Page:A Concise Grammar of the Malagasy Language.djvu/66

 Note.—With regard to the interjection sànatrìa forbid(forbid [sic] that—!), perhaps it had the following mode of origin:—

Sanàtry is the name of a plant used medicinally by the Malagasy; it is also the name given to an earthen pot when it has been daubed with streaks of coloured earth or paint in accordance with the directions of the 'diviner' or 'incantation-worker'. "When so prepared, the pot is carried to the place where the disease to be removed is said by the 'diviner' to have had its origin; the pot is believed to attract the disease to itself, and is consequently left there, the person who leaves it exclaiming 'Sànatrìa,' May it (i.e., the disease) be sanàtry!

In this custom of the Malagasy (whatever its origin) there is the same idea of vicarious suffering which is so familiar to readers of the Bible, in connection with the scapegoat, &c. of the Mosaic Dispensation.