68 
MADAGASCAR 
able to confirm. The bearing of the men is proud and 
self-reliant. 
The Sakalava women are tall and of plastic shapes; 
the beautiful, bright and expressive eyes, the animated 
features, the luxuriant hair, arranged with great pains, 
lend a noble aspect to their forms; their feet and hands 
especially are often of aristocratic delicacy. The flat 
nose, depressed at the base, is their only disfigurement. 
The cheerful, and on the whole good-natured, character 
of the Sakalava women, is very attractive. This favour¬ 
able opinion is increased by their tasteful and picturesque 
dress and by their cleanliness, which frequently extends 
to the interior of their houses. 
The character of the Sakalava as a people has not 
been represented entirely in a favourable light. A. Walen, 
who lived among the southern Sakalava for a consider¬ 
able time, describes them as arrogant, cunning, violent and 
thievish. In the last campaign of the French against the 
Hova they shewed themselves by no means entirely 
trustworthy, for they frequently stole back again during 
the night the cattle they had sold to the troops in the day. 
The Sakalava of the coast, extraordinarily venturesome 
on the sea, were at one time the most dreaded of pirates; 
they rendered the Mozambique Channel insecure and did 
a good deal of damage, especially to the Portuguese. 
Being warlike tribes, truly devoted to their kings, they 
held at one time the chief influence in the island, but at 
the beginning of this century they were brought under 
the yoke of the Hova. They have always endured this 
position with reluctance and they hate the Malayan 
element. 
The northern Sakalava are decidedly more civilised 
and more as^reeable than their racial allies in the south, 
but they too are shy of work, they are unfitted for em¬ 
ployment on plantations, and are given to a nomadic life. 
The men endeavour as far as possible to hand over all 
