The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing.

  • Herbert Standing
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    warmed.' It used to be a common practice to place some prickly- plant at the foot of the bed and along the eastern side, to keep away- evil spirits. On the day of the baby's birth, if it be a boy, the father will sometimes take a hatchet and go out of doors and begin felling a tree or chopping wood in the enclosure round the house, and when those within hear the noise of the axe they call out: ' Who is that ?' Then he from without answers: 'It is I, Ralnikoto,'—Ralnikoto being one of the commonest men's names, and meaning ' the father of a little boy.' When the baby is about a week old its parents send for a diviner, who, on being told the day of its birth, makes an elaborate calculation, depending upon the time of the year and the age of the moon, and then tells the expectant parents what the child's vlntana, or fate, will be. Since Christianity has made such progress in Imerina, the business of these diviners has greatly fallen off, indeed, many of them have given it up altogether; but even in the capital and among people who ought to know better, we still hear of those who go to consult the diviners ; and probably in out-of-the-way country places, where the light of Christianity has as yet scarcely penetrated, nearly all the old heathen practices are still followed. The diviner, after predicting the future of the child, advises the parents as to what they should do to make the fates more propitious. They are to buy a hen, varying in age and colour according to the month, and this they are to hold by the legs and shake about over the baby's head, and while it cackles and flaps its wings, all in the house are to exclaim, 'May this remove all ill-luck and cause of disease !' After this the hen is either killed and eaten, or kept alive and considered the special property of the baby. If nothing worse than this came from a belief in the diviner's power, we might be inclined to think that no great harm was done ; but when nations forget to love and fear the one true God and sink into the darkness of heathenism, Satan always leads them into cruel