HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
95 
shops have to pay the landlord as rent, a certain amount, 
according to the extent of their purchase, frequently about 
say one penny in every dollar. 
In nearly all the houses, a hearth or fire-place is made, 
not far from the centre of the building, consisting of three, 
or usually five square upright stones, fixed at suitable 
distances, and used in cooking. No chimneys exist; hence 
the annoyance from the smoke is great, and, in some of 
the houses whose roofs are low, it is intolerable to a Euro¬ 
pean. Most of the natives have fires occasionally kept 
in all their dwellings, though the cooking may be performed 
in a detached building. The climate of Madagascar is suf¬ 
ficiently cool, during a greater part of the year, to render 
a fire an agreeable domestic companion, especially during 
their evening hours. 
One peculiarity in the construction of Malagasy houses 
respects the roof. The pitch is generally much greater 
from the wall-plate to the ridge, than the height of the 
building from the ground to the lower edge of the roof. 
Fifteen feet for the height of the walls, and twenty-three 
for the roof, is not unusual. At the gable-ends are also 
placed long poles, ornamented by rudely carved ornaments 
at the extremity. The greater the rank of the owner of 
the house, the longer the poles. The prerogative of 
building the highest house in the capital, belongs to 
the sovereign; no one dares build his house above the 
king’s. The European method of building with roofs of a 
lower pitch, and with sloping ends, has been generally 
adopted in the houses lately built, and promises to supersede 
the plan of building with steep gable-ends. The chief 
objection to it with a Malagasy is, that neither his father 
nor his grandfather built their dwellings in that form. 
The thatching of the roof, in good houses, consists of the 
