Note 27 — Chapter XVIII · SOUTHWARDS TO BÉTSILÉO AND THE SOUTH-EAST COAST
Reading edition
ORNAMENTAL PATTERNS
[27] My friend, Mr G. A. Shaw, who was connected for several years with the Bétsiléo Mission, made a number of “rubbings” of this peculiar ornamentation. On exhibiting many of these at the Folk-lore Society, when I read a paper on this subject, one of the members expressed a strong opinion that these patterns must have had originally some religious signification; and another member remarked that the patterns closely resembled those on articles from the Nicobar Islands.