Note 216 — Chapter XVII · THE FRENCH IN MADAGASCAR
Reading edition
The Hovas, or Merina, as they are properly called, of Central Madagascar bear a strong physical resemblance to the Javanese. They seem to have reached east Madagascar much later than the ancestors of the Sakalava and Betsi-misáraka, and subsequently to the Arabs. The Merina ruling caste is very “Malay” or Mongoloid in appearance.