150 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. vi. came to inquire what new or needed articles I had brought to sell; hut far greater numbers came to endeavour to induce me to buy. Almost all classes appear exceedingly fond of bartering, or buying and selling; and no long intervals passed with me uninterrupted by persons coming to offer either poultry, eggs, honey, or articles of native manufacture, for sale. Among the latter were somebeautifulmats, for covering their floors or forming their beds. Their sleeping-mats are generally of one uniform colour, but in some instances the patterns are worked in different colours formed by steeping the rushes in native dyes, which are permanent, and yet allow the rush to retain its smooth and shining appearance. The only colours I observed in these articles were black and various shades of red. With a similar kind of rush they also weave great numbers of matting-bags, in which they preserve their rice, both for their own use and for exportation. But the article most extensively manufactured throughout the island, both for home use and for exportation, is a coarse kind of cloth woven with the thread or strips of the young inner leaflets of the rofia palm. These leaflets are about three or four feet long, but in weaving the cloth a number of the split threads are fastened together, and the cloth is made in pieces varying from three to four yards in length and nearly a yard wide. The texture of the cloth is rather coarse and stiff to the touch, but exceedingly tough and durable; the colour is a sort of nankeen-yellow, generally with two or three stripes of blue, produced by preparations of native indigo, extending through the whole length. Rofia cloth is used for many purposes in the island, and constitutes almost the only clothing of the labouring classes. The threads of this cloth are flat and untwisted. I have entered some of the houses in which the process of weaving was going on, and found the
