200 
MADAGASCAR. 
remitted any portion of his earnings to his owner, 
as is the usual custom in the case of those who 
are employed in distant places for a weekly or 
monthly sum of wages. The master had long 
given up all hope of seeing the “ runaway ” again. 
He had duly execrated him, and then dismissed 
him from his memory possibly. Months and 
years passed away, and he was filled with the 
thoughts and cares of other things. His children 
grew up about him, his fields and orchards 
flourished, honours came to him from his sove¬ 
reign, and the name of the deserter was seldom 
or never mentioned in the household. It is the 
custom of the Government to send officers some¬ 
times on secret official business, to detect frauds 
in the revenue collectors, or to carry the wishes 
of the Queen to distant places and outposts of 
the army. My friend was called up to Imerina 
on one occasion, and entrusted with a mission of 
this sort. Having made his preparations, he 
started in due course upon his embassy, accom¬ 
panied by a following suitable to his rank. The 
town he had to visit was in some out-of-the-way 
part of the Bara country, and he reached it in 
due course, and was hospitably entertained by 
the great people of the district, according to the 
custom of the land. One day, in making an ex¬ 
cursion with some of the local grandees in his 
filanjana through one of the woods in the vici- 
