TOWNS AND VILLAGES. _ 205 



ampitotoam-bary, i.e., " at the place of pounding rice," when 

 the rays reach farther into the building, and touch the part 

 where the rice-mortar usually stands. Three o'clock is 

 ampamatdra-janak'dniby, " at the place of fastening the calf," 

 i.e., when the rays reach the middle post, where the animal 

 is tied up at night; while at about half-past four o'clock is 

 called tafapaka, " touched," when the sun's rays reach the east 

 wall of the house. So that the arrangement of their houses 

 furnishes them with a tolerably correct method of ascertain- 

 ing the time in the after part of each day. 



Malagasy Towns and Villages. — Perhaps the reader may 

 be inclined to ask what kind of place a Malagasy town or 

 village is. 



The old towns of Imenna are often picturesquely situated 

 on the summits of hills ; around them are lines of deep fosses, 

 often three or four deep, one after the other, and crossed over 

 by a narrow causeway. "Within the innermost of these trenches, 

 which are sometimes thirty feet deep, and perhaps twenty wide, 

 an earthen rampart is often formed of the material dug out ot 

 the fosse, and 'this is pierced by a rude stone gateway, inside 

 which there is a great flat circular stone, which runs in a 

 groove, and used to be drawn across the opening in time of 

 war. These deep fosses are not filled with water, but they 

 often form the orchard of the inhabitants, being thickly 

 planted with banana, peach, and mango trees, as well as 

 the horirilca, an edible arum, and other vegetables ; for their 

 depth gives a certain amount of moisture. Some of these 

 great trenches look almost like a railway cutting, and must 

 have cost immense labour to the early inhabitants in the old 

 time when almost every considerable village was the head of 

 a petty state or independent kingdom. The fosses round the 

 old deserted towns are fine places for collecting ferns and 

 other plants. 



All round the summit of the old towns are a number of 

 dvidvy, a tree much resembling an English elm. The highest 

 part of the town is generally occupied by the lapa or chief's 

 dwelling-house, a lofty timber building, often with its ridge 

 and long gable horns rising sixty feet above the ground. 

 This, with its smaller houses around it, is usually enclosed 



