VISIT TO THE COURT OF THE HOVAS. 133 
personal appearance and attire. The entire hill 
is covered irregularly with houses and buildings 
of various sizes and kinds. They are principally 
constructed of dark wood, square, high-pitched 
roofs, thatched with herana , or rush, and with 
the inevitable Hova projecting horns at the 
point of each gable. The principal buildings 
are built of stone and brick, and the European 
residents have comfortable villa-like residences 
on the outskirts of the town, built of brick and 
wood, with deep verandahs, Venetian shutters, 
well-kept gardens, detached kitchens, and all the 
accessories which modern ideas of comfort and 
repose in a tropical climate suggest. The frank 
and generous hospitality dispensed at these houses 
to casual visitors to Imerina is a matter of history, 
and has been commended by all who have ever had 
occasion to visit the place either for business or 
pleasure. The presence of these well-appointed 
houses, and the happy phase of pure family and 
social life that they have for years shown to 
the Malagasy, have had a most beneficial effect 
upon the domestic habits and ideas of these 
people, and they have indirectly exercised a very 
great civilising and elevating power throughout 
the land. The sharp lines of social and political 
differences that unfortunately divide us at 
home are lost out here, and the smaller matters 
of controversy and debate are forgotten or put 
