Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/205

Rh for the separate days of the months are the twenty-eight "Moon-stations" on which the Malagasy (originally Arabic) chronology and astrology depends. In the san-àndro an important part is played by the "Seven Planets" of the ancients, that is, including the sun and moon, but excluding the earth and of course also the more distant planets, which were then not known at all. The astrologers had, however, a good deal to do outside the domain of astrology and fate, for they had not only to find out and, if necessary, counteract the influences of nature, but also those of bad spirits and bad men, as well as of the evil eye.

Mr. Dahle divides his treatise into seven sections, a division which I shall follow in this paper, but condensing his information in many places.

I.— The sikìdy was generally manipulated with beans or certain seeds, especially those of the fàno tree, a species of acacia. When the mpisikìdy had placed a heap of these seeds or beans before him and was about to begin, he inaugurated his proceedings with a solemn invocation, calling upon God to awaken nature and men, that these might awaken the sikìdy to tell the truth. The following is the formula used:—

"Awake, O God, to awaken the sun! Awake, O sun, to awaken the cock! Awake, O cock, to awaken mankind! Awake, O mankind, to awaken the sikìdy—not to tell lies, not to deceive, not to play tricks, not to talk nonsense, not to agree to anything indiscriminately; but to search into the secret, to look into what is byondbeyond [sic] the hills and on the other side of the forest, to see what no human eye can see.

"Wake up, for thou art from the long-haired Silàmo (Moslem Arabs), from the high mountains, from Rabòrobòaka and others" (here follow nine long names). "Awake! for we have not got thee for nothing, thou art dear and expensive. We have hired thee in exchange for a fat cow with a large hump, and for money on which there was