210 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
meals, as is customary among Europeans. A part of their 
meal is usually of a fluid rather than a solid nature, and 
this eaten with their rice seems to render it less necessary 
for them to drink at the time of eating. 
A distilled spirit, known under the general name of 
“ toaka,” is occasionally used throughout the island, but 
only as a luxury, not as a common beverage. 
To the parts of the coast visited by Europeans, rum and 
arrack have been principally imported, and sold to the na¬ 
tives by the bottle or cask. These drugs are also taken in 
exchange for rice, and have involved many families in want 
and ruin. A very large distillery of ardent spirits was 
established a few years ago on the eastern coast. It is 
carried on by the agents of a mercantile house having 
extensive connexions at the Isle of Bourbon, and its opera¬ 
tion threatens serious mischief to the people. 
The use of ardent spirits is prohibited at the capital; the 
law, however, is frequently evaded. Considerable quanti¬ 
ties are used there, though for the most part within the 
precincts of the palace-yard, whence the laws emanate, and 
whence also indulgences are obtained, since, in a state of 
society resembling that prevailing in Madagascar, legisla¬ 
tors do not always feel bound by their own laws. 
How long the art of distillation has been known in the 
island, cannot be ascertained. But in various parts of 
Madagascar, an inferior, and to a European palate disagree¬ 
able spirit is prepared, from the sugarcane, or from honey, 
or from the berries of the Buddleia Madagascarensis, and 
some other native productions. A juice is also produced 
by the rofia-tree, which is much relished by the natives, 
and is obtained in a manner similar to that in which toddy 
is obtained in India. The natives make a hole in the tree 
extending to the centre, tie a bottle to it, and leave it a 
