We were now nearing the country of the Hovas, and could see an evident difference in the appearance of the inhabitants. They were lighter in colour and had longer and straighter hair than the coast tribes. But owing to the fashion, at that time, of both sexes wearing their hair done up in a number of knots, and from the apparent absence of whisker or beard, I was sometimes puzzled to know at first sight whether the people we passed were men or women; and there was little difference in dress, the _làmba_ being worn by both. Not only were the people different in appearance to those we had mostly seen, but the dwellings also had a much more civilised look. Several of the houses at Ambòdinangàvo were of the true Hova type, with high-pitched roofs, made of strong timber framing and filled in, for the walls, with thick upright planking, instead of the slight bamboos and leaves of the coast and forest houses. Some had boarded floors and had a room in the roof; and the crossed rafters at the gables were carried up for two or three feet above the ridge. The house in which I stayed had a much more comfortable appearance than any I had been in before, having two rooms on the ground floor, the walls covered with matting, and there were actually chairs! a luxury I had not experienced since leaving Tamatave. I felt that I was getting near civilisation again. While dinner was preparing I strolled out into a ravine near the house and was struck with the beauty and variety of the insects, as indeed I had been in many parts of the journey. There were butterflies of gorgeous hues, dragonflies, crimson, blue and dull gold in colour, grasshoppers with scarlet wings, and the very spiders with gold and silver markings. Some species of these latter were of great size; we saw hundreds of them in their large geometric webs stretching over the paths as we came along. [Sidenote: A COMBINATION OF BEAUTY]