The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

4 t(j SOUTH AXD EAST AFRTf'A.iippoiir to have been at some time much subject to Arab influences. The Zafeliaminia,or " Whites," mentioned by Flacourt and other contemporary writers,were certainly either Arabs or Hindus professing the Mohammedan religion.Numerous chiefs amongst all the local tribes claim Arab descent, while the ombiasor priests, corresponding to the omasisi of the Sakalavas, disseminate usages andceremonies whith arc undoubtedly derived from the precepts of Islam.*TnK Betsimisakakas Axn Sihanakas.Of all the nations on the eastern seaboard, the most numerous are the nowreduced Betsimisarakas or " United People," well known to travellers, who haveto cross their territory on the route from Taraatave to Tananarive, capital ofMadagascar. Both the Betsimisarakas and their neighbours, the Betanimenas, or" People of the Red Land," who claim to bo descended from the Babakoto Indris,are tall and robu.st, but of a gentle, patient disposition, in other respects differinglittle from their Ilova rulers. They number collectively about three hundredthousand soids.Prominent amongst the other peoples of the eastern seaboard are theAnt' Ankai, or " Gladesmen," and the Bezanozano, or " Bushmen " (?) t whooccupy the long narrow Ankai Valley between two parallel ranges of forest-cladmountains. These tribes have become intermediary agents, a sort of middlemen,for the trade between the Hovas of the plateau and the Betsimisaraka coastlanders.Nearly all the merchandise is transported by them over the difficultmountain tracks and passes, and their habit of carrying heavy loads on the bareshoulders has gradually developed fleshy welts which protect the shoulder-bladefrom sudden shocks. The children are all born furnished with these protectingexcrescences.+Farther north, in the depression now flooded by Lake Aloatra, dwell theAnt' Sihanakas, that is, the " Lake People," or according to William Ellis, the" Independent," fishers and shepherds, who tend the herds of their Hova masters.Nearly all the utensils used by this tribe are made of reeds. During the rainyseason the inhabitants of some of the riverain and lacustrine villages do not takethe trouble to retire to the higher grounds rising above the level of the inundations.They simply embark, with their household goods and matting, on stoutrafts also made of reeds, and thus drift about with, the current till the waterssubside.The Sihanakas belong to the same tribal group as the Betsimisarakas ; butfarther on, the northern extremity of Madagascar is occupied by quite a differentpeople, the Ant' Ankaras, that is, either " Men of the North " or " Men of theRocks," who are distinguished from all the other inhabitants of the island b}' theirdistinctly Kafir-like appearance, with woolly hair and thick lips. Of all the* Max Leclerc ; A. Walen, Antanaxarivo Annual, 1883.t So Jurgensen explains the word, which others interpret in the sense of ' Anarchists " or" Rebels."X Memoirs of the Anihropohgical Socutij, 1877.