Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/549

 MAI.AOAST CUSTOMS. 461 attended to under peril of some dire mishap Such and such places arc unlucky, and must be carefully avoided by everybody. Such and such dates are (similarly declared to be unpropitious, and on those days all work must be stopped, all under- takings postponed. No one would dare to start on any adventure without first calling in the magicians to consult the fates by the game of hazard known as sikili, which Grandidier believes to have been introduced by the persecuted Jews, refugees from Arabia. '• The day of the month is a lottery," says a Malagasy proverb; and there are certain terrible days in the Ant' Anossi and Ant* Anala community when the new-born babe must l)e delivered to the crocodiles or buried alive. In order to enlarge his colony the adventurer IJeniovski made the people surrender to him all those who were doomed by their supposed destiny to some misfortune. Amongst the Vezo branch of the Sakalavas the families, while out- wardly observing the custom, come to a mutual understanding to save their off- spring from its consequences. The little victims are duly taken to the woods, but no sooner are they deposited on the ground than some kinsman steps forward to rescue them from certain death. Recourse is frequently had to saciifices in order to propitiute the evil spirits. All the manifestations of nature, such as thunder, rain, and the v inds, are personi- fied by minor genii, children of Zjnahar-be, a superior being who cannot be directly invoked, so far is he removed above mortals. The hills, the rocks, and great trees are also venerated spirits, and certain gigantic baobabs or tamarinds, towering high above the plain, are covered with scraps of cloth, adorned with animals' heads, or coated with coloured clays, attesting the veneration and homage of the faithful. But the evil spirits, still more numerous than the beneficent gejiii, hover in the air, ever whirling round and round in search of their victims. They it is that kindle the conflagration, destroy the crops, sweep away man and beast. " The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain, The ploujrhman hjst hia sweat, and the green com Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard ; The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatt«l with the murrain flock." Hence, when he builds himself a dwelling or sows his field, the peasant, sur- n)unded by all his family, invokes one by one the genii of his kinsfolk, imploring ihein to tcare away their invisible foes. Against these adversaries song is the most potent weapon. To heal the ailing the women and young girls gather round their couch, singing and dancing and beating their hands at dawn and sunset. But should the spell fail and the patient die, it is because the demons have tri- umphed. Forthwith everything must be cleansed, and the very abode of the dead is left to the evil ones. The Ant' Anossi forsake the land itself, while most of the Sakalava tribes endeavour at least to baffle the fiends by changing their name. They thus hope that all trace of their wanderings may be lost. Amongst the Sakalavas it is also usual to hide away the sick in the woodlands, not more than two or three persons being in the secret of their whereabouts. If they thus succeed in concealing the sufferer from the demons he is sure to recover.