34 
in rows crossing each other. The ladies of quality 
wear, in addition, a beautiful kind of shawl, called a 
pagna, made either of silk, cotton, or the filaments 
of the raven-tree, divided into exceedingly fine 
threads. Both men and women go bare-headed and 
bare-footed, except in the province of Manghabei, 
where the men wear a square cap, and the women a 
hood, pointed at the top, and hanging down over the 
shoulders. In the province of Eringdrane, stuffs are 
manufactured from the banana, very fine and light; 
equal in beauty to those of silk, and wove in the 
same manner. The cotton cloths, made in the pro¬ 
vince of Anossi, are the most esteemed, being the 
finest and strongest that are to be found on the 
island. 
The population of Madagascar is generally com¬ 
puted at about four millions; but Benyowsky, who 
was better acquainted with the northern provinces 
than his predecessors, estimates the number of males 
at two millions five hundred thousand, which, ac¬ 
cording to the usual proportions in other countries, 
makes the population much greater than we have 
stated. Taking it, however, at the utmost that his 
estimate will allow, it is very small in proportion to 
the extent of the island. But the operation of the 
slave-trade, and, still more, that of the practice of 
exposing their children, has effectually kept it down. 
The latter horrid practice, indeed, must annually 
have taken off such numbers, that instead of its ex¬ 
citing surprise that the inhabitants are so few, it is 
