Poor children! they have little advantages compared with English boys and girls, and they have few amusements. They sometimes play at a game which is very like our “fox and geese”; the boys spin peg-tops and play at marbles; the little children make figures of oxen and birds, etc., out of clay; the boys are fond of a game resembling the lassoing of wild oxen, by trying to catch their companions by throwing a noose over them; and the big boys have a rough and violent game called _mamèly dìa mànga_, in which they try to throw an opponent down by kicking backward at each other, with the sole of the foot, which is darted out almost as high as their heads. Ribs are sometimes broken by a violent kick. Perhaps the most favourite amusement of Malagasy children is to sit in parties out of doors on fine moonlight nights and sing away for hours some of the monotonous native chants, accompanying them with regular clapping of hands. In about a fourth of these villages, where there are churches, a mission day school is still carried on, and here may be seen, if we look in, a number of bright-looking children repeating their _a_, _b_, _d_ (not _c_), reading and writing, doing sums, learning a little grammar and geography, and being taught their catechism, and something about the chief facts and truths of the Bible. And perhaps there is no more pleasant sight in Madagascar than one of the larger chapels on the annual examination day, filled with children from the neighbouring villages, all dressed in their best, eager to show their knowledge, and pleased to get the Bible or Testament or hymn-book or other prize given to those who have done well. [Sidenote: GLORIOUS SUNSETS] A few words may be said here about the aspect of the heavens in Imèrina, especially at evening and night. We are highly favoured in having sunsets of wonderful beauty; the western sky burns with molten gold, orange and crimson; and as the sun nears the horizon, the ruddy landscape to the east is lighted up more and more intensely every moment with glowing colour, the natural hue of the soil being heightened by the horizontal rays; the distant lines of hill, range after range, are bathed in every shade of purple light, and the long lines of red clay walls glow like vermilion in the setting sunshine. How often have we watched this glorious display of light and colour, and thanked God for this beautiful world! But the nights, especially near the time of full moon, are also very enjoyable. The moon appears more brilliant and her light more intense than in England; it is a delight to be out of doors and to walk in the fresh bracing air, and to have the rough paths illuminated for us by the silvery radiance, which gives a picturesque beauty to the most commonplace objects and scenes.