rises, 

 it enters into the houses of these people ; and they put 

 together several layers of zozdro so as to make a kind of raft, 

 so that as the water rises this raft rises with it. Upon these 

 zozoro they make their hearth and beds ; and there they live, 

 rising and falling with the water, until the rainy season is 

 over and they can live on the ground again. There are some 

 curious stories about the simplicity of tliese people and their 

 ancestors ; for they have no intercourse with any one outside 

 their village, except on a certain day, when they go out to 

 sell the fish they have caught. 



The Sih^-naka are marked by their superstition, love of 

 ornament, intemperance, and laziness. They think it shows 

 a want of respect to visitors if they have no tdaka (rum) to 

 give them. Nothing can be done, either at funerals or 

 festivities, without drinking toaka. But for four years past, 

 the Eev. J. Pearse, with several Hova evangelists, has been 

 living among them, and some progress has been made in 

 education and in the knowledge of Christianity. 



7. The Betsimisdraka and other East-Coast Tribes. — If we 

 cross from Antsihanaka over the lower line of forest, we come 

 to the peoples inhabiting the plains of the east coast. 

 These are often all loosely called by Europeans Betsimisaraka, 

 probably because the chief ports with which foreign vessels 

 trade are in the territory of that tribe. But the Betsimisa- 

 raka, although one of the most important of these eastern 

 peoples, and formerly perhaps the most numerous and power- 

 ful of them, are only one of the many tribes found along the 

 eastern coast. From the northern point of Madagascar down 

 to the Bay of Antongil the people appear to be allied to the 

 SM^al^va, but south of that bay come in succession the Bet- 

 simisdralM (of whom there are two chief divisions called 

 respectively Anteva and Voriino), the Betdnimena (a little 



