THE ANTANANARIVO ANNUAL AND MADAGASCAR MAGAZINE. A RECORD OF INFORMATION ON THE TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF MADAGASCAR, AND THE CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS, LANGUAGE, AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF ITS PEOPLE. EDITED BY JAMES SIBREE, JUN., Mt'ssz'onary of tlie L. M. S., Aut!zor of "Madagascar a1id z'ts People," &c. No. Il.'-CHRISTMAS, 1876. ANTANANARIVO: PRINTED AT THE PRESS OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 1876. All rights reserved. Ill. CONTENTS. PAGE 1.-0UR SECOND NUMBER. By the EDITOR .............. , ... 2.-0VER SWAMP, MOOR, AND MOUNTAIN: Being tlze '.Jour­ nal of a visit to A ntong·odralzoja, and lzome by A mbaton­ drazaka. By REV. C. F. Moss, L. M. S.................... 3 3.-WORDS RESEMBLING MALAGASY IN THE SWAHILI LANGUAGE. By REV. W. E. Cousrns, L. M. S........... 20 4.-MALAGASY 'TONON-KIRA' AND HYMNOLOGY. By REV. J. RICHARDSON, L.·M. S .... : ......................... ,..... 23 5.-AMBATONDRAZAKA: THE CAPITAL OF THE ANTSIHA­ NAKA PROVINCE. By REV. J. PEARSE, L. M. S.......... 36 6.-THE 'INFIX' IN MALAGASY: A MALAYAN FEATURE. By REV. L. DAHLE, N. M. s... ... .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. ...... 41 ~ 7.-THE WESTERN IBARA, AND THEIR CUSTOMS. Translated by the EDITOR .................................... , , , , , .. , . 45 8.-MADAGASCAR TWO CENTURIES AGO. Proposal to make z't a Brit/sit "Plantation." By REV. A. B. GROSART, Blackburn. 51 9.-THE GHOSTS OF AMBONDROMBE LAID. By MR. G. A. SHA\V, L. M. S. ............. , ....... '· · · · · · · ........ · .. , 57 10.-A VISIT TO AMBOHIMANGA IN THE TANALA COUNTRY. By REV. T. BROCKWAY, L. M. S ................ , , .. 58 11.-CARVING AND SCULPTURE, AND BURIAL MEMORIALS AMONGST THE BETSILEO. By the EDITOR......... 65 IV. PAGE 12.-DR. MULLENS AND THE POPULATION OF ANTANANA­ RIVO. By REV. J. RICHARDSON ...............• ,, .••• , •. , 'j2 13.-THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARABS ON THE MALAGASY LANGUAGE. By REV. L. DAHLE......................... 75 14.-TANALA CL'STOMS, SUPERSTITIONS, AND BELIEFS. Collected by DR. A. DAVIDSON, and translated by REV. J. RICHARDSON ...... ·. • . • • • • . , •.• , , ..•..•• , , . 92 15.-ROUGH SKETCHES OF A JOURNEY TO THE IBARA. By MR. G. A. SnA,v •.........................· ...........•..•. 102 16.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS ................................ III 17.-BRIEF SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. By the EDITOR .................. ,.,, •..... , ...•. , ••.•..•.•••••.•. , 121 18.-LIST OF FOREIGN BOOKS ON MADAGASCAR, CHIEFLY IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. Arranged by the EDITOR. 123 19.-MALAGASY CONUNDRUMS. Collected by REV. J. RICH- ARDSON ...................................... , ............ 126 20.-HOVA, TANALA, AND BETSILEO NAMES OF THE MONTHS. By REV. J. RICHARDSON .. , .. ,, •............. , 128 21.-VARIETIES: Sakalava .le[arriage Custom, page 22-T/ze Za­ hana, page 50-A 11:falagasy Ordeal, page 56-T/ze Voa­ votaka, page 64-Malag·asy Boats, page 74-T/ze Filao Tree, page 101-T/ze Cyclone of February last, page 120- Ants and Serpents, page 125-Eartliqua/.'e s/wcks, page 127 . ., "., The Editor does not make /zimseif responsible for every ind/vi'dual expressi"on of opinion on the part of those wlio contribtt!t: to the pages of the ANNUAL. THE ANTANANARIVO ANNUAL AND MADAGASCAR MAGAZINE. OUR SECOND NUMBER. HE general interest expressed in the first number of the T ANNUAL, and the many promises of help given from various quarters, have afforded gratifying assurance that the proposal to issue such a magazine was not premature or ill-timed. Not only from friends in Madagascar, but also from those in England, and at the Cape of Good Hope, and at Zanzibar, have we received encou­ ragement to proceed ; and there seeins no doubt that the discussion of the different subjects included in our programme will stimulate research, and prevent much that is. interesting from falling into oblivion. It may perhaps be thought by some that too large a proportion of our space in the. first and second numbers has been devoted to records of various journeys, and too.little to some of the other lines of inquiry suggested in the original proposal for this magazine. So much new information has however been recently obtained about previously unknown portions of the country, that it seemed desirable to preserve it in a permanent form. And we hope, all being well, to give in future numbers much that is new upon the traditions, legends, folk-lore, fables, etc., of the country. For the commencement of this English magazine has led to the proposal to publish a Malagasy Annual, or "lsan-kerin-taona," whose object is to awaken the attention of intelligent natives to these subjects, and to collect all such information in an annual publication. The particular No. 2.-CHRISTMAS, 1876. 