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CHAPTEE VI. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT TRIBES INHABITING 

 MADAGASCAR IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 



HOVAS — EETSILEO — EARA — TANlLA — TANKAY — SIHANAKA — EETSIMISARAKA 

 AND EAST-COAST TRIBES — ABORIGINAL PEOPLES BEFORE MALAY INCUR- 

 SION : WASiMBA — KIMOS OR QUIMOS — KALIO OR BEHOSY — POPULATION — 

 VARIOUS ESTIMATES — CHIEF TOWNS — TABLE OF PRINCIPAL TRIBES AND 

 THEIR SUBDIVISIONS. 



The varieties in colour and physique found among the peoples 

 inhabiting the different provinces of Madagascar have already- 

 been noticed in the preceding chapter ; but as there are many 

 other particulars which should be remembered in order to 

 form a tolerably accurate notion of the people in their 

 numerous divisions, we shall here note down some of the 

 more important of them. Some information may then be 

 given as to the traces found of earlier races in Madagascar 

 before the arrival of the ancestors of the bulk of the present 

 inhabitants ; and also as to the probable amount of the 

 existing population of the island. 



i. The Hovas. — At the head of the Malagasy tribes stand 

 the Hovas, who are now by far the most advanced of them 

 all in civilisation, enlightenment, and intelligence, as well as 

 in their political position. They occupy the central province 

 of Imerina, and from this vantage-ground they now dominate 

 a great part of the interior of Madagascar, all the eastern 

 portions of the island, and parts of the north-west. For many 

 centuries, however, the Hovas were only one among the many 

 tribes inhabiting the country, and their power did not extend 

 beyond their own central region ; for in Imerina itself there 

 were numerous petty independent sovereignties up to a com- 

 paratively modern period, and even within the present century 



