70 
MADAGASCAR 
with a strong admixture of a Hova element from Imerina. 
Their colour is described as being tolerably fair. While 
much given to drinking, and of a superstitious and silly 
nature, they are said to practise hospitality. Their chief 
business consists of fishing, rice culture, and cattle-raising. 
Their wealth in cattle is worthy of remark, well-to-do 
individuals often possessing from looo to 5000 head. 
Quite in the south of the central plateau dwell the 
Bara, apparently a degenerate Sakalava people, in whom 
the African peculiarities stand out unmixed. Their woolly 
hair is matted together in a number of tight knots with 
grease, wax and chalk, giving them a very strange 
appearance. By all accounts the people are represented 
as being rude, inhospitable, and extremely immoral. 
Certain tribes live in perpetual feud with one another. 
Robbery and theft are the order of the day. Even the 
Hova have not mastered the Bara. 
If we turn to the east coast we find the tribes of the 
Betsimisaraka far the most populous; their number is 
estimated at 800,000 souls. Their habitat extends to 
the forest girdle, reaching in the north as far as the 
Bay of Antongil, and in the south to about the 20th 
parallel of latitude. It is stated that the Betsimisaraka 
are akin to the Hova, but this statement cannot be in 
any way accepted. The colour indeed is strikingly fair, 
generally a light sepia brown, but, in spite of this, we 
have to do in this case, in so far as it has been subject 
to no admixture, with a genuine negro people. The 
woolly hair, the prominent cheek-bones, the flat and 
frequently depressed nose, and not least, the specific 
smell of the perspiration from the skin, point undoubtedly 
to an African origin. 
Originally the Betsimisaraka were a powerful people, 
aud were still flourishing in Flacourt’s time, but at present 
strong marks of degeneracy may be recognized. Among 
the men are to be found isolated types of tall power- 
