A European would be equally puzzled as to obtaining fire to cook his yams, were he so fortunate as to find any; but a forest-dwelling Malagasy could easily produce fire by friction. Choosing two pieces of a particular kind of wood, he would cut one to the shape of a round stick with a pointed end; the other he would make into a flatter piece, in which a slight groove is cut. Taking hold of the pointed stick, the operator twirls it first one way and then another, until the friction produces smoke and then fire, which is communicated to a little tinder placed close to the point. Gently blowing upon the spark which is produced, the tinder bursts into flame, the whole operation occupying only a few minutes. There are special words for this mode of obtaining fire: _mamòsitra_, which is also used for the boring of a hole by an insect, or a chameleon, to deposit its eggs; and _miraingy_, the pieces of wood being called _raingy_. But it may be feared that the universal use of Swedish matches will soon render this means of producing fire one of the lost arts. To tend a fire is, in Malagasy, to _misòrona àfo_; and since _misòrona_ also means “to exercise a priestly function,” it looks as if this word or phrase was a relic of ancient reverence for fire as a sacred thing, a feeling which is found in the customs and speech of many peoples. [Sidenote: WATERFALLS] In several directions there are beautiful waterfalls, to which a pleasant picnic excursion may be made. One of these is called “Tsi-màharé-rìtsoka,” which means, “Where a whisper cannot be heard,” for indeed, when near it, you must bawl as loud as you can to be heard at all; this fall is a succession of cascades, coming down from a considerable height. At another place a large body of water pours at one sweep over a great ledge of rock, perhaps thirty feet deep. And along the automobile road, only a few yards from it up a little valley leading into the main valley of the river Mandràka, we were fortunate one day to discover a most lovely waterfall of considerable height in the midst of dense wood, with a large pool of water at its foot, where a delightful bathe might be taken; an ideal place for a summer day. But the largest and grandest waterfall, and within a little over an hour’s walk from the sanatorium, is really an artificial one; for in making the automobile road to Tamatave along the Mandràka valley, the river was diverted from a circuitous course over a number of rapids, and brought by a short-cutting over a nearly sheer fall of about a hundred and fifty feet, where it pours down a magnificent body of water, with a roar and clouds of spray that wet everything for a long way round. The sides of the cutting are being rapidly covered with vegetation from the constant moisture, so that in a short time it will have all the effect of a natural fall. The noise is tremendous, and the fall can be seen from several points on the main road. [Sidenote: FROGS]