CIIAP. XII. 
FORTIFICATION OF HOY A VILLAGES. 
335 
narrow gateway between two high unhewn granite stones, and 
proceeding by a narrow path over the ditch, which was about 
eighteen feet deep, and four or six feet wide. A number of 
peach trees growing within the enclosure, were just coming 
into bloom, and appeared to thrive well. A little euphorbia 
hedge, growing along the top of the fence inside the ditch, 
was covered with the richest deep-coloured scarlet flowers. 
The grass of large tracts of country over which we had passed, 
had been recently burned for the sake of securing fresh young 
grass for the cattle, and long lines of fire were occasionally 
seen traversing the plain or the mountain side, leaving nothing 
but a black smoky or ashy surface behind it. 
I was much impressed with the difference between the 
Hovas and the inhabitants of the country through which I 
had passed, as manifest in the position and defences of their 
villages, indicating that they must have been a marauding 
sort of people, ever liable to reprisals from other tribes, or 
else constantly engaged in war amongst themselves. Their 
villages are all built on the summits of hills, enclosed in clay 
walls of varied height and thickness, and having but one 
narrow and difficult entrance; being besides this surrounded 
by one or more deep ditches. These ditches around the 
villages were sometimes extended to a considerable distance 
from the walls enclosing their houses, and beyond these there 
were deep cuttings across any rising ground leading to the 
village. Great skill was manifested in the plan of these 
defences, as well as great labour in their completion. In no 
other country, perhaps, have the villages been so uniformly 
defended by this species of fortification as in this part of 
Madagascar. In this respect their defences appeared more 
elaborate and permanent than those I had noticed around the 
Pas of New Zealand, or the mountain fortresses of the South 
Sea Islands; the former, though generally fixed in positions 
affording greater natural security, were only defended by a 
