402 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. cuAr. xiv. 



It was a scene which it was perhaps well to witness once in 

 a lifetime. It appeared something like the reality of what 

 the gorgeous and imposing pageants of our theatres are re- 

 ported to represent; destitute, indeed, of the flood of light, 

 and all those rich and gay accompaniments with which artistic 

 skill and taste surround such exhibitions, but encircled by the 

 grander scenery of nature, accompanied by a cloudless sky, 

 and illuminated by a tropic sun. The whole seemed to belong 

 to regions resembling those 



" Where the gorgeous East with ricliest hand 

 Showers on her kings barbaric pearls and gold." 



The men and women were not actors; their decorations 

 were not tinsel. It seemed their highest style of dress and 

 most exalted entertainment ; yet I felt a sort of regret as I 

 gazed on the manly forms, the bold and open foreheads, the 

 quick, keen, glancing eyes of the noble youths before me, and 

 thought of what, with education, they might have achieved ; 

 and if the time and the place had been suitable for the ex- 

 pression of opinion on the spectacle I had witnessed, I 

 might perhaps have said that proficiency in dancing was 

 not the highest excellence of princes, and that, without 

 discarding amusement, their constant aim should be to learn 

 how nations are made great. More than once I longed for 

 the camera, that I might have transmitted to my portfolio 

 some of the splendid and beautiful groups I had seen. 



