Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/191

Rh MADAGASCAR 173 unlimited quantities of most tropical produce could be obtained sugar, coffee, rice, cotton, tobacco, indigo, spices, &c. The chief imports are European and American calicoes and prints, hardware, and spirits. 1 On the west coast a sea-going canoe with outrigger is employed, but in the south-east an ingeniously constructed boat, with all the timbers tied together, is used for going through the heavy surf. A considerable number of European traders are scattered along the coasts, especially at Tamatave and other eastern seaports, and there is a large Arab and Indian community in the north-western ports. There is no native coinage, but the French five-franc piece or dollar is the stand vrd, and all sums under that amount are obtained by cutting up these coins into all shapes and sizes, which are weighed with small weights and scales into halves, quarters, eighths, twelfths, and twenty-fourths of a dollar, and are even reckoned down to the seven- hundred-and-twentieth fraction of the same amount, orals. Apart from the modern influence of religious teaching, the people are very immoral and untruthful, disregardful of human life and suffering, and cruel in war. Until lately polygamy has been common among all the Malagasy tribes, and divorce effected in an absurdly easy fashi m. At the same time the position of woman is much higher in Madagascar than in most heathen countries; and, since for more than fifty years past there have been (with a few months exception) only female sovereigns, this has helped to give women considerable influence in native society. Among some of the tribes, as, for instance, the Bara, there is often a shameless indecency of speech and gesture. The southern and western peoples still practice infanticide as regards children born on several unlucky days in each month. This was formerly the general practice all over the island. The old laws among the Hova were very barbarous in their punishments, and death in various cruel forms was inflicted for very trifling offences. Drunkenness is very prevalent in many parts of the island (except in Imerina, where it is much restrained by the laws) ; and it can hardly be said of many of the Malagasy that they are very industrious. But, on the other hand, they are courageous and loyal to their chiefs and tribe, and for short periods ars capable of much strenuous exertion. They are affectionate and firm in their friendships, kind to their children and their aged and infirm relatives, very respectful to old age, most courteous and polite, and very 1 The following tables will give some idea of the imports and ex ports in English vessels from Tamatave, the chief eastern port of Madagascar, to Mauritius during the last few years, since the country has been reopened to European trade : Exports. Imports. 1862 70,707 57,714 1S65 66,873 40,082 1870 57,922 63,047 1872 154,659 145,258 1875 113,961 113,598 1877 54,882 59,680 The great diminution in the eastern trade during the last four or five years was due to a fearful epidemic of small-pox, which desolated the coast provinces and is said to have carried off 40 per cent, of the population. Of these figures, in the exports, cattle form the largest item, amounting from three-fourths in early years to one-third more recently of the total value ; and next to this comes india-rubber, which, in 1872, was exported to the value of 65,000. These figures, however, by no means represent the whole trade of the country, as they do not include French, American, and German commerce, nor do they show what is the trade on the western side of the island. Mr Samuel Procter, the consul for Madagascar in England, says that the west coast has developed very much during the last five or six years, and his opinion is &quot;that the entire foreign trade with Madagascar, import and export, does not fall far short, if at all, of a million pounds sterling.&quot; When it is remembered that it is less than thirty years since almost all foreign commerce was excluded, it will be seen that Madagascar trade has developed somewhat rapidly since the re opening of the country. hospitable to strangers. Although slavery has existed among them from time immemorial, it bears quite a patriarchal and family character, and is seldom exercised in a cruel or oppressive way. In 1877 all the African slaves who had been brought into the island were formally set free ; the other slaves are still retained in servitude, but probably with the advance of Christianity slavery will eventually pass away. In their religious notions and practices the Malagasy Religion, seem to occupy a middle position among heathen peoples. On the one hand, they have never had any organized religious system or forms of worship ; there are no temples, images, or stated seasons of devotion, nor is there a priest hood, properly so called. On the other hand, they have never been without some distinct recognition of a Supreme Being, whom they call Andriamanitra, &quot; The Fragrant One,&quot; and Zanahary, &quot; The Creator,&quot; words which are recognized all over the island. They have also retained in their public and oratorical forms of speech many ancient sayings, proverbial in their style, which enforce many of the truths of natural religion as to the attributes of God. With all this, however, there has long existed a kind of idolatry, which in its origin is simply fetichism, the belief in charms worthless objects of almost any kind as having power to procure various benefits and protect from certain evils. Among* the Hova in modern times some four or five of these charms had acquired special sanctity and renown, and were each honoured as a kind of national deity, being called god, and brought out on all public occasions to sanctify the proceedings. Together with this idolatry there is also a firm belief in the power of witch craft and sorcery, in divination, in lucky and unlucky days and times, in ancestor worship, especially that of the sovereign s predecessors, and in several curious ordeals for the detection of crime. The chief of these was the cele brated tange&quot;na poison ordeal, in which there was implicit belief as a test of guilt or innocence, and by which, until its prohibition by an article in the Anglo-Malagasy treaty of 1865, thousands of persons, mostly innocent, perished every year. Sacrifices of fowls and sheep are made at many places at sacred stones and altars, both in thanks giving at times of harvest, &c., and as propitiatory offerings. Blood and fat are used to anoint many of these stones, as well as the tombs of ancestors, and especially those of the Vazimba, the supposed aboriginal inhabitants of the central provinces. In some of the southern districts it is said that human sacrifices were occasionally offered. The chief festival among the Hova, and almost confined to them, is that of the New Year, at which time a kind of sacrificial killing of oxen takes place, and a ceremonial bathing, from which the festival takes its name of Fandrbana (the Bath). Another and more general feast is at circumcision times. This rite is observed by royal command at intervals of a few years ; these are occasions of great rejoicing, but also of much drunkenness and licentiousness. Funerals are also times of much feasting, and at the death of people of rank and wealth numbers of bullocks are killed. Although, as already observed, there was no proper priesthood, the idol keepers, the diviners, the day-declarers, and some others formed a class of people closely connected with heathen customs and interested in their continued observ ance. HISTORY, From the earliest accounts given of the people of Mada- Early gascar by European travellers, as well as from what maybe inferred political from their present condition over a large portion of the island, they divi- seem for many centuries to have been divided into a number of tribes, sions. each occupying its own territory, and often divided from the others by a wide extent of uninhabited country. Each of these was under its own chief, and was often at war with its neighbours. No one tribe seems to have gained any great ascendency over the rest until about two hundred and thirty years ago, when a small but warlike people