James Sibree

“ For an hour or two we saw little except for a few yards around us; but as the sun rose the fog rolled up like a vast curtain, revealing the line of the Ifòdy and Angàvo hills straight before us; the slopes were partly covered with trees, but a good deal of their surface was brown and bare. In the deepest of the many valleys which cut the surface of the Ankay plain runs a beautiful and rapid river, the Mangòro, about one hundred and fifty feet wide where we crossed it in canoes. ”

“ There is little foliage to be seen except on the top of some of the hills where the ancient towns and villages are built, and in such places a circle of old àviàvy trees and an occasional amòntana tree give a pleasant relief to the prevailing red and ochre tints of the soil, and, in the cold and dry season, to the russet and grey hues of the dry grass on the bare hills and downs. ”

“ Looking about in the undergrowth for wild flowers and fruit, and happening to rub against the stem of one of the bushes, a small rough roundish ball falls off on to the ground; this appears exactly like a bit of round wrinkled bark, but on watching for a minute or two, it develops four pairs of legs, and runs nimbly away under cover, revealing itself as a spider, with a marvellous protective resemblance to its surroundings. Unless the creature actually moves, it is impossible to detect it, it is so exactly like a knobby bit of the brown bark. ”

“ But here the grass is in its glory on the great hills. Burnt year after year by long sweeping fires, it springs up again with a profusion which clasps huge rocks within its soft embrace. Here it is short but strong; there it rises in vast tufts, each of which contains many thousand blades and covers many feet of ground; and yet again it spreads over vast patches of country in thick, tall masses, which tower above men’s heads, open their tinted blades to the warm sun, and wave their myriads of golden feathers in the summer winds. ”

“ In many places the rain had made a perfect slough of thick mud, and our men had hard work to get through. I could not cease to wonder how my heavy luggage was brought along. For a considerable distance our way lay along a most romantic-looking stream, whose course was broken by great masses and shelves of rock, reminding me of Welsh river scenery. Often in the higher parts of the road, where the rivers down in the gorges were hidden by the dense masses of wood, we could hear the roar of waters in the otherwise profound stillness of the forest. ”

“ Some of the people doubtless think that you are a kind of sorcerer. For these dried plants—whatever can you do with them? You cannot eat them. You cannot make them into broth. You cannot plant them, for they are dead. You cannot form them in bouquets or wreaths, for they are brown and withered. Is it surprising, then, if some of the natives think that you are dabbling in the black art, and that your plants, in the shape of some strange and mysterious decoction, are to supply, it may be, a potent rain-medicine, or a love-philtre, or a disease-preventing physic? ”

“ It rapidly approaches nearer and nearer, the clouds touching the lower hills, then down darts the forked lightning, followed by the roar of the thunder, and presently a wild rush of wind, as if it came from all quarters at once, tells us that the storm is upon us, and then comes the rain, in big heavy drops for a few seconds and soon in torrents, as if the sluice-gates of the clouds were opened. ”

“ Take a fair-sized map of Madagascar, and we see that it rises like some huge sea-monster from the waters of the Indian Ocean; or, to use another comparison, how its outline is very like the sole—the left-hand one—of a human foot. As we usually look at the island in connection with a map of Africa, it appears as a mere appendage to the great “Dark Continent” ”

“ Surely of all the millions of beautiful things in this beautiful world, palms are among the most lovely, and the fan-palm not least among this glorious family of trees. It was a perpetual delight to the eye to watch them as we swept rapidly by the banks with the strong current, as one by one they passed by as in a panorama. But for mosquitoes, certainly parts of the tropics are earthly Edens. These palms are called Sàtranabé, and are much used by the western peoples in building their huts. A smaller species, called Sàtramira, is also employed in manufacturing mats and baskets. ”

“ I confess that I am one of those who take much more delight in silently watching the birds and their pretty ways in some quiet nook in the woods, than in shooting them to add a specimen to a museum; and that I feel somewhat of a pang in catching even a butterfly, and would much rather observe its lovely colours in life, as it unfolds them to the sunshine, than study it impaled on a pin in a cabinet. ”

“ Nature is arousing from the inaction of the cold season, and the few trees now flowering give promise of the coming spring. And so, from year to year, every month brings some fresh interest in tree and flower, in bird and insect, in the employments of the people, and in the changing aspects of the sky by day and in the starry heavens by night. ”

