[Chennai College Students Brandishing Sickle Caught On Camera Chasing Another Group, 7 Injured
Julieann Rohde
The stone is levered into position closing the opening. A deep fosse or ditchsurrounding the village completes its fortification. The man in front is carryingtwo packages secured to a pole in the usual manner of the country
Chennai College Students Brandishing Sickle Caught on Camera Chasing Another Group, 7 Injured
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But I ask the courteous reader to wander with me into thewonderful and mysterious forests, and to observe the gentlelemurs in their home, as they leap from tree to tree, or takerefuge in the thickets of bamboo; to come out in the dusk andwatch the aye-aye as he stealthily glides along the branches,obtaining his insect food under the bark of the trees; to listento the song of numerous birds, and to note their habits andcurious ways; to hear the legends and folk-tales in which theMalagasy have preserved the wisdom of their ancestors withregard to the feathered denizens of the woods and plains, andto admire the luxuriant vegetation of the forests, and the treesand plants, the ferns and flowers, and even the grasses, whichare to be found in every part of the island.
I invite those who may read these pages to look with me atthe little rodents and insect-eaters which abound in and nearthe woods; to mark the changing chameleons which are foundhere in such variety; to watch the insects which gambol in thesunshine, or hide in the long grass, or sport on the streams. Ifsuch unexciting pleasures as these can interest my readers, I[6]can promise that there is in Madagascar enough and to spareto delight the eye and to charm the imagination.
I confess that I am one of those who take much more delightin silently watching the birds and their pretty ways in somequiet nook in the woods, than in shooting them to add a specimento a museum; and that I feel somewhat of a pang in catchingeven a butterfly, and would much rather observe its lovelycolours in life, as it unfolds them to the sunshine, than study itimpaled on a pin in a cabinet. No doubt collections arenecessary, but I have never cared to make them myself.
Nothing is here recorded but facts which have come undermy own observation or as related by friends and others whoseauthority is unquestionable. And while my main object is toconvey a vivid and true impression of the animal and vegetablelife of Madagascar, I have also given many sketches of what iscurious and interesting in the habits and customs of the Malagasypeople, among whom I have travelled repeatedly, andwith whom I have lived for many years. I have no pretensionsto be a scientific naturalist or botanist, I have only been a carefulobserver of the beautiful and wonderful things that I have seenand I have constantly noted down what many others haveobserved, and have here included information which they havegiven in the following pages.
The author thanks very sincerely his friends, Mr JohnParrett, Monsieur Henri Noyer, and Razaka, for their freelyaccorded permission to reproduce many photographs taken bythem and used to illustrate this book. And his grateful thanksare also due to his old friend, the Rev. J. Peill, for the carehe has taken in going through the proof sheets, especially inseeing that all Madagascar words are correctly given.
It is probably well known to most readers of this book thata railway now connects Tamatave, the chief port of the eastcoast, with Antannarvo, the capital, which is about a third ofthe way across the island. So that the journey from the coastto the interior, which, up to the year 1899, used to take fromeight to ten days, can now be accomplished in one day. Besidesthis, good roads now traverse the country in severaldirections, so that wheeled vehicles can be used; and on someof these a service of motor cars keeps up regular communicationwith many of the chief towns and the capital.
But we shall not, in these pages, have much to do with thesemodern innovations, for a railway in Madagascar is very muchlike a railway in Europe. Our journeys will mostly be takenby the old-fashioned native conveyance, the filanjna or lightpalanquin, carried by four stout and trusty native bearers.We shall thus not be whirled through the most interesting portionof our route, catching only a momentary glimpse of many abeautiful scene. We can get down and walk, whenever we like,to observe bird or beast or insect, to gather flower or fern orlichen or moss, or to take a rock specimen, things utterlyimpracticable either by railway or motor car, and not very easyto do in any wheeled conveyance. Our object will be, not toget through the journey as fast as possible, but to observe allthat is worth notice during the journey. We shall therefore,in this style of travel, not stay in modern hotels, but in nativehouses, notwithstanding their drawbacks and discomforts; andthus we shall see the Malagasy as they are, and as their ancestorshave been for generations gone by, almost untouched byEuropean influence, and so be able to observe their mannersand customs, and learn something of their ideas, their superstitions,their folk-lore, and the many other ways in which theydiffer from ourselves.
