HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
299 
strong winds also occasion great loss, by shaking the ripe 
grain out of the ear. 
Should no calamity of the kind occur, and the season 
favour the gathering in of the ripened grain, the family 
are all on the alert, and active in securing the plenteous 
harvest, some working up to their middle almost in water. 
In cutting the rice, the reapers always use a large knife 
instead of a hook or sickle, and lay down the corn in 
handfuls on the stubble; women and children follow after, 
and tie up the handfuls in small sheaves which are set 
up to dry for two or three days before being carried away. 
Besides the rice grown in the manner now described, 
there is another kind grown on high ground, usually the 
gently-sloping sides of the hills. In preparing the soil for 
the latter, the wood is felled, and the least valuable parts 
of it burnt on the ground. The rice-seeds are planted 
among the ashes, and, watered by the heavy periodical 
rains, generally yield as rich a harvest as that planted in 
the low lands, and so frequently covered with water. The 
latter kind is called horaka , the former tavy. There is no 
difference in the appearance of the grain, and the same 
price is obtained for both kinds in the market. 
The natives of Madagascar have never attempted to 
accustom the oxen, which are so numerous in the country, 
to any kind of work, except that of trampling the soil to 
prepare it for planting; they have neither wagon, cart, 
sledge, nor beast of burden; the produce of the fields is 
therefore carried in large bundles on the heads of the 
slaves from the field, to what may be called the Malagasy 
threshing-floor. It has been already stated, that the growth 
of rice requires that the ground should, during a part 
of the year, be covered with water, and be generally kept 
in a moist or soft state till the grain is ripe. At unequal 
