Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/204

196 the time of Flacourt, and this term is the Arabic anbia, 'prophet'.

"The word sikìdy (probably from the Arabic sichr, 'charm, incantation') has been generally translated 'divination', but it has a somewhat wider sense, as it includes both the investigation of what is secret, and the art of finding out the remedy for it, if it proves to be of such a nature that a remedy is required; but the second depends on the first. There are three kinds of sikìdy which are employed almost exclusively in finding out what is secret: while the other kinds have more to do with remedying the evils. The first class, however, forms the sikìdy par excellence, manipulated according to a rather intricate system; the second class depends upon it, and seems to be of a somewhat more arbitrary character."

Before proceeding further, a word or two must be said as to the Malagasy notions of vìntana or fate, as the practice of the sikìdy largely depends on these beliefs. The word vìntana Mr. Dahle believes to be an obsolete collateral form of the Malagasy word kìntana, "a star" (Malayan bintang), and, in its restricted meaning, denotes the destiny of a man as depending on the times as declared by the stars at the time of birth, and also the fitness (or the reverse) of certain times for certain actions (e.g., for a burial). The first of these was the vìntana proper; the second was more accurately styled San-àndro (literally, "the hours of the day", from the Arabic sda, "hour", but also used in a wider sense of "any moment". As might be inferred from its name (if the above explanation of it be correct), the vìntana in its turn rests upon astrology. The different days of the month, and the months throughout the year, are each supposed to be connected with different constellations. In previous articles in the Antanànarìvo Annual Mr. Dahle had shown that the native names of the months are all Arabic in origin, and are not, as might have been supposed, the Arabic names for the months, but the names of the twelve Signs of the Zodiac; while the names