Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/216

208 taken (i.e., the beans composing it) and applied to a reed (vòlotsàngana) of the same length as the man for whom the sikìdy is worked, and this is thrown away, it will bring good luck.

(d) If figure 14, it is an excellent charm against gunshot (òdi-bàsy).

(e) If figure 13, the beans composing it are taken and mixed with a herb called tàmbinòana; the sick person licks this six times, and it is then put on the top of his head.

(f) If figure 12 (here called Hèloka, guilt), the six beans of the figure are placed on as many rice-husks, which are then thrown away as a fàditra.

(g) If figure 1, a tree called àndrarèzina (a species of Trema) is to be the fàditra.

(h) If figure 5, a white hen and a tree called fòtsinanahàry ("white one of the Creator") are to be the fàditra.

2. Unique Figures in Talé.—This is the only column in which all the figures have a special meaning; but as they are much in the same style as those already given under Andriàmànitra, it would be tedious to give them in detail. Mr. Dahle observes here: "I do not intend the reader to practise the sikìdy (this secret I shall of course keep for my own use!), but only wish to give him an idea as to what it is."

3. Unique Figures in the other Columns.—In the other fourteen columns the number of figures having special meanings varies from one to fourteen out of the sixteen possibilities; but space and time do not allow any further details, especially as their general character is shown by the examples given under Andrìamànitra. Most of them simply suggest an answer to a question, frequently also giving a remedy against the evil intimated by the answer. As a specimen, however, it may be mentioned that when the figure Sàka occurs singly in the column Tràno, it is