Males and females wear the same attire, except that the latter indulge in a little more drapery, and often add a third article—­a short tight jacket, called kanezu.

Simple as is the clothing of the Malagasy, their food is not less simple.  At every meal, rice and anana are the principal or only dishes.  Anana is a vegetable very much like spinach, of a by no means disagreeable flavour in itself, but not savoury when cooked with rancid fat.  Fish is sometimes eaten, but not often—­for indolence is a great Malagasy quality—­by those who dwell on the borders of rivers or on the sea-shore; meat and poultry, though both are cheap, are eaten only on special occasions.  The natives partake of two meals—­one in the morning, the other in the evening.

The rice and anana are washed down with ranugang, or rice-water, thus prepared:  Rice is boiled in a vessel, and purposely burned, until a crust forms at the bottom.  The water is poured on, and allowed to boil.  The water in colour resembles pale coffee, and in taste is abominable to a European palate.  The natives, however, esteem it highly, and not only drink the water, but eat the crust.

* * * * *

One of the great ceremonies of Madagascar, the royal bath-feast, is described by Madame Pfeiffer.  It is celebrated on the Malagasy New-Year’s Day, and has some curious features.  On the eve, all the high officers, nobles, and chiefs are invited to court; and assembling in a great hall, partake of a dish of rice, which is handed round to each guest with much solemnity that he may take a pinch with his fingers and eat.  Next day, all reassemble in the same place; and the queen steps behind a curtain, which hangs in a corner of the room, undresses, and submits to copious ablutions.  Assuming her clothes, she comes forward, holding in her hand an ox-horn that has been filled with water from her bath; and this she sprinkles over the assembled company—­reserving a portion for the soldiers drawn up on parade beneath her window.

Throughout the country this day is an occasion of festivity, and dancing, singing, and feasting are kept up till a late hour.  Nor does the revel end then; it is prolonged for eight days.  The people on the first day are accustomed to kill as many oxen as will supply them with meat for the whole period; and no man who possesses a herd, however small, fails to kill at least one for this annual celebration.  The poor exchange rice, and tobacco, and several potatoes, for pieces of meat.  These pieces are long thin strips; and being salted, and laid one upon another, they keep tolerably well until the eighth day.

Madame Pfeiffer had an opportunity of witnessing the dances, but did not find them very interesting.

Some girls beat a little stick with all their might against a thick stem of bamboo; while others sang, or rather howled, at their highest and loudest pitch.  Then two of the ebony beauties stepped forward, and began to move slowly to and fro on a small space of ground, half lifting their arms, and turning their hands, first outwards, and then towards their sides.  Next, one of the men made his debut.  He tripped about much in the same style as the dusky danseuses, only with greater energy; and each time he approached any of the women or girls, he made gestures expressive of his love and admiration.