“ We have indeed no big game in Madagascar. The most dangerous sport in its woods is hunting the wild boar; the largest carnivore to be met with is the fierce little fòsa, and the crocodile is the most dangerous reptile.
But I ask the courteous reader to wander with me into the wonderful and mysterious forests, and to observe the gentle lemurs in their home, as they leap from tree to tree, or take refuge in the thickets of bamboo; to come out in the dusk and watch the aye-aye as he stealthily glides along the branches, obtaining his insect food under the bark of the trees ”

“ High over all the other trees shot up the tall trunks of many varieties of palms, with their graceful crowns of feathery leaves. A dense undergrowth of shrubs, tree-ferns, and dwarf palms made in many places quite a green twilight; while overhead the branches were interlaced and bound together by countless creeping and climbing plants, whose rope-like tendrils crossed in all directions and made a labyrinth which it was impossible to pass through. Occasionally we came across large trees in flower, giving a glorious mass of colour. With these exceptions, however, flowers were comparatively few ”

“ Nor could any team take a vehicle up and down some of the tremendous gorges, by tracks which sometimes wind like a corkscrew [28] amidst rocks and twisted roots of trees, sometimes climb broad surfaces of slippery basalt, where a false step would send bearers and palanquin together into steep ravines far below, and again are lost in sloughs of adhesive clay, in which the bearers at times sink to the waist, and when the traveller has to leap from the back of one man to another to reach firm standing-ground. ”

“ The beautiful creatures will come and alight all around us, if we only remain perfectly still, seeking their food as they hop on the ground, or flutter from branch to branch. We may watch their nests and see their eggs, and then the newly fledged birds, noting from day to day how they develop; until one morning the nest is empty, for its little inmates have found out their power of wing, and have left it to set up for themselves and add another little company to the tenants of the forests. ”

“ For these one must go to the temperate zones; foliage, overpowering in its luxuriance and endless variety, is indeed to be found in the tropics, but not the large extent of colour given by heather, buttercups, primroses, or a field of poppies in England.
The orchids, however, were very abundant. Wherever a fallen tree hung across the path, there they found a lodging-place, and beautified the decaying trunks with their exquisite waxy flowers of pink and white. ”

“ Some large wooden spoons with tin ornaments on the handles reminded me of those made by the Bétsiléo. Bananas, very large and fine, seemed the most plentiful fruit; sugar-cane grows to a great size, ten to twelve feet high; and from what we saw all round Antsihànaka it appeared a most fertile district, with rich alluvial soil; were the whole marsh drained and brought under cultivation, as the marshy plain to the west and north-west of the capital has been, it would support a population many times greater than that which inhabits Imèrina. ”

“ While staying near the forest I was several times struck by the curious formation of the wings of one of the smaller species of butterfly. The insect in question is of plain inconspicuous colouring, chiefly shades of brown, and when at rest sits with the wings erect. The noticeable point is that there are several strongly marked and dark-tinted processes from the hinder part of the wings, which resemble the head, eyes and antennæ of a butterfly, so that when at rest it is very difficult to say which is the head and which is the tail of the insect. ”

“ Here, after a year’s strenuous work in college, or school, or church, or in literary labour, or in something of them all, it is a pleasant and healthful change to come for two or three weeks to the quiet and restful influences of the beautiful woods, with their wealth of vegetable life, and with much to interest in the animal life of bird and insect. ”

“ One cannot go far, however, without having to go down steep descents and again having a stiff climb; but the variety of leafage, the frequent occurrence of some beautiful flower or bright-coloured berry or fruit, or gay insect makes a walk full of interest; and when we reach a high point there are extensive views over the undulating masses of green foliage of very varied tints around one, and the bare Ankay plain, with the distant lower forest, twenty or thirty miles away, and fading into the distance north and south. ”

“ Our journeys will mostly be taken by the old-fashioned native conveyance, the filanjàna or light palanquin, carried by four stout and trusty native bearers. We shall thus not be whirled through the most interesting portion of our route, catching only a momentary glimpse of many a beautiful scene. We can get down and walk, whenever we like, to observe bird or beast or insect, to gather flower or fern or lichen or moss, or to take a rock specimen, things utterly impracticable either by railway or motor car, and not very easy to do in any wheeled conveyance. ”

