POPULATION 
71 
ful build and beautiful regularity of body, but in all 
we are struck by the abnormally long trunk. The counte¬ 
nance exhibits a scanty beard and ends in a sharp chin. 
The women are small and active, but often ugly. 
The shape is angular, the neck immoderately long, 
the forehead low and the cheek-bones strongly prom¬ 
inent. The woolly hair is separated into quadrangular 
portions and twisted into knots, four on the top of the 
head and six or eioht at the back. 
o 
Their character was not a bad one originally, but 
contact with the often dubious Creole elements of the 
neighbouring islands of Reunion and Mauritius has 
degraded the people; the brandy plague especially has 
taken a strong hold of them, so that in many of the coast 
villages a truly besotted mode of life prevails. For 
European undertakings it would be an advantage if what 
there is yet to be preserved of this once able people were 
saved as soon as possible. Hospitality is largely practised 
by these tribes and they hold Europeans in high esteem. 
The Tanala inhabit the wooded region in the south¬ 
east, to the east of Betsileo-land. Their features are 
regular and there is possibly a considerable admixture of 
Hova blood. Their intellectual endowments are not high. 
The Antanossi, dwelling in the district about Eort 
Dauphin, are said to constitute a mixed race and their 
hair is described as curly; perhaps the admixture of 
Arabic blood is not inconsiderable. 
Besides the peoples named, some few groups of Asi¬ 
atic settlers play a certain part in Madagascar. The influx 
of Arabs must have been not unimportant in former times, 
as specimens of Arabic writing were still to be found in 
Elacourt’s time. At present the Arabic element has with¬ 
drawn to the Sakalava coast. Indian traders not only live 
at almost all the places on the coast, but even make their 
way to the interior. Of late also the inevitable Chinese 
have appeared on the soil of Madagascar. 
