ANCIENT TOMBS. 229 



cheerfully lavished ; for a Hova will frequently live in a 

 house that has not cost ten dollars to erect, while he will 

 freely spend a hundred or two upon his tomb. This he 

 begins to make as he advances in life, and gets a family 

 around him ; and in the case of large and costly tombs several 

 years often elapse before the whole is completed, at least as 

 regards the external ornamental stonework. 



In a few places in Imerina large numbers of ancient tombs 

 may be seen in one spot, as at the northern and southern 

 extremities of Antananarivo, where they line the sides of the 

 road for a considerable distance. But in the case of well-to- 

 do people, the family tomb is usually constructed in a spacious 

 square enclosure near their ancestral village, or in the neigh- 

 bourhood of their rice-fields and landed property. This is 

 surrounded by a lofty wall of clay, while on three or four 

 sides of the square are built rows of small houses, where the 

 slaves and dependants live, the tomb being in the centre. 

 But in some cases the tomb is in the courtyard of the house 

 where the owner resides, while the royal tombs are all in the 

 palace-yard, either at Antananarivo or Ambohimanga, and so 

 also are those of the chieftains of old times in the ancient 

 towns throughout Imerina. 



The stones being brought to the spot where the tomb is to 

 be constructed a deep trench is cut, into which they are 

 lowered, on edge^ after being roughly trimmed to a tolerably 

 regular shape. At the west side, where the entrance to the 

 vault is always formed, a small low doorway is broken through 

 the stone, and the earth in the centre is removed. Then 

 shelves of the same hard blue rock are fixed round tliree sides 

 of the chamber, and finally the great stone covering all is 

 placed on the top. A superstructure of earth and stone is 

 formed, generally in two, and often in three, steps or stages. 

 In the ancient style of tombs the stones were merely fixed 

 neatly in the earth, without mortar, and the top was often 

 covered with lumps of white quartz. In the more costly 

 modern tombs the exterior is formed with regular masonry, 

 and massive cornices and mouldings at each stage ; while in 

 some few there is elaborate architectural enrichment in pilas- 

 ters with carved capitals, copied from drawings of the classical 



