Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel . ring from a bulb somewhat resem-bling a potato, which can be eaten. In this village,granaries were erected on posts ^ve or six feet above thelevel of the ground. Each of these posts had a roundplate of wood at the top polished very smooth. This wasdone to protect the grain from rats which infest thelocality. The ladder leading to the opening of thegranaries was a very primitive contrivance, beingmerely a pole with notches cut in it. The path now became much more difficult, the hillsbeing higher and steeper, and it was marvellous how themen manag
Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel . ring from a bulb somewhat resem-bling a potato, which can be eaten. In this village,granaries were erected on posts ^ve or six feet above thelevel of the ground. Each of these posts had a roundplate of wood at the top polished very smooth. This wasdone to protect the grain from rats which infest thelocality. The ladder leading to the opening of thegranaries was a very primitive contrivance, beingmerely a pole with notches cut in it. The path now became much more difficult, the hillsbeing higher and steeper, and it was marvellous how themen managed to carry their burdens without palanquin bearers generally wore nothing but aloin-cloth, or a small sleeveless jacket, but in the coolmornings they threw over their shoulders a lamba of 188 MADAGASCAR : NATURES MUSEUM rofia or hemp cloth. Lamha is the Malagasy word forcloth generally, but it is also applied specifically to thechief article of native dress. Rop,a fibre is much usedfor tying up garden plants, and is known as rofia. The Lace Plant grass. This is incorrect, as it is the fibre of the leaf ofthe rofia palm. The bearers took the work in spells andthe men would relieve each other, even when going at atrot, without slackening speed. The next stage to the village of B^forona was more MADAGASCAR : NATURES MUSEUM 189 difficult and trying than before; a small company ofsoldiers brought up in the early years of the century byCaptain Le Sage laid themselves down in despair at thedifficulties of the road they had to traverse. At thispoint Dr. Sibrees party had now entered some way intothe lower and wider of the two belts of dense forestwhich extend for several hundred miles along theeastern side of Madagascar, and cover the mountainswhich form the great ramparts of the high land of theinterior. There is a continuous forest from nearly thenorth of the island to almost the southern extremity ;its greatest width is about fifty miles north of AntongilBay; but to th
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
