150 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. vi. 



came to inquire what new or needed articles I had brought 

 to sell ; but far greater numbers came to endeavour to induce 

 me to buy. Almost all classes appear exceedingly fond of 

 bartering, or buying and selling; and no long intervals 

 passed with me uninterrupted by persons coming to offer 

 either poultry, eggs, honey, or articles of native manufacture, 

 for sale. 



Among the latter were somebeautifulmats, for covering their 

 floors or forming their beds. Their sleeping-mats are generally 

 of one uniform colour, but in some instances the patterns 

 are worked in different colours formed by steeping the rushes 

 in native dyes, which are permanent, and yet allow the rush 

 to retain its smooth and shining appearance. The only 

 colours I observed in these articles were black and various 

 shades of red. 



With a similar kind of rush they also weave great numbers 

 of matting-bags, in which they preserve their rice, both for 

 their own use and for exportation. But the article most 

 extensively manufactured throughout the island, both for 

 home use and for exportation, is a coarse kind of cloth 

 woven with the thread or strips of the young inner leaflets 

 of the rofia palm. These leaflets are about three or four 

 feet long, but in weaving the cloth a number of the split 

 threads are fastened together, and the cloth is made in pieces 

 varying from three to four yards in length and nearly a yard 

 wide. The texture of the cloth is rather coarse and stiff to 

 the touch, but exceedingly tough and durable ; the colour is 

 a sort of nankeen-yellow, generally with two or three stripes 

 of blue, produced by preparations of native indigo, extending 

 through the whole length. Eofia cloth is used for many 

 purposes in the island, and constitutes almost the only 

 clothing of the labouring classes. The threads of this cloth 

 are flat and untwisted. I have entered some of the houses 

 in which the procp/SS of weaving was going on, and found the 



