The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1884-04-11
AN ISLAND OF HORRORS.
Some of the Pecu1iarities of Life in NADIA
gascar Viyid1y Portrayed.

Some of the Pecu1iarities of Life in NADIA.
gascar vividly Portrayed.
GLOW did You like the country? p asked q
Cincinnati Enquirer reporter OF a sailor just
from Madagascar.
'Like it Why, there isn't a redeeming fea.
ture about it. Why, it was enough to sicken
one to see what the people eat there. In the
market at Tamataya have seen great heaps of
small locusts dried and exposed for sale. They
were about half roasted, and made me sick to
look at them. There are no roads-barey bri-
dle-paths through the woods, and travel is ac-
complished on foot or in palanquins-long
bamboo poles borne on the shoulders of natives.
The interior of the country is filled with dense
forests, and during the rainy seasons great
quantities of decaying vegetable matter are
brought down. There is great deal of lake
and marsh on the coast and plains bordering
the sea, and these give rise to the Malagassy
fever. The only remedies the natives use are
hot baths and herbs, which induce perspiration.
Quinine is also used in large quantities. Why,
you can Judge of the unhealthfulness of the
country, for the French, who for years have
tried to establish colonies there, called it 'the
churchJ ard, and the Dutch, who were equally
unsuccessful, nick-named it the dead island."
.'Many wild animals abound there !"
"The woods are full of them; vicious, VEN
omous serpents of extraordinary size. Not
snakes, but huge serpents-bodies as big as a
mans and thirty or forty feet long; powerful
enough to kill a horse Or swallow an OK. They
hang down from the limbs in the forests and
snatch up the natives going along, making
breakfast of one with as much unconcern as a
fly taps ugar-cork. Near Andavaka Mena-
rama is a deep cave called 'The Serpents Hole
and it is SO full of them that they frequently
drive the villagers all indoors. Then they have
a sort of monkey there called the 'aye-aye. 1t
has teeth like chisel and claw with prong
or hook on it. 1t lives on bugs that it digs out
of the trees. And then the rivers swarm with
crocodiles, the biggist ever saw. These the
natives worship as water gods, and are super
stitious about killing them. They try to pro-
ptiate the creatures by prayers and throwing
in charms of odys, but their virtue is owing to
the noise and shouting and beating of the water
with which the offering of the ody is always
accompanied. Why, these animals eat up all
the sheep and hogs, and even larger cattle that
come anywhere near the banks; and they don't
refuse women and children, who venture near.
At Itasy, which is a fine lake, sixty miles west
of the capital the people believe that if croco
ollie be killed human life will within a short
time be exacted by the monsters brother rela-
tive as an atonement for the death. When /
was there some Frenchmen shot several, and
they had to leave the country at once, or the
people would have murdered them.
''rhe earth has wild cats, the air wild bees,
sand-flies and mosquitoes, as big as beetles, and |
whose sting hurts like dogs bite. The ants |
are the greatest pests | ever saw. They eat |
every article of provision or apparel; scarce |
any precautiOn can elude their vigilance and |
cunning. They raise hollow cylinder of earth |
perpendicnlarly toward their object, and |
through it, as by a ladder, they ascend by |
thousands. They are terrible prosecutors of
the sick they will reach the bed in nights
time, though hang at distance from the ground,
when their bite. like scalding water poured on
the skin was more intolerable than the disease
ITSELF The sand flies and mosquitoes were ter
rible plaques, but nothing to compare with the
wild bees, who would swarm in the bedrooms
and sting every intruder. Locusts come two
or three times in a summer and eat up every
thing green But nature is so prolific here that
in eight days the verdurc will be all out again.
There were balloons as big as good-sized boys.
There are two kinds of spiders whose bite is
deadly. One, small black fellow, is called
menarody. Those who are bitten fall into
swoon, and the bodies become as cold as ice.
The other one is called the foka, or crab-spider.
The bite is followed By swelling, which begins
at the part wounded and spreads through the
whole body. The animal is maroon-colored,
and death ensues in five hours. The women
are dirty, burly- headed creatures, blacker than
coal, and wear simply cloth, only the higher
class wearing shoes. Some of their punish
ments are barbarous in the extreme. Death is
a common punishment. Christians are thrown
down the scraggy, rocky mountain, and their
bones broken ON the granite rocks beneath,
while the dogs eat up their flesh. In the reign
of Ranavalona the missionaries and Christians |
had tough time of it. Why, Ihave seen them
throw a prisoner on the ground and spear him
to death, Just as a boy at school sticks flies.
Sometimes they fog them to death. cruelty
them burn them alive, and stone them todeath
King Rodoma was strangled by fine silk cord,
as they are superstitous about shedding the
blood of royalty"
ssDoes the country have any commercial re-
lations with the rest of the world :"
"They ship horned cattle from the interior
to the Island of Mauritius if the crocodiles
don't eat them up in foriing the rivers before
they reach the coast. They raise coffee and
rice Ebony is found and gum copal Some
trade is carried on in India-rubber. and few
wears since an English company tried raising
cotton but | cannot say how successful they
are. The great trouble with the country is
that it is so extremely unhealthy for Europeans.
II would take years TO clean out the underbrush
and drain the marshes. The missionaries claim
to have made great Roadway here, both Roman
Catholic and Protestant, but a new king or
oueen ascends TO the throne every now and
then. who doesn't take much stock in them,
and thew are stoned to death by the Gozen,
fayed alive tied up to stakes, and in other cruel
ways murdered.