CHAP. XII. 
NATIVE SILK WEAVING. 
341 
having their sides formed by stones fixed in the ground; with 
sometimes a succession of smaller platforms one upon another, 
giving a sort of pyramidal form to the tomb; or else there are 
two or three large upright stones standing erect within the 
first stone enclosure. These tombs generally occupy small 
elevations at a short distance from the road. Some of them 
seemed to be ancient, and may justly be reckoned amongst 
the most remarkable and impressive antiquities of the 
country. 
There were many travellers on the road, and one native 
chief passed us on horseback, riding an excellent animal. 
Between three and four o’clock in the afternoon, we reached 
the small village of Amboipo, where a messenger from the 
queen’s secretary gave me a letter, requesting me to halt 
at that village for the night, as the queen had appointed the 
following day for my entering the capital, and that three 
officers would be sent to conduct me to my residence. 
On entering the house in which I was to spend the night, 
I found myself in a true Malagasy peasant’s cottage. The 
inside, not above twenty feet square, was divided by a rush 
partition into two compartments, or rooms. The first into 
which the door opened, was appropriated to a pen for 
calves, and a pen for lambs, in which one was bleating for 
a long time, and also a pen for ducks and chickens. The 
inner apartment was working-room, cooking-room, eating- 
room, sitting-room, and sleeping-room. In this inner apart¬ 
ment, when we entered, the husband was watching a large 
pot of rice boiling on the fire, and the wife was seated on a 
mat on the floor before a fragile rustic loom, weaving a fine 
silk lamba, or scarf, such as are worn by the Hova chiefs on 
holidays or public occasions. The loom was of most simple 
materials and primitive construction. Four stakes, of unequal 
length, fixed upright in the ground, with rods across, com¬ 
posed the framework of the loom. 
