A BARA WARRIOR. 127 



forming the most southerly central portion of Madagascar. 

 The area of their country is perhaps ahout 20,000 square 

 miles. They appear to be in a much more uncivilised con- 

 dition than most of the Malagasy tribes; they are divided 

 into a number of petty states which are perpetually at war 

 with each other, and the Hovas have hardly any authority over 

 them. They are distrustful, suspicious, and churlish, and not 

 very hospitable or friendly to strangers ; they are also very 

 superstitious and immoral, purity and chastity being un- 

 known, and in speech and manner they are rough and filthy 

 in the extreme. They have far less dexterity in manu- 

 factures than either the Hovas or the Betsileo, and they are 

 mostly ignorant of the use of money. 



Mr. Eichardson gives the following graphic picture of a 

 Bara warrior : — " His hair is done up into knobs of fat, wax, 

 and whitening, numbering from ten to one hundred and 

 twenty ; and on the crown is a chignon of the same 

 materials, about the size of, or larger than, a cricket-ball; 

 each knob is impacted against the other, and all have the 

 ring of a hard wax ball. On his forehead or temples he 

 carries his large charm or round shell, about the size of a 

 crown-piece, called a filana. Bound his neck he carries a 

 number of beads of various sizes, and a few small wooden 

 charms. In his ears he will have rings or pieces of wood, 

 sometimes sticking in the lobe of the ear, and sometimes 

 hanging down like ear-drops. Hanging round his neck and 

 resting on his breast, he carries a circular charm about six 

 inches long, covered with innumerable small beads with two 

 or more long ones at the end. The stock of his gun, a 

 flint-lock, obtained from the traders on the coast, is covered 

 with brass-headed nails, varying in number from forty to 

 two hundred and twenty. His spear-heads — for he generally 

 carries two or more — are very bright and well-tempered ; and 

 in the shaft, or where the shaft is inserted in the head, rings 

 of brass are worked in. His belt — which is sometimes six 

 inches broad — and powder-horn, his cartridge-box and tinder- 

 flask, are decorated with brass-headed nails to the number of 

 a hundred and twenty, and each one the size of a shilling, or 

 even a florin. Hanging from the shoulder, and resting on his 



