Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/214

206 Columns with same Figures. Native Word for Combination. Meaning.

1. Fàhasìvy and Màsina = Tsi-ròngatra = does not move or agitate.

2.  Nìa = Màti-ròa = two deaths; that is, two will die, but two locusts may be thrown away as a fàditra or piaculum.

3. Fàhatèlo Harèna = Vahòaka = a crowd of people.

4. Tràno Mpànontàny = Tsìndrilàsy = enemy approaching.

5.  Làlana = Sàmpona = hindrances expected.

6. Andro Asòrotàny = Làhi-àntitra = old man; that is, the sick will recover, and reach old age.

7. Fàhasìvy Asòrotàny = Ravòakòny = a mouthful thrown out (?).

8. Vòhitra Fàhatèlo = Fotòan-tsi-mihàtra = the fixed time will not be kept.

9. Làlana Nìa = Fèhi-tsi-ròso = the troops will not advance.

The following five possibilities refer to somewhat different cases, thus:

It is evident that many of these "meanings" can be construed into answers to questions, although the general tendency of many of them seems to be rather to point out the fàditra to be used against the evil. But it might happen that the figures were all unlike one another, at any rate that those which were like the one in the column representing the question were so incongruous with it that even the most inventive imagination and the greatest acuteness, sharpened by long practice, would prove unequal