150 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VI. 
came to inquire what new or needed articles I had brought 
to sell; but far greater numbers came to endeavour to induce 
me to buy. Almost all classes appear exceedingly fond of 
bartering, or buying and selling; and no long intervals 
passed with me uninterrupted by persons coming to offer 
either poultry, eggs, honey, or articles of native manufacture, 
for sale. 
Among the latter were some beautiful mats, for covering their 
boors or forming their beds. Their sleeping-mats are generally 
of one uniform colour, but in some instances the patterns 
are worked in different colours formed by steeping the rushes 
in native dyes, which are permanent, and yet allow the rush 
to retain its smooth and shining appearance. The only 
colours X observed in these articles were black and various 
shades of red. 
With a similar kind of rush they also weave great numbers 
of matting-bags, in which they preserve their rice, both for 
their own use and for exportation. But the article most 
extensively manufactured throughout the island, both for 
home use and for exportation, is a coarse kind of cloth 
woven with the thread or strips of the young inner leadets 
of the rofia palm. These leadets are from three to four 
feet long, but in weaving the cloth a number of the split 
threads are fastened together, and the cloth is made in 
pieces generally four yards in length and nearly a yard 
wide. The texture of the cloth is rather coarse and stiff to 
the touch, but exceedingly tough and durable; the colour 
is a sort of nankeen-yellow, with two or three stripes of 
blue, produced by preparations of native indigo, extending 
through the whole length. Roda cloth is used for many 
purposes in the island, and constitutes almost the only 
clothing of the labouring classes. The threads of this cloth 
are dat and untwisted. I have entered some of the houses 
in which the process of weaving was going on, and found the 
