124 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
females generally nourish their young with cow’s milk; that 
in intellectual faculties they are equal to other inhabitants 
of the island; that they are active, industrious, and cou¬ 
rageous; that they manufacture iron and steel, of which 
they make lances and assagays; that they have villages on 
the summits of high mountains, live chiefly on vegetables, 
and rear great quantities of cattle; that they hold no 
communication with the other islanders, and are perfectly 
peaceable, unless provoked and attacked.” The writer 
adds, “ that at the distance of two or three days’ journey 
from Fort Dauphin are several small barrows or hillocks, 
owing their origin to a former massacre of these Kimos.” 
Singular as this account is, particularly in the instance 
of the diminutive stature of the people described, it is 
confidently reported, that on the banks of the rivers already 
named, there still exists a race of natives corresponding 
generally with the particulars stated by Rochon. The 
distance, however, of these rivers from Fort Dauphin 
is considerably greater than the situation mentioned by 
Rochon as the country of this nation of dwarfs. He 
speaks of sixty leagues north-west of Fort Dauphin, and 
west of Matitany. The distance to the rivers in Menabe 
must be, according to any calculation approaching to 
accuracy, 100 or 120 leagues. The people may, however, 
have migrated farther north within the last century; or, 
what is still more probable, Rochon’s account may have 
been incorrect. 
Flacourt treats the subject in a very brief and cavalier¬ 
like style, regarding the whole account as fabulous, and 
forming merely an amusing counterpart to the stories of 
the giants. Rochon condemns the incredulity of Flacourt, 
and thinks he has solid facts to oppose to his scepticism 
on the point. The most objectionable part of the account 
