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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    meet together and divide into two companies, and a general fight would ensue; often two would be chosen or challenge each other to a single combat; and then the rest would encourage and urge them on, saying, ' Let neither of you be afraid, for you are both born men. May neither of you get the worst of it, for you have each been smeared with lard by his mother ;' then each party incited their own man, telling him to 'chop his opponent up like sugar-cane,' and asking him, 'Is he your child, that you should be tender-hearted towards him ? Is he a relative of yours, that you should grieve over him ?' Then the fight began, and sometimes they struck each other on the head, sometimes on the cheek, sometimes in the pit of the stomach ; and when one got the worst of it and was knocked down, his opponent called out to him to ' get up and come on again ;' or he would pretend to take him on his lap and fondle and stroke him, in derision. This often incited him to renew the contest, and so the fight went on again, until at last one was so much hurt or tired that he ran away. Then all the others shouted after him, calling him a good-for-nothing fellow. The conqueror too would often go after him, and having caught him, would kick him gently in scorn, at each kick saying, 'It gives me pleasure! I enjoy it! Even a flea would bite you, much more I, a human being.' At last the poor fellow was allowed to escape, and ran home thoroughly discomfited. A game which causes great amusement is called Blby ahitra, that is, the ' grass monster.' A boy having been chosen to be dressed up as the beast, his whole body from head to foot is thickly covered over with a kind of long trailing grass. This is firmly tied on to him, each arm being made to terminate in a sort of switch or lash ; a long tail and a pointed hat, also of grass, completing the 'get up.' He presents a very ludicrous appearance, heightened by his comical antics and awkward gait. He runs about hither and thither, trying to catch his companions, or attempting to lash them with the whips on his hands; they meanwhile dance around and scatter from him