NEW GROUND. 
211 
The wood used in their construction is un¬ 
dressed, and fastened by bark or wooden pegs, 
but no iron nails are used. The kings build 
larger houses for themselves, and in some cases 
these have an outer and inner wall. The in¬ 
side is plastered with cow-dung and roofed with 
very long grass. The Bara never use a north 
door while the father or mother of the couple 
who inhabit the house are alive. Every house 
has its fowls, and in some places there are geese 
and turkeys, and even pigs. Every man has his 
oxen, and there are sometimes as many as a 
thousand oxen in one town. 
The so-called kings are also very plentiful; 
in fact each Bara town possesses at least one, 
and the tribe has boasted in great kdbarys of 
its “ thousand kings.” These chiefs are per¬ 
petually at war with one another, and so long 
as they acknowledge Banavalona as their head, 
and do not molest the Betsileo and Hova gar¬ 
risons, they are allowed to fight out their own 
quarrels. This state of things is, however, not 
at all conducive either to the prosperity of the 
people or to the satisfactory development of 
the resources of the country, and one can only 
hope that in time a stronger power will be 
exercised from the capital over the turbulent 
and irrepressible Bara, for their own benefit 
as well as for the common weal. 
