356 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. XIII* 
few days after reaching his home. He was a fine noble- 
looking man, in the prime of life, about thirty years of age. 
He stood six feet two inches high, and told me his father was 
two inches taller than himself. On the same day, soon after 
the officers from the palace had left me, I was informed that 
the family of this chief wished to visit me. I bade them 
welcome; and the father of him whom I used to call my 
tall friend , himself an erect noble-looking man, between 
fifty and sixty years of age; his mother, a matronly woman; 
the widow of my friend, a healthy interesting-looking woman 
about five and twenty, and five children, all entered my 
apartment. The father seated himself in a chair, the mother 
and the widowed daughter-in-law sate on the ground; the 
widow carried a little boy in her arms, and the other children 
placed themselves on the floor around her. The interpreter, 
who did not know of my former acquaintance with the chief, 
said, “ Who are you ?” The venerable-looking man said, “ I 
am Ea-’s father.” He then looked at his wife, and she 
said, “ I am his mother; ” and pointing to the young woman 
by her side, she said, “ This is his widow, and these are his 
children.” The father then said, “We have come with a 
small present in token of our love, for our son loved you, and 
spoke much of you. We shall never see him again, but 
seeing you seems to bring him back to our thoughts.” His 
servants then brought in the present, consisting of poultry, 
eggs, and rice. I thanked him, and told them it was a great 
satisfaction to me to see them; that I had mourned when I 
heard of their son’s death, but hoped they were comforted. 
I had taken several photographic portraits of this chief 
while in Tamatave, and after conversing a short time I took 
out of my portfolio a small likeness of my friend, and handed 
it to the father. He looked at it, and wept. The mother 
took it, pressed it to her lips and kissed it, for some minutes 
weeping silently, but profusely. A full-length portrait I 
