HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
317 
as beasts of burden, or trained them to the yoke, their 
heavy trees are all conveyed by men employed to drag 
them from the forests to the places where they are 
used; and it is to this cause that the high price of tim¬ 
ber at the capital is chiefly to be ascribed. Many of the 
trees are brought to the capital whole, others are split 
into planks. Formerly, like the natives of the South Sea 
islands, and some other parts, the Malagasy never thought 
of obtaining more than two planks or boards from a single 
tree, however large that tree might be. This they effected 
by splitting the tree in halves with their hatchets and 
chisels, or wedges, and then chopping away the outside 
till it was sufficiently reduced to answer the purpose for 
which it was intended. The woodcutters still obtain the 
thick boards they bring to market for sale in the same 
manner; but many of the natives at the capital have 
been taught to use the pit-saw, and obtain as many boards 
as the dimensions of the tree will admit. 
Prior to the settlement of Europeans in Ankova, the 
carpentry of the natives was as rude and simple as their 
work at the forge. The use of the saw was unknown; their 
tools, in 1820 , when the first Missionaries arrived amongst 
them, consisted of a hatchet, chisels of different sizes, a 
rude sort of plane, a wooden hammer or mallet, a drill or 
borer, worked by twisting it between the palms of the 
hands, and a rule, or graduated measuring-rod, six or eight 
feet long. Since that time, tools, used by workmen in 
Europe, have been introduced, and have been readily 
adopted by the native carpenters. Their work was often 
strong, and usually neat, and in appearance well finished. 
A description of the native houses, the construction of 
which formed the chief occupation of the carpenters, has 
been already given. They were, in some parts of the island, 
