CHAP. XII. FORTIFICATION OF HOVA VILLAGES. 335 



narrow gateway between two high unhewn granite stones, and 

 proceeding by a narrow path over the ditch, which was about 

 eighteen feet deep, and four or six feet wide. A number of 

 ■peach trees growing within the enclosure, were just coming 

 into bloom, and appeared to thrive well. A little euphorbia 

 hedge, growing along the top of the fence inside the ditch, 

 was covered vnih the richest deep-coloured scarlet flowers. 

 The grass of large tracts of country over which we had passed, 

 had been recently burned for the sake of securing fresh young- 

 grass for the cattle, and long lines of fire were occasionally 

 seen traversing the plain or the mountain side, leaving nothing 

 but a black smoky or ashy surface behind it. 



I was much impressed with the difference between the 

 Hovas and the inhabitants of the country through which I 

 had passed, as manifest in the position and defences of their 

 villages, indicating that they must have been a marauding 

 sort of people, ever liable to reprisals from other tribes, or 

 else constantly engaged in war amongst themselves. Their 

 villages are all built on the summits of hills, enclosed in clay 

 walls of varied height and thickness, and having but one 

 narrow and difficult entrance ; being besides this surrounded 

 by one or more deep ditches. These ditches around the 

 villages were sometimes extended to a considerable distance 

 from the walls enclosing their houses, and beyond these there 

 were deep cuttings across any rising ground leading to the 

 village. Great skill was manifested in the plan of these 

 defences, as well as great labour in their completion. In no 

 other country, perhaps, have the villages been so uniformly 

 defended by this species of fortification as in this part of 

 Madagascar. In this respect their defences appeared more 

 elaborate and permanent than those I had noticed around the 

 Pas of New Zealand, or the mountain fortresses of the South 

 Sea Islands ; the former, though generally fixed in positions 

 affording greater natural security, were only defended by a 



