140 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. v. 



the case, the features exhibit no approach to the negro type. 

 In contemplating the figaire and features of the people, espe- 

 cially those whose portraits I secured, I found myself in- 

 voluntarily speculating on the origin of the different races, 

 and the causes of the aspect and bearing which they exhibited. 

 The style of head shown in the accompanying portrait was 

 confined to the Hovas. I never saw anything approaching to 

 it among the other races, though with similar features ; the 

 colour was among the Hovas, in some instances, as dark as 

 that of any on the island. I found myself continually ques- 

 tioning in my own mind, whether some of the Hovas were 

 originally black ; or if not, whether by intermarriages with 

 darker races, and other causes, they had retained their 

 peculiar style of features but changed their colour, and 

 thus afford additional evidence that the form of feature 

 was more permanent than colour. Sodra, whose portrait, as 

 well as those of the bearers of my palanquin, and the women 

 at the well, together with the woman with the child at her 

 back, in the same engraving with the Hova woman, are all 

 Betsimasaraka inhabitants of the eastern coast. The manner 

 of wearing their hau' resembles that of the natives of Quilli- 

 mane, on the Zambesi river, . as described by Commodore 

 Owen in a paper published in the second volume of the 

 Transactions of the Greographical Society, but this is a coin- 

 cidence too trifling to support any conclusion as to their 

 African origin. With regard to the Hovas, no doubt can be 

 entertained that they are descended from the ancient race 

 from which the Malayan Archipelago and Eastern Polynesia 

 derive their inhabitants. Further remarks on this subject 

 would interfere with the purpose of my narrative, which has 

 been to record what I observed, leaving others to deduce 

 their own conclusions ; and I shall be happy if the portraits 

 I have furnished prove acceptable to any who may be in- 

 terested in that important branch of inquiry which relates 

 to the several varieties of the human familv. 



