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37G VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. XIV. four deep, with a hand on the east side. The soldiers wore the white cloth round the waist, with white cross-belts upon their brown skins, and were certainly tall, athletic-looking men. The commanding officer, a man beyond the middle age, but active and vigorous, wore a silk shawl wound like a loose turban on his head, a finely-figured shirt, a handsome silk lamha or scarf round his waist as a sash, the fringed ends reaching to his ankles, and carried in his hand a bright, highly-ornamented scimitar. As the military evolutions were not finished, we halted for a short time about half-way across the court, and then proceeded to the position appointed us within three or four yards of the soldiers, and in front of the long wide verandah under which the queen and her court were assembled. We all bowed to the queen, pronouncing the salutation “ Tsara, tsara, tompoko : ” — “ It is well, it is well, sovereign.” We then turned to the east, and bowed to the tomb of Eadama, a small square stone building on the side of the court. We were then conducted to our appointed places. I was placed in the centre, immediately before the queen, with an interpreter on each side. Two French gentlemen residing in the capital had been invited to be present. M. Laborde, a French Eesident, stood on the right of one of the interpreters, and M. Fenez, a French Eoman Catholic priest, a stout, good-natured-looking man, on the left. He was residing with M. Laborde, and had been introduced to me as M. Hervier. M. Laborde’s costume was in excellent style; and M. Hervier, the priest, wore a dress coat and silk embroidered waistcoat. The interpreters, officers who had been educated in England, kept me so promptly informed as to what I was to do, that I felt re lieved from all apprehension of any gross violation of court etiquette. It was now intimated that I must speak, and offer the hasina, or customary offering, without which no stranger