VARIOUS TOMBS. 233 



patterns almost endless, and many of them were well "worth 

 preserving and carefully copying. 



On the road-side were a number of the more simple tombs, 

 of a kind that seem peculiar to the Betsil^o. They consist 

 of a plain square, almost a cube, of thin imdressed stones laid 

 very evenly. Proceeding farther south we were struck by 

 the number of tombs and carved monuments on the road-side 

 all the way to Ambohinamboiirina. The most common form 

 was the plain square tomb just described, and the upright 

 vMoldJiy, about two feet square, and from eight to ten feet high. 

 While the tsangam-lato in Imerina are all of rough undressed 

 slabs of blue rock, these in Betsileo are of fine-grained hard 

 white granite, in massive blocks, and dressed to a beautifully 

 smooth face. They are often in couples, and in one instance 

 there were two stones, with an elaborately carved post be- 

 tween them. But the combinations of the different kinds of 

 monument were very numerous ; there was something new 

 every few yards ; and all over the plain, near every little 

 cluster of houses, we could see these white memorial stones. 



South of the Matsiatra river there were very few of the 

 upright memorial stones, and none of the carved wood pillars. 

 All the tombs, which were very numerous, were the plain 

 cube of undressed flat stones, and I was surprised to find 

 that the majority of them were hollow, many having trees, 

 species of dracsena, mimosa, and others growing out of the 

 circular opening in the centre, and overshadowing the whole 

 tomb, a sight never seen in Imerina. From this it appeared 

 that the chamber in which the corpses are deposited does not 

 project at all above the ground, as it does in the Hova tombs ; 

 and I afterwards ascertained that this chamber is excavated 

 at a considerable depth beneath the square pile of stones, 

 which is therefore not a grave, but only marks the position 

 of one far below the surface. I noticed also that there was 

 in most cases a long low mound of earth, extending from one 

 side of the tomb to a distance of from thirty or forty to eighty 

 feet and upwards. This, it appears, marks the line of a long 

 tunnelled passage gradually descending from the surface to 

 the deeply-sunk burial chamber. 



Mr. Eichardson says about Betsileo tombs : " They are very 