2 Our Second Numbe1'. points to which attention is drawn in the programme of this Mala­ gasy Annual are as follows :-Songs and Carols; Proverbs; Conun­ drums; Fables; Native Drugs and Charms; Natural History; Reminiscences of the old Missionaries ; Old Stories and Legends ; The Tangena Ordeal; Old Customs; The different Tribes and their Origin; Woods and Grasses, with their uses as Medicine or other­ wise ; and Accounts of Journeys into distant parts of the Island. Should this publication succeed, and we heartily wish it all success, we hope to gain much that is interesting and valuable from it to transfer to the pages of future numbers of this ANNUAL, in a form intelligible to English readers. A book on "Malagasy Folk-lore" is also announced as in the press; and other plans are also on foot for collecting and printing the legends, fables, traditions, and superstitions of the inhabitants· of Imerina; so that we may confidently look for a considerable increase of our knowledge on all such subjects. It will be seen from the following pages that several journeys of considerable importance have been made during the year in hitherto little known parts of the island. Mr. Shaw and Mr. Riordan of the Betsileo mission have explored the eastern portion of the Ibara country; Mr. Street and the Editor have crossed the Tana.la country by a route never before traversed by Europeans or by Hovas, and have discovered that there are several large centres of popula­ tion along the south-eastern coast; Mr. Houlder has visited the north­ east coast, and gives us information about places round Antongil Bay, and also in the interior, that have never before been described or shewn on any map; and lastly, Bp. Kestell-Cornish and Mr. Batchelor have made a journey of considerable extent in the nor­ thern provinces of Madagascar. Of this last, we hope to give an account in our next number. We shall be particularly obliged to those of our friends who are interested in Natural Hii;tory and Botany by contributions of infor­ mation on these branches of research. They present such a wide field, and are both still so imperfectly explored, that almost every one may make additions which will have more or less of value. Again asking the kind co-operation of all Europeans resident in Madagascar to make the ANNUAL increasingly successful and valu­ able, we·present our friends with the Second Number. EDITOR, Tlie Antanana1'ivo Annttal, Oliristmas, 1876. 3 OVER SWAMP, MOOR, AND MOUNTAIN: BEING THE JOURNAL OF A VISIT TO ANTONGODRAHOJA, AND HO;lfE BY AllfBATONDRAZAKA. ATTHEW Prior, in one of practicable, a wider scope for the M his poems, speaks of the old­ missionary enterprise o:f the City :fashioned maps that used to be congregations under his care. :familiar to readers in his day, when Tlmrsday,June29t!t. Started at 11 o'clock. The morning :fresh, bright, "Geographers, on pathless downs, Put elephants instead of towns." and bracing. Our party consist­ ed of Mr. Lord and myself, with It is not long since the map o:f twenty-four palanquin bearers and Madagascar might have been simi­ carriers of luggage. Leaving the larly filled up, so far as regards 'Great North Road' at Anjanaha­ any definite g·eographical know­ ry, we took the more direct, but ledge o:f the interior of the Island far more difficult route, by Tsara­ that could have been conveyed by tsaotra, thl'Oug·h the middle of the it. The travels of M. Grancliclier, big swamp west of N amehaua, right however, and more recently the OU to Imer:imandroso and Anta­ missionary journeys undertaken by nanatsara. The road is · a some­ Dr. Mullens, Mr. Pillans, the late what unfrequented one, and wewere Mr. Cameron, and other members many times reminded how little of the L. M. S. and F. F. M. A. either Christianity or civilisation missions have to a large extent re­ has as yet influenced the villages, moved this 1)l'evailing ignorance. even near the Capital, that happen East, west, north, and south, the to lie off the common track. Inside country has been visited, its promi­ the houses dirt and squalor still nent :features carefully noted, and reign unclisturbed by hint of change : the condition, habits, and manners while outside we saw scores of of its people described. ,vith all men and women standing waist­ the drawbacks incident to travel in deep in the swamp, clredging for Madagascar, and they are many, fish among the fetid mud, and with the temptations it presents to ama­ scarce a rag to cover them. At teur explorers are unquestionably one place, while we waited for a very attractive. It was not, how­ canoe, a group o:f boys and girls ever, the ambition to distinguish came up whose occupation, ,like ourselves in this way that led my that of Joseph' s brethren, consisted :friend Mr. Lorcl and myself to in tending cattle. But we found undertake the journey described in on questioning them that their the following pages. Theobj ect was ignorance of Joseph's God was purely missionary: simply to visit absolute and unrnitigaterl. With and encourag·e distant churches several chapels and schools within with whom the Wl.'iter has long been a mile of their homes, they seemed in correspouden~e, and to find, if never to have set foot in either.