MADAGASCAR FAIRY TALE:

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 170, 25 September 1942, Page 8

MADAGASCAR FAIRY TALE:

NTIL a few weeks ago Madagascar was just a big island off the coast of Africa that some of us remembered drawing at school. Now it is a theatre of war. What it is in addition we still do not know very clearly, but that is our own fault. For more than two hundred years its mysteries have been on record, as this interesting letter shows, which we reprint from the " Edinburgh Evening Courant" of August 11, 1729, by the ‘courtesy of é. S. Russell, Waipukurau.

A LETTER WRITTEN FROM SAN JAGO (DIEGO SUAREZ?) IN MADAGASCAR, BY A FRENCH ABBOT TO HIS FRIEND AT PARIS, GIVING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND. PROMISED you, my Dear Friend, to let you hear from me as often as I could find an Opportunity. I now acquit myself of that Obligation, by Means of a Dutch Vessel, that has put in here in her Way from Batavia, and the Master has undertaken that this Letter shall be delivered to you at Paris. I will not Swell it with a Thousand Things that you may have seen in the World of Printed Relations; where tho’ they are represented quite different, from what they indeed are; yet it not being my Design to remark the Falsehood of their Accounts, I will content myself to acquaint you with what I have found most worthy to be observed, and of which the Books I have read make no mention. We touch’d not in any Harbour, having only drop’d Anchor in some Roads to take in fresh Water, from our sailing out of Brest, till. our arrival in this Port, which was on the 25th of last Month. Trees Taller Than a Cathedral The Governor is a Portugueze, but the Inhabitants are almost all of them Mullatros, that is to say, born of Portugueze Fathers and Madagascar Mothers, those that live in the Woods and Mountains, are not so savage as the Iroquos or the Hurons of Canada, but very near it; for they make no Scruple of eating one another; they are not so black as Negroes, but as tawny .as can be imagin’d, neither the Men or the Women wear any Cloaths, but have a little Piece of Cotton Cloth, or a Twist of Rushes, with which they cover their Nudities. The Bread they eat is made of a sort of Nut, they call Matacon, which grows not on Trees, but breeds in the Earth, like the Truffles or Pig nuts in Europe. This Bread is much better than that made of Caffane, which they likewise use. Their Drink is made of a Fruit four Times as | at @ They call it Baricot,

and it grows on a Tree near as big as the Battlements, and much higher than the Steeple of Notre Dame at Paris, the Leaves are at least six Feet broad, and nine Feet long. This Liquor is almost like the Cyder in Normandy, it looks Yellow, and has a sweetish Taste, but is pleasant enough when we are a little us’d to it. They eat in this Country a great Quantity of wild and tame Poultry, whose Plumage is a Mixture of several gaudy Colours, as Flame-colour, Violet, Yellow, and Gridelin. I remember I had one like them heretofore in , the Abbey of Montanlieus near Roan. They have here no Beef at all, but great Plenty of Sheep, as big and as high as our Cows; the Flesh of them is well tasted, but a little tough. " Astonishing To Strangers " The Woods swarm with Birds of several Sorts, that are not seen in Europe, except the Parrots. Among the rest there is one Kind whose size astonishes all Strangers) who never saw any like them, they are much bigger than Ostriches; their Plume is Azure and Purple, not unlike that of the large Kind of Parrots, which we call in France Papoques, and in England are called Cockatoes, they roost on the Baricot Trees, where they likewise build their Nests, which are made of Pieces of Wood as well joined and fastened together, as the Timber Work of a House, These Nests are at least twenty Feet in Diameter; ’tis almost impossible to pull them down, because the least Branches of the Baricot Tree are bigger than the biggest Piece of Timber you ever saw, and full of Prickles, as bigg as the little Finger, and eight Inches long; the Islanders use them for Points to their Pikes when they go to War. These Birds are so strong, that they take up the largest siz’d Sheep, and spare not even a Man, if they find him alone, when Hunger pinches them; and this obliges the Inhabitants, who border on the Woods where they haunt, to go always with a Tame Tyger by their side, to defend them in case of need; for they are afraid of Tygers and tho’ they make the Lions run away from (Continued on next page)

A French Abbot Writes About Jaribots. Tonibrots, Baricot Trees, And Birds That Carry Men On Their Backs!

