Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/546

 448 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. and tromblinj^. Hero sacrifices are even occasionally offered in order to conjure the evil spirits hovering about these ill-omened sites. Social Condition. In a country like Madaga8c:ir, which is passing through a period of rapid trans- formation, and almost of revolution, the social condition necessarily presents the greatest discrepancies, according as the various tribes and castes take part in or still hold aloof from the onward nationjl movement. The influence of the whites is prc<lominant in the high places, and amongst a large number of tribal communi- ties the leading families boast of their descent from Europeans, just as their pre- decessors plunud themselves on their Arab blood. Like the Japanese — and herein may be noticed another point of resemblance between the two races — they have plunged with a sort of frenzy into the broad stream of European culture. Dress, ornaments, furniture, style of dwellings, ceremonies, military parades, polite phraseology, religions themselves : all has been eagerly adopted from their English or French visitors, and the work of assimilation thus gradually spreads in ever widening circles from the capital to the remotest extremities of the empire. Even during the interval of reaction, when all foreigners were expelled, the movement still continued, and those who were temporarily banished from Tana- narivo were surprised on their return after the war to find a large increase in the number of buildings constructed in the European style of architecture. At pre- sent the whites, whether traders or missionaries, freely traverse the island from end to end, and hundreds especially of the dealers from Mauritius and Reunion, are hospitably welcomed by the still independent people on the seaboard and central plateaux. Under all these influences schools have been multiplied in the towns and villages. The Ilova language, henceforth fixed by the adoption of the Roman writing system, has become a literary tongue, and possesses a yearly increasing number of printed books and periodicals.* English, French, arnl Portuguese terms are freely bor- rowed, although in a greatly modified form to suit the phonetic system and struc- ture of the national speech. Christianity, represented by four different Protestant sects and the Roman Catholic form, has been the State religion since the year 1861), and the Queen now bears the title of "Head of the Assembly of Believers." Madagascar has also its learned societies. Radania II., who on ascending the throne in 1861, began by declaring in a great la bari, or national council, that henceforth all the whites " formed part of his family," had even the intention of founding an Academy of Sciences. He fancied, like so many other sovereigns, that he could thus create genius. But beyond the influence of the ruling class the peoples of the more secluded • The Antananarh'o Annual and Mndagaiear Magazine, a learned, scientific, and literary publication, hw regularly appeared for many years in the capital. It is written in English, chiefly by the members of the London Missionary Stxacty, but entirely set up and printed by native craftsmen, on who.se skill and intelligence it reflects much credit. The first number was issued in 1875 under the editorship of the RcT. Jarocs Sibree, by whom our knowledge of the island and its inhabitants has been greatly enlarged. — EuiTOb.