THE GREAT NORTH-EAST. 
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about two years’ absence, and exposed the whole 
transaction, to the horror of the relatives of those 
who had been taken away by the Arab, and to 
the complete confusion and utter consternation 
of this worthy son of the Prophet, who said that 
there had been some mistake somewhere, and 
that he would go and inquire into the matter. 
His departure from amongst us was, to say the 
least of it, abrupt, and when last I heard from 
Andevoranto and from our people there, he had 
not returned. Perhaps he has found the problem 
he set out to solve more complicated than he 
anticipated ! 
A little north of Imerina lies the Antsihanaka 
country, a district inhabited by a small but 
interesting clan of people called the Sihanaka. 
Little was known about this tribe till recently, 
and the information which has come to hand 
is quite of a nature to make us wish to have 
a more extended knowledge of the place and its 
population. Antsihanaka may be described as 
an undulating oval plain about forty-five miles 
in length from north to south, and twenty-five 
miles broad from east to west. Many of the 
villages stand on the extreme border of the 
plain; but a few are found in the very centre 
of the swamp, which is chiefly made up of 
large tracts of rice-field and enormous marshes. 
The oval plain of Antsihanaka may be divided 
