oiiAP. XIV. APPEARANCE AND DRESS OF THE QUEEN. 381 



fixed over the queen, and a smaller scarlet umbrella, with- 

 out ornament, was over the princess. The queen's figure 

 is not tall, but rather stout, her face round, the forehead 

 well formed, the eyes small, nose short, but not broad, lips 

 well defined and small, the chin slightly rounded. The whole 

 head and face small, compact, and well proportioned; her 

 expression of countenance rather agreeable than otherwise, 

 though at times indicating great firmness. She looked in 

 good health, and vigorous, considering her age, which is said 

 to be sixty-eight. 



Her majesty wore a crown made of plates of gold, with an 

 ornament and charm, something like a gold crocodile's tooth, 

 in the front plate; she had also a necklace ^nd large ear- 

 rings of gold. Her dress was a white satin lamba, with 

 sprigs of gold, which, considering the lamba as the national 

 Hova costume, was quite a queenly dress. The prince, her 

 son, wore his star, and a coronet of apparently green velvet, 

 bordered with a ring and band of leaves of massive silver. 

 His cousin. Prince Ramboasalama, wore a black velvet cap 

 embroidered with gold. Many of the officers wore silk lambas 

 over their clothes. 



Including the members of the queen's family, officers of 

 the government, and attendants, there might be perhaps 

 eighty or a hundred persons in the balcony, but a becom- 

 ing dignity and propriety of deportment was manifest in all. 

 No one spoke besides the queen and her orator, excepting 

 the prince, and one or two others near her person, who replied 

 to some remarks which the queen addressed to them ; and, 

 could the remembrance of the tragic scenes which Madagascar 

 has witnessed within the last twenty or thirty years have been 

 blotted out, I should have gazed on the spectacle with- 

 out any diminution of interest and pleasure, as exhibiting, in 

 connection with the ruling power of the country, the outward 

 indication of its progress and civilisation. 



