vi PREFACE. 



interest on these various subjects ; and it will be seen that I 

 have also made extensive use of the volumes of a yearly 

 periodical, printed and published in Madagascar, called The, 

 Antananarivo Annual. This was commenced four years ago 

 at my suggestion, and was designed to be a repository of 

 information on all the points just mentioned with regard to 

 the country and people; and as I edited the first three 

 numbers, and their circulation has been almost entirely con- 

 fined to Madagascar itself, and to those in England who are 

 immediately connected with the island, I have not hesitated 

 to quote largely from it, as well as from other pamphlets and 

 notes of journeys, also published at Antananarivo, and con- 

 sequently almost unknown here in England. 



It was intended, in the original prospectus of this book, to 

 have added another chapter, giving specimens of the folk- 

 tales and legendary lore of the Malagasy, and of native songs 

 and proverbs, fairy and nursery tales, and traditional history; 

 but this part of the work has had to be relinquished partly 

 owing to the exigencies of space, — for more than one chapter 

 would be required to treat of all these points satisfactorily, — 

 and partly also from the pressure of other work arising from 

 my immediate departure from England ; indeed the last 

 sheets of the book have been corrected within a few hours of 

 sailing. 



I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, the courtesy 

 of Messrs. Macmillan & Co. and of Mr. Alfred Eussel 

 Wallace, in allowing a woodcut from Mr. Wallace's valuable 

 work on The Geographical Distribution of Animals to be used 

 as an illustration for this book. It will be seen that I have 

 derived much help from that work in treating of the animal 

 life of Madagascar. 



