300 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
distances from each other, in every large tract of country 
laid out in rice-fields, a portion of ground of considerable 
extent is left solid, on which one or two houses or sheds 
are erected, and occasionally a tree or two planted. Here 
an open space, generally near a fragment of rock or large 
stone, is left, as a general threshing-floor, on which the rice 
is beaten from the stalk or straw, before carried home to 
the granary or store-house of its owner. 
The mode of threshing, if such it may be called, is sin¬ 
gular. No flail or stick is used, but the floor, of hard clay, 
being cleaned, the rice is taken in large handfuls, and beaten 
against a stone or on the floor, till the grain is separated 
from the straw; this is continued till the whole is finished, 
when it is winnowed to separate the grain from the beards 
and fragments of straw ; after which it is carried in baskets, 
holding about a bushel each, on the heads of the slaves, to 
