128 
MADAGASCAR 
the Madagascar cattle were introduced from Africa, or at 
any rate that they were not brought with them by the 
Hova from their former island home near Southern Asia. 
The Hova found the cattle naturalized among the African 
tribes when they arrived in Madagascar. 
We can distinguish two breeds; the cattle of the central 
and eastern part of the island with medium-sized horns, 
and the Sakalava cattle of the west with gigantic horns. 
The former breed has ascending horns, generally crescent¬ 
shaped, which may well be designated large; while the 
Sakalava breed has lyre-shaped ascending horns, turning 
somewhat backwards and of still more remarkable size. 
The Madagascar cattle have the closest anatomical rela¬ 
tionship with the Sanga of Abyssinia, in which also there 
are two breeds. 
The existence of the Sanga breed in Madagascar is 
all the more surprising at the first glance, because in the 
whole East Coast of Africa, from Somaliland to the 
Zambesi district, with a tolerably broad strip of land 
behind it, there are only short-horned cattle. The Sanga 
breed has only been supplanted in these regions during 
later times, for it appears from a discovery made in 
Upper Egypt by Prof. Naville, that Pharaoh’s people 
brought back cattle from Somaliland together with dogs, 
giraffes and other animals, and that these belonged to 
the long-horned Sanga breed. 
Cattle universally hold a pre-eminent position in the 
circle of Malagasy ideas. They are used as beasts of 
sacrifice at feasts, religious ceremonies, funerals, etc. 
They are made use of for labour in the rice plantations; 
the meat, which is uncommonly cheap (about a halfpenny 
a pound), forms, after rice, the most important article of 
food; the hides are carried by bearers to the coast; it is 
reckoned that 200,000 ox-hides are exported every year 
from the harbours of Tamatave and Majunga. The 
export of live stock is very important; the oxen are princi-^ 
