This list is, I think, a very interesting one, and shows the primitive pastoral and agricultural habits of the Hova Malagasy before they were influenced by European civilisation. Previous to their knowledge of clocks and watches (which are still unknown to the majority of people away from the capital), the native houses thus served as a rude kind of dial. As, until recent times, these were always built with their length running north and south, and with the single door and window facing the west, the sunlight coming in after midday at the open door gave, by its gradual progress along the floor, a fairly accurate measure of time to people amongst whom time was not of very much account. In the forenoon, the position of the sun, nearly square with the eastern purlin of the roof, marked about nine o’clock; and as noon approached, its vertical position, about the ridge-pole, or at least its reaching the meridian, clearly showed twelve o’clock. Then, as the sunlight gradually passed westward and began to peer in at the door, at about one o’clock, it announced “the peeping-in of the day” (_mitsìdika àndro_); and then, as successive points on the floor were reached by the advancing rays, several of the hours of the afternoon were sufficiently clearly marked off: “the place of rice-pounding” (_am-pitotòam-bàry_), as the light fell on the rice mortar, further into the house; “the calf-fastening place” (_am-pamatòran-jànak òmby_), as the rays reached one of the three central posts supporting the ridge, and where the calf was fastened for the night; and then, “touching” (_tàfapàka_), when the declining sunshine reached the eastern wall, at about half-past four in the afternoon. Other words and notes of time, it will be seen, are derived from various natural phenomena. Some other words for the division of time used by the Malagasy may be here noted. Thus “a rice-cooking” (_indray màhamàsa-bàry_) is frequently used to denote about half-an-hour; while “the frying of a locust” (_indray mitòna valàla_) is a phrase employed to describe a moment. Many words exist in the Malagasy language to denote different appearances of nature which are somewhat poetical and seem to show some imaginative power. Thus the light fleecy clouds in the upper regions of the atmosphere are called “sky gossamer” (_faròran-dànitra_); the sun is the “day’s-eye” (_masoandro_); the galaxy is the “dividing of the year” (_èfi-taona_); the rainbow is “God’s great knife” (_àntsibèn’ Andrìamànitra_); and a waterspout is the “tail of the sky” (_ràmbon-dànitra_). We saw just now that in Imèrina the native houses, with the sun touching different parts of them, form a kind of primitive sun-dial; so it may be well here to say something about the structure and arrangement of a native house in this part of Madagascar. [Sidenote: THE HOVA HOUSE]