The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-03-11

nearly eight million head OF cattle,
more than two for every human In
habitant. Thousands of wild cattle
ing them is the great Madagascar
sport. There is a considerable pre-
served meat industry, and in 1921
about eight million francs worth of
meat products were exported as well
as large quantities of hides So dom
inant is the cattle industry that oxen
are used for riding 1t is said thai
there was not single horse in NADIA
gascar fifty years ago, and there are
very few today. Neither horses nor
oxen are used to any great extent as
riding animals, and off the highways
travellers are for the most part car
ried by natives in a sort of chairman
mock
The island is very rich in wild ami
NAL life. Naturalists assert, in fact,
that there is a greater wealth Of ma
tive animal life than in any other sim
liar area The forests TEEN with
lemurs. There is a great variety of
snakes, though somewhat fewer than
in parts of Africa. Almost every
stream and pool has its population Of
crocodiles. Wild dogs and number
of representatives of the cat family
swell the wild population. Birds and
fowls are present in countless num-
bers, from tiny humming birds to
great, awkward pelicans.
The chief vegetable staple of the
island is rice Many of the marshes
of the interior have been drained by
the French and sowed to this grain.
Production already exceeds consump-
ton. and the island could become one
of the great rice exporting regions of
the world. But this is only begin
ming. Almost every tropical product,
elsewhere valuable, fourishes, to-
gether with many temperate zone prod
ucts. There are rubber, coffee, tea,
vanilla, cacao, sugar, silkworms, silk
spiders, tobacco, raffia, cabinet woods,
bananas, and long list of tropical
fruits and vegetables
Customs Of the MaIapasies.
Many of the Malagasies Of the back
country are pagans and queer primi-
tive customs exist among them. Both
polygamy and poIyandry are practiced.
Witch doctors do a thriving business.
Charms are sold against every con-
ceivable ILL., There are charms against
murder and cattle thievery, against
crocodiles and bedbugs. The more en-
terprising doctors" even sell charms
.et ako,, 10 sorh snk In
witchery is a sort of vaccination
against lightningl Infanticide is prac-
ticed in some cases when babies are
born on what are considered unlucky
days. The doctors have shown a good
working knowledge of psychology by
asserting that the more expensive
charms are the more potent, and very
few natives are satisfied with the
cheaper ones.
The French first set up claim to
Madagascar in 1912 and made efforts
to gain a foothold in three centuries.
In 1886 they declared protectorate
and in 1895 sent an expeditionary
force to the island BY 1900 the coun-
try was under French control, and
since then has been given the status
Of colony. In the bay of Diego
Suarez near the northern tip of NADIA
gascar, the French have one of the
finest naval stations In the Indian
ocean.
One fly in the Madagascar ointment
is the existence Of hordes of locusts.
Myriads of them settle in certain re-
gions and destroy all crops and foliage.
But such visitation never means a
famine in Madagascar. With an
ability to make the best of the bar
gain that almost, amounts to genius,
the Malagasy "harvests" the crop Of
locusts, eats what he needs, and dries
the rest for use as future food Dried
locusts are a food staple, like the
northerner's dried fish. sold in every
market and put up" by every careful
housewife Another unusual food
staple is crocodiles' eggs.
There is fat spider of which the
Malagasy is also very fond, and he
even eats silkworms with relish. One
white traveller who journeyed into the
Madagascar back country In chair
borne by carriers. asserts that one
of the most delicious OF the native
dishes is stew consisting of locusts
spiders. worms, rice. fish and suet.