318 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
raised eighteen inches or two feet above ground, by means 
of low posts driven into the earth; the frame of the house 
was joined together by mortise and tenon, notches and 
pins, with fastenings of the fibrous roots or bark of tough 
and durable plants, and were often ingeniously and firmly 
bound together, though the entire building did not contain 
a particle of iron. 
The doors and windows of the Malagasy houses generally 
consisted of a single board, and were opened or closed by 
sliding them backwards and forwards in a groove, at the 
top and bottom. The sides and ends of the house were 
boarded; the boards were fastened together by the edge of 
one board being fitted into a groove formed in the edge of 
the next. The chief article of furniture in all the houses 
was a bedstead, supported by four posts, and fixed against 
the side or end of the house. This was fastened with 
pins, or tied together with the tough elastic fibres of a 
native plant. 
The only remaining employment connected with the 
construction of the native dwellings, which it is necessary 
to notice as affording occasional occupation to large bodies 
of the people, is the putting on the roof or thatch, and the 
preparation of the stems of reeds for the structure of an 
inferior kind of hut. But so essential is it considered for 
all men to be acquainted with thatching and rice planting, 
and for all women to be skilled in weaving, that the practice 
of these arts may be considered not as distinct handicrafts, 
but as the ordinary work of the whole population. 
The native carpenter formerly pursued his work in his 
ordinary dwelling-house, or squatting on the ground in the 
open air. In 18 * 21 , the saw was introduced to Madagascar, 
and the natives taught the use of it by Monsieur Le Gros, 
a French carpenter, who introduced many improvements in 
