206 REVIEWS — THREE VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 



chief took the cylinder, and shaking a small quantity, about half a 

 tea-spoonful, into the palm of his hand, he then by a quick jerk of 

 the hand, tossed the powder, with great dexterity, on to his tongue, 

 without touching his lips with his hand or its contents. I do not 

 remember ever seeing any of the natives smoking tobacco, but this 

 use of it is universal ; and though some deposit it in a different man- 

 ner in the mouth, it was usually, as in this instance, jerked upon the 

 tongue." 



MADAGASCAR DRESS. 



" "WhUe we were thus occupied, an officer with several attendants 

 entered the house. He was a tall, stout man, between fifty and 

 sixty years of age, with features resembling those of a South Sea 

 Islander. On the upper part of his person he wore a fine figured 

 shirt, with upright Vandyck collar, and wristbands of the same pat- 

 tern, and, loosely thrown over this, a large and handsome silk scarf 

 or lamba. The centre of the lamba consisted of broad stripes of 

 purple, scarlet, pink, and yellow, edged with a border tastefully 

 wrought in a kind of open work, exhibiting a curious pattern in yel- 

 low and scarlet silk. He had neither shoes nor stockings, but wore 

 a blue cloth cap, the shade edged with silver, and the crown sur- 

 rounded by a broad band of gold lace. Two of his attendants carried 

 swords, one like a heavy cavalry weapon, the other with a straight 

 and smaller blade." 



"We now turn to our author's description of one of the most curi- 

 ous of vegetable productions, the water yam, or lace leaf, called by 

 botanists, from its native name, 



OUVIRANDRA. 



'** The natives describe this plant as growing in running streamsv 

 "The root or rhizome is about the size of a man's thumb in thickness, 

 and six or nine inches long, often branching in different directions, 

 like the roots of the ginger or turmeric, but in one continuous 

 growth, not a succession of distinct formations attached at the ter- 

 minatioja of one and the commencement of another. The root is 

 composed of a white fleshy substance, apparently without large or 

 tough fibres, and is covered with a somewhat thick light-brown skin. 

 I was informed that it also grew in places which were dry at certain 

 seasons gC the year ; that the leaves then died down, but the root, 



