Farther north along this coast there is a large proportion of trees of considerable size, in addition to the pandanus and more shrubby vegetation seen farther south. The latter also attain a much greater height in the struggle to get up to the light amongst the crowd of other trees. In one spot for some distance there was no undergrowth, but “a pillared shade” of the slender trunks of the pandanus, while high overhead their graceful crowns of long saw-edged leaves made a canopy impervious to the sun. Among the larger trees one called _atàfa_ (_Terminalia catappa_) is prominent; in these the branches strike directly at right angles from the trunk and then spread away horizontally for a considerable distance. The leaves are spatula-shaped and from eight to ten inches long, and a large proportion of them are always a ruddy brown or scarlet, giving a blaze of colour. The tree is called also the “Indian almond,” and the kernel of the fruit is edible. While waiting for a canoe, we walked two or three hundred yards towards the outlet of a small river, and were startled by a crocodile only a few feet in front of us, rousing himself from his nap in the setting sunshine, and waddling off into the river. About seventy miles north of the Màtitànana river we came to an extensive lagoon stretching northward for several miles. This appeared to be the first—from the south—of that remarkable series bordering the shore and extending with but few breaks nearly to Tamatave, a distance of two hundred and sixty miles (see Chapter III.). Along the northern side of this lagoon are masses of lava rock, some of it in enormous blocks. [Sidenote: THE TAIMÒRO TRIBE] We found here that we had reached another centre of population, an important settlement of the Taimòro tribe; the principal chief, a very fine tall man, came to see us, and was extremely polite and kind. We were amused to see his daughters, two nice little girls, attended by all the other children of the village, who were going through the peculiar monotonous native singing with clapping of hands; while these two girls moved together slowly backwards and forwards, and with a slow movement of their feet, and a graceful movement of the hands, performed a native dance. They were strikingly different from the other children in their dress, having scarlet caps, with a long veil behind of coloured print, jackets of figured stuff and a skirt of scarlet or a broad girdle of the same colour. Afterwards they were mounted on the shoulders of two stout girls, who went through the same performance with their feet, while the little girls moved their hands and arms. At a village where we stayed it was the custom that no bird or animal could be killed for food except by someone belonging to the family of the native king. This agrees with what is stated by Drury and other early writers on Madagascar as to the customs of many tribes in the south-west of the island. [Sidenote: AN OBJECT OF WONDER]