HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
123 
and meet an olive-coloured native, he would be quite safe 
in saying, “ This is a Hova,” as to his physical race and 
origin. But as that same Hova might happen also to be 
a nobleman, it would be an affront to call him a Hova, 
for he must be called an Andriana. Or, he might chance 
to be a slave, and then it would be a title of too much 
honour to call him Hova. 
The central province of Madagascar is now the country 
of the Hovas. They are not, however, the aborigines of 
this part of the country, and it is impossible to determine, 
with certainty, from what part of the island they came, 
and obtained possession of this region. It is, however, 
their general belief, that they came from the south-east of 
Madagascar, and gradually dispossessed the aborigines of 
the country. 
There is some ground for supposing the Vazimba were 
the first inhabitants of Ankova. The term Vazimba has 
three several significations. In its strictest sense, it 
appears to express the aborigines of the interior of the 
island of Madagascar, from whatever part of the coast 
they may have come. In a former part of this chapter, 
it has been mentioned that between the two famous rivers, 
Imania and Imanambolo, in Menabe, there exists a small 
race of people called Vazimba, and it has been at times 
thought, that they exhibit some correspondence with the 
accounts given by Rochon, of a people called the Kimos, 
inhabiting the interior of the island. The notices given 
by Rochon are far too long for insertion here, but the 
amount of them is briefly this, “ That in the interior of 
Madagascar is a nation of dwarfs, averaging three feet 
six inches in stature, called Kimos, (or Quimos,) that they 
are of a lighter colour than the negroes; their hair short 
and woolly, that their arms are unusually long, that their 
