CHAP. XII. VILLAGE MARKET IN ANKOVA. 331 



one of a party travelling with us — were able to cast it to 

 the required distance, while some could scarcely lift it. 

 When they had finished their sport, we resumed our 

 journey, and, about an hour before noon, reached Ankara 

 Madinika. 



This was the first village in Ankova, the central province 

 of the island. It was market day, and a number of men 

 and women had goods, viz. rice and other kinds of grain, 

 roots, vegetables, poultry, raw cotton, pet birds in cages, &c., 

 spread out on the ground, or exposed in baskets, by the side 

 of the road, as we entered the village. I afterwards walked 

 through the market, asking the price of some of the articles, 

 and purchased some ready cooked sweet potatoes and manioc, 

 which were exceedingly good. The houses here were more 

 substantially built than those we had passed, but duty inside. 

 The people were somewhat fairer than those in the lower 

 provinces. There did not seem to be much traffic in the 

 market, though a considerable number of people had come 

 together. 



Food already cooked is generally offered for sale in the 

 Malagasy markets, but the only kinds of cooked food which I 

 saw were manioc and sweet potatoes, which were apparently 

 in considerable demand. There were neither fish, nor eggs, 

 nor locvTsts ; the season was too early for the latter, which 

 generally pass over the central provinces during the spring 

 of the year, and cause great destruction among the fields and 

 gardens. The locusts generally fly within two or three feet 

 of the ground, and, as soon as their approach is perceived, 

 the people rush out, and mth great clamour endeavour to 

 strike them down, or enclose them in then- lambas, while the 

 women and children gather them up in baskets from the 

 ground, and detach their legs and wings, by shaking them from 

 one end to the other of a long sack, in the same way that 

 grocers clean then- raisins. The legs and wings are then 



