CHAP. V. 
DAILY MAKKET AT TAMATAYE. 
125 
plaited straw,, &c. Most of the articles were spread upon the 
ground, some on a little sort of raised platform of earth or 
sand, the sides of which were edged in a remarkable manner 
with the shoulder-bones of oxen stuck in the ground, the 
broad part upwards. The venders sometimes sat in the 
centre of the pla/tform and sometimes by the side. The 
butchers were busy cutting up the meat, which was spread 
upon the ground on broad plantain or other leaves. It was 
sold in pieces, not by weight. 
Mixed up with these articles were all kinds of poultry, 
including guinea-fowls which are native, and turkeys which 
have been introduced. In one place there were different 
kinds of black or brown parrots; and in another a man was 
very anxious to persuade me to buy three young tenrecs, 
apparently the spiny tenrec, which he had in a cage. A 
large black and white lemur, the ruffed lemur, a splendid 
animal, quite tame, was very attractively exhibited. I 
observed various kinds of salt, also tobacco in leaf and 
manufactured, as well as snuff in abundance; snuff-boxes or 
tobacco-boxes made of small pieces of polished cane, and 
a sort of perfume resembling ointment. I went into several 
of the houses, where numbers of lambas, or native scarfs, of 
varied pattern and quality were for sale. The patterns of 
some of the native fabrics were both tasteful and attractive. 
The money changers were busy cutting up dollars, and 
half and quarter dollars, and smaller pieces, cut silver, valued 
by weight, being the universal currency. They cut the dollar 
up by laying it on a block, placing a large knife upon it, and 
striking the knife with a hammer. This process was carried 
on at the threshold of the doors in the market. 
The greatest drawback to the interest which the novel 
spectacle of a market in Madagascar presented, was the 
great number of huts in which a barrel of arrak, a fiery 
kind of rum made in the island, was placed for sale. There 
