194 MODES OF LIVING. 



subsist and get a living ? " To such questions it is not very 

 easy, even for foreigners who have lived long in Madagascar, 

 to give an entirely satisfactory reply ; for it often puzzles us 

 who live among them to know how great numbers of people 

 gain a livelihood and procure necessary food and clothing. On 

 the other hand, it must be remembered that the state of 

 society in a country like Madagascar, even in the partially 

 civilised central province, is utterly different from that of a 

 European country with its complex civilisation and classes of 

 society in great dependence one upon another. There is no 

 great working class or masses of people living solely by being 

 employed in manufactures or in agriculture. There are no 

 such extremes of abject poverty and enormous wealth as we 

 find in England. The great mass of the people are in pretty 

 much the same easy circumstances : every one is engaged 

 more or less in agriculture, almost every woman is skilled in 

 some handicraft, strictly so called, especially weaving, and 

 almost every man can do a good deal in the simple building 

 required to put up a dwelling ; every person, the slaves 

 included, has his rice-ground, so that if he will only work 

 he can always procure the necessaries of life. And as the 

 population, except in the near neighbourhood of the capital, 

 is small compared with the extent of the country, land for 

 planting edible roots and vegetables may always be obtained 

 by those who will take the trouble to cultivate it. 



Then, again, the absolute wants of daily life are few : rice, 

 with the manioc root and sweet potato, is the staple food ; 

 cattle, sheep, and poultry are abundant; very little clothing 

 is worn, and of this an industrious woman can weave the 

 rofia, hemp, and cotton stuffs which are required, and the very 

 young children go almost or quite naked until a few years 

 old. A house can be put up with little actual money outlay; 

 the red clay of the ground on which it is built forms the 

 walls ; the coarse grass growing at no distance from the 

 village makes the thatch ; no glass is needed for the windows, 

 or boarding for its floor, which is simply the ground itself 

 with a thin layer of cow-dung plaster, and covered with the 

 strong and neat mats also made by the women ; so that the 

 wood for the roof-framing and the door and window shutters 



