U4 LIGHT AND DARK-COLOURED RACES. 



querors, whilst their hair is invariably crisp and woolly. No 

 pure Betsileo is to be met with having the smooth long hair of 

 the Hovas. In this, as in other points, there is a very clear 

 departure from the Malayan type." * 



It has been said by some writers that there is a strongly- 

 marked division between the light and the dark coloured races 

 of Madagascar. As far as my own observation goes, I doubt 

 the accuracy of this statement, and should rather say that 

 the one type shades into the other by gradations almost im- 

 possible to be marked off in any exact manner either by 

 tribal or geographical divisions. For instance, by some writers 

 the Sihanaka are classed with the Sakalava, probably on 

 account of their dark colour ; but judging from their way of 

 building their houses, and other habits, and from their dialect, 

 they are a division of the IMtsiniisaraka or B^zanozano, who 

 have come up from the coast and eastern districts. With 

 them have become mingled a number of Hovas, but this 

 mixed race is darker than either of the peoples composing it; 

 and it seems probable that the great heat and moisture of 

 their country, shut in as it is on almost all sides by forest, 

 have tended to darken the colour of their skin. I fancied 

 I could trace a distinctly different type of feature from the 

 Hovas, but observations made during a single hasty visit are 

 not very reliable. 



There can, however, be no doubt that while from one point 

 of view a three-fold division of the Malagasy tribes can be 

 roughly made, taking another standpoint, that of language, 

 they separate into two very distinctly-marked groups : the 

 Hovas, or northern central tribes, forming one division ; and 

 the other comprising all the rest of the people, both of the 

 east and west coasts and in the northern and southern interior 

 provinces. We do not yet know with great minuteness the 

 peculiarities of all the dialects other than the Hova, but we 

 know sufficient to affirm that they all seem more related to 

 one another than they are to the Hova. Most if not all of 

 them appear to have a more nasal n sound than the Hova 

 gives to have a broader and more open sound in some vowels, 

 and to cut off many of the terminals of trisyllabic roots (ka, 



* Antananarivo Annual, No. iii. p. 79. 



