360 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR CHAP. XIII. an hour left the houses, and followed the road across the low flat ground covered with rice-fields. The people as we passed along came to the road side to salute the prince. Every person in the road moved to the side as the prince approached, and the people in the fields or enclosures hastened to the road as he passed. All saluted him with, “May you live, sovereign or master,” and the homage seemed to he very cordially rendered. I inferred somewhat of the habits of the prince from a conversation among the officers, who observed that he had since the morn ing personally visited between twenty and thirty houses, for the purpose of advising and directing the people, listening to their requests or composing differences, &c., and I did not wonder at his being so popular amongst them. At length we reached a bridge called Ambaniala, stretching across a considerable stream. The bridge consisted of a number of slabs of primitive rock, eight or ten feet long and four or five feet wide, laid horizontally on piles of stones. Continuing our way partly along the border of the stream, we passed through several villages and came to another bridge, Ilavatehezana, literally long bridge. I was astonished at the structure, rude as it was, when informed that it was all entirely native workmanship. The bridge, a series of arches of different sizes, stretched across the river Andqmomiery, a shallow but smooth and flowing stream, forty yards across The arches, eleven in number, were some of them fifteen feet in the centre of the arch above the water. Others were narrower and lower. On alighting from the palanquins, the prince offered me his arm, and we walked together to the bridge, which was about five feet wide on the top, and used only by foot-passengers. The prince and two of his aides-de-camp spoke English so as to make themselves generally understood. From them I learned that the bridge was entirely planned and built