“ The keen cold winds and drizzly showers of the past few weeks give place to warmer air and clearer skies, and although usually there is but little rain during September, the deciduous trees begin to put forth their leaves, and flower-buds appear as heralds of the fuller display of vegetable life which will be seen after the rains have fallen. ”

“ There is one thing especially which strikes a European newly come into the country with regard to the Madagascar grasses, and that is, the height to which they grow, if left undisturbed. In sheltered valleys and other places not reached by the fires which sweep over the downs in the dry season, the grass grows considerably above one’s head, so that I have felt how soon one might be lost in certain conditions. After the year of rebellion against French rule in 1896, I found the véro and other grasses grown as high as I was when sitting in my palanquin—about eight feet above the ground. ”

“ It will easily be believed that the mysteriousness of the forest has produced many superstitious notions among the Malagasy, and they have curious stories of marvellous creatures and monsters inhabiting these dense woods. One of these is called Kinòly, and is said to be human in origin, for although it has no intestines or stomach, yet in all its other parts it is like a living person. Its eyes are red, and its nails long; and, with others of its kind, it is said to be constantly thieving, so that when anyone leaves out cooked rice or other food, it takes it. ”

“ With regard to the paucity of insect life in the forest, I think it has been clearly shown by eminent naturalists like Dr Wallace and the late Mr Bates, that dense wood is not favourable to such life; but that in open spaces in the forest, where sunshine can penetrate, and where there is also water, there is where you may hope to find butterflies, moths, and various handsome flies, bees and wasps; while patches of cleared forest and felled trees are the most favourable hunting-grounds for the numerous species of beetle and also of ants. ”

“ My friend, Mr Cory, an enthusiastic naturalist and sportsman, wrote to me: “I think the want of bird life in Madagascar is very marked when compared with England, and I was much struck with this on my first arrival. I have been in the forest at all times of the year; and although there are a good many birds in summer, yet if you try bird’s-nesting here, you will soon find out how few and far between the nests are.” ”

“ In passing along the forest paths we frequently come across examples of the curious ball-insect (Spherotherium sp.) , of which there are several species, at least six, in Madagascar. These insects, which are wingless and many-footed, and are called, not very elegantly, by the Malagasy Tainkìntana, or “Star-droppings,” have the power of instantaneously rolling themselves into an almost perfect sphere, which form they retain as long as any danger threatens them, and no force short of pulling them to pieces can make them unroll. ”

“ There is one very small wasp that makes no cell or burrow, but chooses a long hole in a piece of wood, or a small bamboo, etc., for the rearing of its larvæ. “Each kind of wasp seems to have its own peculiar way of hunting; some run down on foot by scent for long distances; some dash down violently into the web of a spider, and catch him as he drops from out of it; while others again seize their prey upon the wing, especially the social wasps. The males of all are lazy and do no work.” ”

“ The foliage was most dense and luxuriant, from the summit of the hills down to the water’s edge, in some parts the long lianas forming immense festoons and making a perfect wall of exquisite green, while the ever-present bàraràta shoots up its feathery head. After some time we turned from the main stream into a branch river, much narrower, but running for many miles in a straight line. As the day advanced, the intense sunlight made everything glow with light and heat, lighting up the dense vegetation most brilliantly. Groups of pandanus were frequent here among the more European-like trees ”

“ The aye-aye is one of the many instances which the animal life of Madagascar presents of isolation from other forms. It remains the only species of its genus, and, like many of the peculiar birds of the island, is one of the many proofs that Madagascar has for long ages been separated from Africa; so that while allied forms have become extinct on the continent, here, protected from the competition of stronger animals, many birds, mammals and insects have been preserved, and so this island is a kind of museum of ancient and elsewhere unknown forms of life. ”

“ Why do not the native government improve the roads? The neglect to do so was intentional on their part, for it was evident to everyone who travelled along the route from Tamatave to the capital that the track might have been very much improved at a comparatively small expense. The Malagasy shrewdly considered that the difficulty of the route to the interior would be a formidable obstacle to an invasion by a European power, and so they deliberately allowed the path to remain as rugged as it is by nature. ”