(Continued from previous page) them, fearing them (as ‘tis believed) by their Cries, which are not unlike the crowing of our Cocks, tho’ a hundred Times louder; for in a still Night I have heard them ten Leagues. But what is indeed astonishing, is, that tho’ these Birds are of so huge a Size, yet their Eggs are no bigger than Goose Eggs; which makes the Portugueze say the same thing of them that, by way of Admiration, is said of the Crocodile; Sic crescit ab Ovo! The Governor has a Tame one, that has been taught to fly with a Man upon his Back who guides him with a little Cord that is drawn through his Beak. They say this Bird with this Weight on his Back would fly full twenty Leagues an Hour, if a Man should take a Fancy to ride Post on so‘ odd a Sort of a Hackney. He catries a Man with as much Ease, as a Falcon trusses a Pigeon. I have been an Eye-Witness of this Prodigy, which is in my Opinion the most wonderfull thing here. The Surprising Jaribots And yet the Jaribots are scarce less surprising, they are the little Savages that dwell on the Tops of the Mountains; their bodies are very often covered with thick Hair, as long as that of a Goat; but they have none on their Face nor Hands. Their Feet are like ours, except the Soles, which are armed with a callous or horny Substance, thick as a Horses Hoof; the tallest of these Dwarfs are not eighteen Inches high, they live sociably together like other Men, their chief Occupation is Hunting by which they get their Food, they likewise eat the Kernels of little Apples. Their drink is Water, in which they bruise Strawberries and red Gooseberries, of which they have plenty in the Woods and Mountains. They are continually at War with the large bluetailed Baboons. The Europeans who traffick to this Coast, bring them pocket Pistols, with which they fright the Baboons, and even kill some of them. These little Moppets are as fierce as Lions, they breed up animals like our Foxes, and of the same Size on which they ride a-hunting over the most ctaggy Rocks, and along the Sides of the steepest Mountains. They keep Kennels of Animals of the ‘Shape and Size of the Weasel, with these they hunt the Mountain Rats, and take more of them, that our Sportsmen do of Hares, with their Hounds and Greyhounds; these rats-are as good to eat as Rabbets, nay, I think sated have a more exquisite Taste.

They have a sort of Sacrificers, who alone are set apart and appointed to take the whole Care of their Religious Worship, for none but they who have taken that Office upon them ever pray to their Gods, They hold that the Care of Religion, and serving the Gods, ought to be left to those, who having devoted themselves entirely to it, discharge the Duty more worthily than the rest, and therefore when any Misfortune befalls them, they lay the Blame of all on their Tonibrots, for so they call their Sacrificers, who (say they), have not faithfully perform’d their Duty, and therefore this Mischief has happen’d to us. In these Occasions they cut them short of their Allowance of Provisions; for you must know they are maintained at the Publick Expense, that they may be the better able to discharge the Duties of their Function. For this Reason lest a Woman should be any Hinderance to them therein, they suffer them not to come into their Company, and when they catch a Tonibrot with a Woman, they punish him in a pleasant Manner; they take the Leaves of Trees, and make as near as they can the Figure of a Woman, then they bind the Tonibrot to that, and both together to a Tree, where they leave the Lecher to mortify his Flesh till he be dead with Hunger. The Olive Oil Lake At the Foot of the Mountain, where dwell the Dwarfs, there is a Lake two Leagues broad and six long. The Water of it is very clear after Noon, but from Morning till then, the Surface of it is covered with an Unctious Liquor, nothing different in Colour or Taste from Oil of Olives. They gather it up every Morning, and put it in Barrels to keep it all the Year, for this Manna is never found but in the Month of May. They eat it in their Sallads, and use it instead of Butter to their Sauce for Fish. ‘Tis not known from whence this Miracle in Nature proceeds. In this Lake they take a Sort of Fish a Foot and ahalf long, much like a Trout; and this Fish, nourishing itself with the Oily Liquor that swims on the Water, carries its Sauce with it; for whether it be fry’d, boil’d or roasted, "tis no sooner cut up, than it fills the dish with so delicious a Juice or Gravy, that there needs nothing else to make it go down. This Fish is called Loutari. These, my dear Friend, are all the most remarkable Things I have observ’d here, not thinking it worth while to trouble you with what you may read in other accounts. Yours, e-ne