The former,
which by many natives is considered quite sufficient, is a strip of cloth
worn round the loins. The simbre is a piece of white stuff, about four
yards long and three broad, which is worn much like a toga. As it is
constantly coming loose, and every minute needing adjustment, it is an
exceedingly troublesome though not ungraceful garment, keeping one hand
of the wearer almost constantly employed.
Males and females wear the same attire, except that the latter indulge in
a little more drapery, and often add a third article--a short tight
jacket, called _kanezu_.
Simple as is the clothing of the Malagasy, their food is not less simple.
At every meal, rice and anana are the principal or only dishes. Anana is
a vegetable very much like spinach, of a by no means disagreeable flavour
in itself, but not savoury when cooked with rancid fat. Fish is
sometimes eaten, but not often--for indolence is a great Malagasy
quality--by those who dwell on the borders of rivers or on the sea-shore;
meat and poultry, though both are cheap, are eaten only on special
occasions. The natives partake of two meals--one in the morning, the
other in the evening.
The rice and anana are washed down with _ranugang_, or rice-water, thus
prepared: Rice is boiled in a vessel, and purposely burned, until a crust
forms at the bottom.
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