The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

'iIi494 AITENKLX.Protestuutu (1886)Se}iools opened {188G) .liKLlLilCiN AND I'UBLIC INSTEUCTION.Sulioiil.s of the London missions .Sehuuls of tlic Norwegian MissionsKoman Cutholic schooUAbout 20,000, armed with rifles.lIovA, the ruling people, province of Imerina.liicTsiLiiO, central plateaux, south of the Hova.STANDING AEMY.CHIEF TEIBAL DIVISIONS.Antan.u-a, central plateaux, south of the Betsileo.Baea (Ibaiia)AntanossiMahafali southern districts, south of the AntuuaUi territory.AntandkoiAntaisakaj_ northern districts, north of the Hova.Taimiuety )SakalavaAntifihebenanaAntisienabewest coastlands.A>'TIMAniLAKAAn-tiju-Haha.An'iiditexiBetsimisakakaAntaimoeoANTAilBABOAEABetaniitekaAntankaiAntisihanakaTaipasyTaisaxaeast coastlands.350,000; Roman Catholics 35,0001,167; attendance 151,000818; ,, 100,000117 ,, 28,000191 ,, 20,000A FEW NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY AND DISTEIBUTION OF THEDIFFEEENT TEIBES INHABITING MADAGASCAE.Communicated ly the Rev. James Sihree.As little attention has hitherto been directed to this subject, it is difBoult to speak with muchconfidence as to the classification of the Malagasy tribes. Our information is at present very fragmentary,so all that can be done as yet must be considered only as tentative, pending more minute andscientific investigation.Broadly speaking, the various races inhabiting Madagascar may be divided into three chief groups,Inhabiting respectively the eastern, central, and western portions of the island. Of these, theBetsimisaraka may be taken as the type of the eastern races, the Hova of the central ones, and theSakalava of the western tribes. Looking at colour and contour of face, hair, &c., the Hovas certainlyappear to be somewhat distinctly marked off from all the other tribes, and their dialect is also different,having a number of hard, firm consonantal sounds in certain words, whereas on the coast (and also in thesouth-central provinces) these words consist almost wholly of vowels. The Hovas also add a final tia,ka, and tra, to numbers of words which are only dissyllables in the coast dialects, so that in Hova theyare trisyllabic. From the information we at present possess there seems a greater similarity between aU