I must add a word or two more about this “fine old _Malagasy_ gentleman, all of the olden time.” It appeared that he had been governor at Ankàrana for more than twenty years, and before then was lieutenant-governor at Mànanjàra. We were somewhat shocked to find that each of the three buxom ladies who accompanied him about was his wife, and further, that he had another as well, whom we did not see. The pastor told us that he had been admonished as to the impropriety of his conduct in this respect, but he had been unable as yet to make up his mind which of them to put away, and which to keep, out of the four. He seemed quite a little king in the district he commanded, and our servants told us that he was a most courageous old fellow, delighted to hear of there being any enemies to be met with anywhere, and going off to fight them with the greatest alacrity. Yesterday, when the feast was being cooked, he sat in the courtyard, gun in hand, shooting first a fowl, then a pigeon, and then a pig, all of which, in addition to what was already preparing, he ordered to be instantly cooked with the rest. They also say that he is very rich, owning five hundred cattle and two hundred slaves, and that he is always most hospitable to all strangers. Certainly we found him to be so. Besides the abundant kindness he showed us at Ankàrana, he sent with us an escort and guides, twelve soldiers, two officers, and a drummer, besides as many baggage bearers as we required to replace the men who were ill. We were interested to find that many of our bearers met with relatives in these coast provinces. The mothers of several of them were brought up from these parts as slaves, when children, in Radàma’s cruel wars. The most remarkable circumstance was that our cook discovered that one of the governor’s wives at Ankàrana was his mother’s sister. And at the same place another of our men found that the chief people of the Taisàka village were his mother’s brothers. [Sidenote: PRIMITIVE DISHES AND SPOONS] Our lodging on the evening of the day we left Ankàrana was in another sample of the “well-dunged village,” although we procured a tolerably good house in it. While taking lunch in one of the other villages, we noticed the primitive dishes and spoons used by the people. The former consist of the strong tough leaf of the pandanus-tree, which is doubled over at one end so as to retain rice or liquid. The spoons are pieces of the leaf of the traveller’s tree, folded up so as easily to carry food to the mouth. This pandanus has a fruit, yellow in colour, and something in shape and size like a pineapple without its tuft of leaves. When dry it is brown in colour, and each hexagonal division when separated from the rest is like a tough wooden peg, and utterly uneatable. [Sidenote: A FUNERAL MEMORIAL]