What go you to the coast for?" asked his friend, when
about to part.

"You would laugh at me if I told you," said Mamba.

"Then tell me not," returned his friend, with much delicacy of feeling,
"for I would be sorry to laugh at my friend."

Thus they parted. Ancient Soot returned to the home of his forefathers,
and Mamba walked smartly along the road that leads to the seaport of
Tamatave.

He spent that night in the residence of a friend; the next in the hut of
a government wood-cutter.

Felling timber, as might be supposed, was, and still is, an important
branch of industry in Madagascar. Forests of varied extent abound in
different parts of the country, and an immense belt of forest of two or
three days' journey in width covers the interior of the island. These
forests yield abundance of timber of different colour and texture, and
of various degrees of hardness and durability.

The wood-cutter, an old man, was busy splitting a large tree into planks
by means of wedges when our traveller came up. This wasteful method of
obtaining planks is still practised by some natives of the South Sea
Islands. Formerly the Malagasy never thought of obtaining more than two
planks out of a single tree, however large the tree might be. They
merely split the tree down the middle, and then chopped away the outside
of each half until it was reduced to the thickness required. The advent
of the English missionaries, however, in the early part of this century,
introduced light in regard to the things of time as well as those of
eternity-among other things, the pit-saw, which has taught the natives
to "gather up the fragments so that nothing be lost." Thick planks are
still however sometimes procured in the old fashion.

The wood-cutter belonged to "The Seven Hundred" which constituted the
government corps. The members of this corps felled timber for the use
of the sovereign. They also dragged it to the capital, for oxen were
never employed as beasts of burden or trained to the yoke. The whole
population around the capital was liable to be employed on this
timber-hauling work--and indeed on any government work--without
remuneration and for any length of time! After the usual exhaustive
questions and replies as to health, etcetera, the old man conducted his
visitor to his hut and set food before him. He was a solitary old
fellow, but imbued with that virtue of hospitality which is inculcated
so much among the people.

H