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T76 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. VII. Both on this and the previous day we passed many tra vellers, though few journeyed singly. Mostly two or three, and more frequently a large party, travelled in company. The chiefs were carried by four men in open palanquins, in which they sometimes reclined pretty nearly at full length. A mother and her infant were in one of these palanquins attended by several females, who ran along by the side. One or two travellers we passed in a sort of temporary litter, made by fastening a piece of rofia cloth in the form of a hammock, to a single pole, carried on the shoulders of two men, the chief sitting sideways in the hammock, and resting his arms on the pole to which the ends of the hammock were fastened. Sometimes we passed what seemed to be a whole family, comprising adults, children, and slaves. The chief usually carried a spear or staff, or both. The burdens, whether of matting, clothing, or provisions, carried by the slaves, were not borne on the head, as is the uniform practice of the Coolies or Creoles of Mauritius, but were fastened at the back, and the children, when too young to walk, were carried in the same manner. Few appeared to be loiterers on the road, but all were passing along at a tolerably quick pace. None of the parties were much encumbered with personal luggage; but the loads of rice, and similar articles carried by some of the slaves, appeared heavy. Besides the Traveller’s Tree, often the chief growth of vast tracts of the country, I noticed another tree of large and shining foliage, like that of the magnolia, and occasionally a large-leaved betonica. The Galophyllum Inophyllum, or other species of gum-tree, imparted a rich and varied character to the scenery. Near the water, at two places where we halted, I found the Hibiscus tiliaceus growing to a great size, straggling over a considerable space, and covered with large yellow and claret-coloured blossoms. The only dif ference I could perceive between the specimens I met with in