As we proceeded, the country became more hilly and with more extensive woods; but as for population, not a soul did we see, except two women at one spot, and again we asked, where are the people? And here a few words may be said about the inhabitants of this part of the country. Along about two-thirds of the western side of Madagascar, the people are loosely called Sàkalàva; but every district has its people with its own tribal name, for “Sàkalàva” was originally the name of one particular tribe, which, through European or Arab admixture and the possession of fire-arms, conquered the other tribes and founded two kingdoms, Ibòina to the north, and Mènabé to the south. These Sàkalàva kingdoms were the dominant ones in the island until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the Hovas gradually obtained the leadership. Physically, these people are taller and stronger than the Hovas, are darker in colour, less civilised, and have an African strain in them, from their proximity to the continent. Still, they are not of African stock, but are no doubt, Melanesian in origin. Their language presents a good deal of difference from the Hova form of Malagasy, both in vocabulary and in pronunciation, yet the groundwork and the grammar is essentially the same. They are more nomadic in habit than the Hovas, breaking up their villages at the death of any of its inhabitants, and not cultivating rice like most Malagasy tribes, but subsisting largely on manioc root, bananas, fish and vegetables. [Sidenote: AN OFFENSIVE TREE] We stopped to lunch under a fine adàbo-tree; all along the main branches of this tree, the small fig-like fruits were clustered by hundreds, most of them being ripe and scarlet in colour. During an afternoon’s voyage the river became narrower, but with a deep and strong current. We lost the fan-palms, but passed for some miles along a beautifully wooded portion of country, with fine large trees, like those in an English park, and growing close to the water’s edge. One of these beautiful trees, however, has a very vile odour when cut up for timber, so that although the wood is good for carpentry, when new it is in the highest degree offensive. It is called _Komàngo_, and the people say that its smell, as a tree, is so strong that birds settling on its branches die immediately. A high price is given for chips or twigs of the tree, to be used as charms, for few are daring enough to cut it down. [31] _Mòka_ is the native word for “mosquito”; _Mòkafòhy_ is, literally, “short mosquito”; but the insect is not a gnat, but a fly, and its name is, more correctly, _Alòy_. CHAPTER XXIII TO THE NORTH-WEST COAST