The harbour of Tamatave is protected by a coral reef, whichhas openings to the sea both north and south, the latter beingthe principal entrance; it is somewhat difficult of access, andthe ribs and framework of wrecked vessels are (or perhapsrather were) very frequently seen on the reef. The captain hadtold me that sometimes many hours and even days were spentin attempting to enter, and that it would probably be noon beforewe should anchor. I therefore went below to prepare for landing,but in less than an hour was startled to hear by thethunder of the waves on the reef and the shouts of the seamenreducing sail that we were already entering the harbour. Thewind had proved unexpectedly favourable, and in a few moreminutes the cable was rattling through the hawsehole, theanchor was dropped, and we swung round at our moorings.
The afternoon of my first day on shore was occupied in seeingafter the landing of my baggage. This was no easy or pleasanttask; the long rolling swell from the ocean made the transferof large wooden cases from the vessel to the canoes a matterrequiring considerable dexterity. More than once I expectedto be swamped, and that through the rolling of the ship thepackages would be deposited at the bottom of the harbour.It was therefore with great satisfaction that I saw all myproperty landed safely on the beach.
Although Tamatave has always been the chief port on theeast coast of Madagascar, there were, for many years after myarrival there, no facilities for landing or shipping goods. Thebullocks, which formed the staple export, were swum off to theships, tied by their horns to the sides of large canoes, and then[23]slung on board by tackles from the yard-arm. From the shoutingand cries of the native drovers, the struggles of the oxen,and their starting back from the water, it was often a veryexciting scene. A number of these bullockers were alwayspassing between the eastern ports of Madagascar and theislands of Mauritius and Runion, and kept the markets of theseplaces supplied with beef at moderate rates. The vesselsgenerally ceased running for about four months in the earlypart of the year, when hurricanes are prevalent in the IndianOcean; and it may easily be supposed that the passengeraccommodation on board these ships was not of the first order.However, compared with the discomforts and, often, the dangerand long delays endured by some, I had not much to complainof in my first voyage to Madagascar. It had, at least, thenegative merit of not lasting long, and I had not then thepresence of nearly three hundred oxen as fellow-passengersfor about a fortnight, as on my voyage homewards, when I hadalso a severe attack of malarial fever.
A few minutes brought us to the fort, at the southern end ofthe town; this was a circular structure of stone, with wallsabout twenty feet high, which were pierced with openings forabout a dozen cannon. We had to wait for a few minutes untilthe Governor was informed of our arrival, and thus had time tothink of the scene this fort presented not twenty years beforethat time, when the heads of many English and French sailorswere fixed on poles around the fort. These ghastly objects wererelics of those who were killed in an attack made upon Tamatavein 1845, by a combined English and French force, to redress somegrievances of the foreign traders. But we need not be too hardon the Malagasy when we remember that, not a hundred yearsbefore that time, we in England followed the same delectablecustom, and adorned Temple Bar and other places with theheads of traitors.
Eight of the strongest and most active young men, accustomedto work together, were selected to carry my palanquin, and tookit in two sets of four each, carrying alternately. Most of thearticles of my baggage were carried by two men; but my twolarge flat wooden cases, containing drawing boards, paper andinstruments, required four men each. All baggage was carriedby the same men throughout the journey, without any relay orchange, except shifting the pole from one shoulder to the other;but my palanquin, as already said, had a double set. Thepersonal bearers, therefore, naturally travel quicker than thosecarrying the baggage, and we generally arrived at the halting-placesan hour or more before the others came up. The hollowof the bamboos to which boxes and cases were slung served forcarrying salt, spoons, and various little properties of the bearers,and sometimes small articles of European make for selling atthe capital. The men were, and still are, very expert in packingand securing goods committed to their charge. Prints, calicoesand similar materials were often covered with pandanus leavesand so made impervious to the wet; and even sugar and saltwere carried in the same way without damage.
It was a fine warm day when we set off, the temperature not[32]being higher than that of ordinary summer weather in England.Our course lay due south, at no great distance from the sea,the roar of whose waves we could hear distinctly all through thefirst stage of the journey. In proceeding from Tamatave toAntannarvo the road did not (and still does not, by railway)lead immediately into the interior, but follows the coast for aboutfifty miles southward. Upon reaching Andvornto, we had toleave the sea and strike westward into the heart of the island,ascending the river Ihroka for nearly twenty miles beforeclimbing the line of mountains which form the edge of theinterior highland, and crossing the great forest.
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