Among these are Betsimitatatra in Imerina, and Tsienimparihy in Betsileo, supplying a large proportion of the rice required for the capitals of these two provinces.
In many parts of Africa the serpent is looked upon as the incarnation of deceased relatives; among the Amazulu, as among the Betsileo of Madagascar, certain species are assigned as the abode of certain classes; the Masai, on the other hand, regard each species as the habitat of a particular family of the tribe.
Besides these highest points there are a considerable number of mountains in the central provinces of Imerina and Betsileo and the intervening and surrounding districts; and in the Bara country the Isalo range has been compared to the "Church Buttes" and other striking features of the scenery of Utah.
But the most noticeable of these are those in the ancient bed of the Alaotra Lake, which formerly extended far southwards along the valley of the Mangoro; also those in the marshes of Antsirabe and of Ifanja, in the Ikopa valley (the great rice plain west of the capital), and also in the plain of Tsienimparihy in Betsileo, and especially the recent deposits of Ampasambazimba, north-west of Lake Itasy, discovered in 1902.
There are no distinctly marked boundaries between any of these tribal territories; and west of Imerina and Betsileo there is a considerable extent of country with hardly any population, a kind of " no-man'sland."