204 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
tion to a feast was to eat bread ; and to take refreshment, 
of whatever it may consist, is, in the language of the 
country, to take bread: so, in Madagascar, to eat rice 
signifies to take a meal; whatever is taken besides, is called 
laoka , (the inei of the Polynesians,) something eaten with 
rice, their chief or staple food. 
Next to rice, the most valuable kinds of food are, the 
mai^e, or Indian corn, the manioc root, arrow-root, and 
several varieties of yam. To these may be added sweet 
potatoes, French beans, and most of the European esculent 
vegetables; besides many valuable roots that grow in the 
plains, woods, or valleys, without culture. The Irish potato 
has also been introduced, and is becoming a favourite 
article of food. Onions are exotic. Leeks, pumpkins, 
melons, with many agreeable and wholesome vegetables 
resembling greens or cabbage, and others that have thick 
and pulpy leaves, are eaten by the people. Capsicum, or 
Chili ginger, in a moist state, and saffron, are used as 
spices or condiments, together with salt, obtained by a 
process already described, or brought from the coast, 
where it is formed by evaporation. 
The fruits eaten by the people include pineapples, oranges, 
lemons of various kinds, citrons, peaches, wild figs of several 
kinds ; bananas and plantains, muscat grapes, Cape mulber¬ 
ries, several kinds of berries which grow without culture. A 
fruit resembling an unripe orange in appearance, the outer 
part of which consists of a shell of a pale yellow or straw 
colour, the inside being of a pulpy substance, inclosing 
a number of small seeds, and bearing a great resemblance 
to the guava; also sugarcane and sugar. 
A kind of bread called ampempa is used by the inha¬ 
bitants of some of the districts, particularly Imamo. It is 
a sort of unleavened bread made of Indian corn, which the 
