Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/215

Rh to the task of construing it into a reasonable answer to the question. In such cases the mpisikìdy was obliged to have recourse to other operations, viz., the Sikìdy tòkana and the Lòfin-tsikìdy, of which the first one is comparatively simple, while the latter one was very complicated. Each of these will now be briefly explained.

B.—The Sikìdy of Unique Figures.—If it happens that any of the twelve principal columns (Talé—Vòhitra and Tràno—Fàhasìvy) gets a figure which does not occur in any of the other columns, this is called Sikìdy tòkana, "a sikìdy that stands alone"; and consequently there are twelve possible kinds of this species of sikìdy. Often many of the columns may happen to have unique figures; in the diagram, for instance, Màsina, Asòrotàny, Tràno, and Talé have each one occurring in no other column. But it would be remarkable (although it is possible) if all the twelve columns got different figures, so that all the rules for sikìdy tòkana became applicable in the same sikìdy.

The twelve columns are enumerated in a certain order by the diviners. First comes Andrìamànitra (God), then the four at the top of the diagram, and finally the seven remaining ones below. In all the twelve classes of sikìdy tòkana the meaning depends on which of the sixteen figures it is that occurs as unique in the column in question. In many cases only a few of them have any special meaning attached to them, as will appear from the following rules regarding each class:

I. Unique Figures in the Column Andrìamànitra.—As only eight of the figures can be placed in this column without making the whole sikìdy invalid, as previously mentioned, we only get eight varieties:—

(a) If figure 9 occurs, it denotes that a thing can be done seven times without any hindrance.

(b) If figure 7, you must throw away a cooking-pot full of rice, and you are likely to get rich.

(c) If figure 3, which is here called Màhatsàngana, is