136 VAZIMBA. 



were a race of low stature ; they had heads somewhat narrow 

 and elongated ; they were ignorant of the use of iron ; and 

 from their inferiority to the incursive Hovas in this respect 

 they were obliged to flee before the superior weapons of their 

 enemies. A remnant of this tribe is said by some French 

 writers to be still existing in the Sakalava country on the 

 west coast, between the rivers Manambolo and Tsiribihina.* 

 With all the other people of that side of the island they were 

 conquered by the chiefs who founded the northern Sakalava 

 kingdom of Ibdina. It is much to be wished that some com- 



O 



petent traveller would visit this part of Madagascar to inquire 

 into the habits, dialect, and traditions of the people living 

 there. The names of six of the Vazimba kings are preserved, 

 and the last of these is said to have been driven westwards 

 out of Imerina by the Hova king Andriamanelo. The 

 natives say that the lake Itasy, forty to fifty miles west of the 

 capital, was formed by a Vazimba chieftain, named Bapeto, 

 damming up a river in the vicinity, and so the rice-fields of 

 a neighbouring chief with whom he was at variance were 

 flooded and have ever since remained under water. 



From these accounts, together with the asserted different 

 physique of these Vazimba, their ignorance of the working of 

 metal, &c, it seems highly probable that there was a race of 

 different origin to the bulk of the present inhabitants, and 

 occupying at least a portion of the centre of the island. 



Since writing the foregoing I see, from an article on " The 

 BtohMo : Country and People," by Mr. G. A. Shaw, in the 

 Antananarivo Annual, No. iv. p. 5, that Vazimba graves are 

 known also among the people of the southern province. These, 

 however, are not, as in Imerina, heaps of stone, but circles in 

 the grass, where offerings are made to procure the removal of 

 sickness. The same superstitious dread is felt at inadver- 

 tently treading on these graves or circles ; this, it is believed, 

 produces illness which is only to be cured by an offering 

 made at the same grave where the offence had been com- 

 mitted. 



Then there are also accounts (less easy to be credited) in 

 some of the earlier French writers of another race of people 



* See Guillain, op.cit. p. 18. 



