306 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. xi. 



in which it is cooked until it is brown, then pouring in fresh 

 water, boil it into a sort of coffee, which all classes are accus- 

 tomed to drink after their meals. Sometimes in addition 

 to other presents brought me by the people was a small 

 quantity of honey, generally clear and good. It was some 

 satisfaction to me to see that, heavy as the roads were, my 

 bearers did not become thinner, or look the worse for their 

 journey. 



In the afternoon we again resumed our journey, crossing 

 the water of the same or different rivers five times, and tra- 

 velling for a considerable distance along the steep bank of the 

 Farimbongy, a broad and rapid stream. Later in the after- 

 noon we reached Mahela, where we halted for the night, 

 having travelled nearly twenty miles over roads that in 

 England would have been deemed impassable. Wherever 

 the road was at all level, the path was through deep clayey 

 mud. The steep ascents and descents, of a hundred or three 

 hundred feet in extent, were sometimes traversed by a slanting 

 path along a narrow deep hollow, worn by the water. At 

 other times the path lay along a narrow way, full of ridges and 

 holes, pent up between steep banks from ten to twenty feet 

 high, of red or pinkish clay *, containing fragments of quartz, 

 rocks of which also sometimes overhang the path, which it- 

 self was occasionally so narrow that I could touch both sides 

 at once. 



When our way led through forest or wood, the large, smooth, 

 slippery roots of the trees forming a sort of network along 

 the path, and having their interstices filled with water, ren- 

 dered travelling still more difficult ; and while I felt grateful 

 that we had passed without accident, I could not but admire 

 the surefootedness and care evinced by the bearers. Although 

 where it was practicable I always walked, or rather scrambled 



* The country answers to its name, Betanimena, which signifies much red 

 earth. 



