140 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. V. 
cially those whose portraits I secured, I found myself in¬ 
voluntarily speculating on the origin of the different races, 
and the causes of the aspect and bearing which they exhibited. 
The style of head shown in the accompanying portrait was 
confined to the Hovas. I never saw anything approaching to 
it among the other races, though with similar features; the 
colour was among the Hovas, in some instances, as dark as 
that of any on the island. I found myself continually ques¬ 
tioning in my own mind, whether some of the Hovas were 
originally black; or if not, whether by intermarriages with 
darker races, and other causes, they had retained their 
peculiar style of features but changed their colour, and 
thus afford additional evidence that the form of feature 
was more permanent than colour. Sodra, whose portrait, as 
well as those of the bearers of my palanquin, and the women 
at the well, together with the woman with the child at her 
back, in the same engraving with the Hova woman, are all 
Betsimasaraka inhabitants of the eastern coast. The manner 
of wearing their hair resembles that of the natives of Quilli- 
mane, on the Zambesi river, as described by Commodore 
Owen in a paper published in the second volume of the 
Transactions of the Gieographical Society, but this is a coin¬ 
cidence too trifling to support any conclusion as to their 
African origin. With regard to the Hovas, no doubt can be 
entertained that they are descended from the ancient race 
from which the Malayan Archipelago and Eastern Polynesia 
derive their inhabitants. Further remarks on this subject 
would interfere with the purpose of my narrative, which has 
been to record what I observed, leaving others to deduce 
their own conclusions ; and I shall be happy if the portraits 
I have furnished prove acceptable to any who may be in-* 
terested in that important branch of inquiry which relates 
to the several varieties of the human family. 
My visitors were generally as willing to have their houses 
