138 
MADAGASCAR 
of course be chosen. The people are indefatigable and 
easy-tempered, they have an accurate knowledge of 
the foot-paths, they choose their own quarters in the 
evening and always take good care that the customary 
hospitality is offered to the foreigner. It is better not 
to pay the bearers till the end of the journey, making 
no advances to them, but letting them meet all the 
expenses of the journey, and perhaps encouraging them 
with a glass of rum to keep them in good humour. 
The transport of goods in the interior is carried on 
exclusively by bearers, whose calling is easily recognized 
by their indurated shoulders. A man ordinarily carries 
from three quarters to one hundredweight. The burden 
is equally divided into two packets and fastened with 
raphia cords to a bamboo pole. The partitions between 
the segments are pierced with holes enabling the pole 
to receive the overall, some tobacco and other sundries. 
A load-bearer will cover lo to 13 miles a day. 
There is a special charm in travelling by water. A 
river voyage, in sight of the splendid vegetation on the 
banks, affords landscapes of most picturesque effect and 
is far less fatiguing than the seat in the filansana, which 
becomes somewhat uncomfortable after a time. Water¬ 
ways are numerous on the east side, and are rather 
animated at certain times of the year, especially when 
the rice crop is being forwarded to the coast. The boat 
is a large dug-out some 30 ft. long, with five or six seats, 
which is impelled by oars shaped like a spatula. The 
vast primeval trunks furnish inexhaustible material for 
these dug-outs, for which the hollowed trunk of the varongy- 
tree [Calophylhmi inopJiylhini) is mostly used. The regular 
movement of the oars is accompanied by soft and har¬ 
monious boat songs, or an improvisor sings of the 
occurrences of the journey, with flattering allusions to the 
foreigner, especially as to his liberality. Sometimes the 
song stops of a sudden and there comes a sudden cry of 
