CHAPTER VI 
POPULATION 
Small as is the distance of the great island from the 
neighbouring continent, its population bears a markedly 
different stamp from that of Africa, and seems to be 
absolutely unique. In this wonderful mixture of peoples 
there is absolutely no unity of character. We meet with 
the greatest contrasts, not only in respect to the general 
morphological condition of the inhabitants, and the colour 
of their skin, but also with regard to their intellectual 
culture, their material well-being, their customs and their 
political institutions. While on the one side we are sur¬ 
prised by the open hospitality and amiability of many 
tribes, we meet in turn with rudeness and repellant 
behaviour among others. Here we are charmed by the 
cleanliness and domestic comfort in the villages, there 
we find brutalised forms of indescribable filth. In many 
districts we find the greatest sobriety and austerity, in 
others prevail licentious manners and moral degradation, 
to which it is difficult to find a parallel. These contrasts 
explain the contradictory and often one-sided accounts 
of travellers concerning the people of Madagascar. 
The origin and anthropological position of the several 
tribes have long formed the subject of lively discussion. 
Yet the matter is comparatively simple, so long as we 
do not allow ourselves to be influenced by linguistic 
methods, but confine ourselves to morphological facts. 
The geographical position of the island suggests an 
African immigration for the Malagasy, and the English¬ 
man Crawfurd actually went so far as to look upon the 
