i62 
MADAGASCAR 
We havQ evidently to do with a mixture of Swali, 
Arabs and Malagasy. In Mayotta the Malagasy element 
is predominant, while the remaining Comoro people in¬ 
cline more to the Semitic type and are apparently crossed 
to a great degree with Arab blood. The oldest immi¬ 
grants may have come from Usambara. Mayotta was 
the latest settled; this was about 650 years ago, and 
almost simultaneously by Sakalava from Menabe and 
by people from the other Comoro islands. 
The small princes or Sultans are chiefly of Arab origin 
and hold strenuously to the precepts of the Koran. In 
the thirties a Malagasy named Ramanteka reigned in 
Mohilla. He was of the family of Radama and must 
have fled from Madagascar. After his death his daughter 
Djombi Fatombi was raised to the throne. In earlier 
times untrustworthy travellers passed unfavourable judg¬ 
ment on the inhabitants of the Comoro Isles, but in contrast 
with these Baron Claus von der Decken draws a very 
sympathetic picture of them. He describes them as 
harmless, gay people, often spending the whole of a 
moonlight night in dance and music. Their stature is on 
an average extremely powerful “ so that one gazes in 
sheer amazement at the Herculean stature of these 
Colossi.” Their language seems to be related to the 
Swali dialect, though the more erudite elements are 
strongly Arabic. 
Their mode of life is very simple. They live upon 
rice, meat, bananas and milk. It seems worthy of mention 
that the Comoro people marry comparatively late, and 
that their simplicity and strictness of morals are in 
favourable contrast with those of many African tribes. 
Their family life has something patriarchal about it. At 
weddings there is great profusion, and he who can manage 
it in any way will have 30 or 40 oxen slaughtered and 
distributed at the feast. 
In trade the small island of Mayotta has most impor- 
