356 VISITS TO MADAGASCAK. chap, xiii. 



few days after reaching his home. He was a fine noble- 

 looking man, in the prime of life, about thirty years of age. 

 He stood six feet two inches high, and told me his father was 

 two inches taller than himself. On the same day, soon after 

 the officers from the palace had left me, I was informed that 

 the family of this chief wished to visit me. I bade them 

 welcome; and the father of him whom I used to call my 

 tall friend, himself an erect noble-looking man, between 

 fifty and sixty years of age ; his mother, a matronly woman ; 

 the widow of my friend, a healthy interesting-looking woman 

 about five and twenty, and five children, all entered my 

 apartment. The father seated himself in a chair, the mother 

 and the widowed daughter-in-law sate on the ground; the 

 widow carried a little boy in her arms, and the other children 

 placed themselves on the floor around her. The interpreter, 

 who did not know of my former acquaintance with the chief, 

 said, "Who are you?" The venerable-looking man said, "I 



am Ea 's father." He then looked at his wife, and she 



said, " I am his mother ; " and pointing to the young woman 

 by her side, she said, " This is his widow, and these are his 

 children." The father then said, "We have come with a 

 small jjresent in token of our love, for our son loved you, and 

 spoke much of you. We shall never see him again, but 

 seeing you seems to bring him back to our thoughts." His 

 servants then brought in the present, consisting of poultry, 

 eggs, and rice. I thanked him, and told them it was a great 

 satisfaction to me to see them ; that I had mourned when I 

 heard of their son's death, but hoped they were comforted. 



I had taken several photographic portraits of this chief 

 while in Tamatave, and after conversing a short time I took 

 out of my portfolio a small likeness of my friend, and handed 

 it to the father. He looked at it, and wept. The mother 

 took it, pressed it to her lips and kissed it, for some minutes 

 weeping silently, but profusely. A full-length portrait I 



