A CANOE VOYAGE. 
99 
first refused with some show of indignation and 
scorn, and one by one the crowd of maromita 
(bearers) rise with solemn face, and casting their 
ragged hempen larnba about them with all the 
air of an old nobility, they stalk off and dis¬ 
appear, and the newly arrived and terribly anx¬ 
ious visitor to the island thinks, doubtless, that 
he has achieved his first false step, and failed 
utterly in his method of dealing with the native 
character. Nothing of the kind. In Madagas¬ 
car the virtue to acquire is patience. There it is 
doubly true that “ everything comes to the man 
who waits.” But it is just this waiting for every¬ 
thing and everybody which annoys and exasper¬ 
ates the ever-active and volatile foreigner, especi¬ 
ally for the first few months of his life amongst the 
Malagasy. And in his innate disposition to press 
forward and be doing something, and his strong 
disinclination to wait, he is at a great disadvan¬ 
tage in all his dealings with the natives. They 
tire him out, and gain their point, and he suc¬ 
cumbs at length, although he despises himself 
for so doing; and the light-hearted and mirthful 
manner in which the maromita , having gained 
the victory in the matter of pay, begin to car¬ 
ry out their part of the contract with a sudden 
display of good feeling which is overwhelming 
to the uninitiated, is doubly irritating to the 
superior intelligence of the vazaba (stranger), 
