CHAP. V. 
VISIT TO A SICK CHIEF. 
117 
were taken to the custom house and afterwards deposited in 
a large new house belonging to M. Proving which stood 
in a healthy part of the settlement, and which he kindly 
granted for my use. The officers at the custom house ex¬ 
amined my things very carefully, and the number of bottles 
containing photographic chemicals as well as a small case of 
medicine included in my luggage induced them to regard me 
as a doctor, and one of them asked if I had anything to cure 
a headache. 
On the following day I took possession of my house in 
Tamatave, and while engaged in unpacking and arranging 
my luggage a messenger came from a neighbouring chief to 
ask for some medicine. I went forthwith to see him, and 
then sent him a small quantity of such medicine as I 
deemed most suitable. I was much struck with the novel 
aspect of social life which my visit to the sick chief afforded. 
I found him not in the large substantial house, with doors and 
windows, matted walls, and boarded floor, which he usually 
occupied, but in a low hut in the same enclosure. This I 
entered by a doorway near the farthest end. After passing 
through the outer doorway I entered a room about twenty 
feet long and twelve feet wide, the walls being about five feet 
high, and closed all round without window or door. About 
the centre of this room was a sort of raised hearth edged 
round with stones, on which a wood fire was burning. The 
room was dimly lighted by a lamp of native structure fixed 
in the sand of the hearth. The lamp itself was a curiosity, 
consisting of an iron rod two or three feet long, sharpened to 
a point a,t one end, and having a cup with a hook above it at 
the other. The sharp end of the rod was fixed in the sand. 
The cup contained melted fat. In this was a lighted wick of 
twisted cotton, and above the flame of the wick a piece of 
bullock’s fat was fixed on the hook, which, as it melted in the 
flame replenished the cup below. 
