42 VOYAGJ- TO MADAGASCAR. 



the leg ; but the extratSlion of the Ondeves 

 is ftill meaner. They are faid to be dcfcend-' 

 ed from the foles of the feet. 



It IS doubtlefs a fubjcd of melancholy 

 reffedion to find amongft the people who 

 inhabit the large province of AnolTi fo ridi- 

 culous fables refpeding the iEequality of 

 their condition. WJiat a deplorable abfur- 

 dity for favagcs to refufe being brethren, 

 and to difdain a common origin ! The ex- 

 planation of this kind of phenomenon , 

 can be found only in the conqueft which 

 the Arabs, the anceftors of the Rhoandri- 

 ans, made of Madagafcar. This foreign 

 race have left, wherever they were difperfed, 

 the moft lamentable traces of fuperftition* 

 The Rhoandrians are reduced at prefent to 

 a family of about twenty perfons. None of 

 them are to be found but in the province 

 of AnolTi ; and there is reafon to hope that 

 the ifland will at length be delivered from 



the 



