Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/221

Rh B.—Odim-bàrotra (trade-charms).—These were used to make trade successful. They were effected by erecting a sikìdy in which there occurred eleven Adikasàjy. The beans of these eleven identical figures were then applied to the things to be used as charms to make trade prosperous.

C.—Odim-pitìa (love-charms).—These were prepared by erecting a sikìdy in which the figure Vontsìra occurred in the column Harèna (and nowhere else), and the figure Kizo (sikìdy) in the column Nìa (and nowhere else). The first of these was called Màmy àho ("I am sweet"), and the second Kèly mòmba ny nàhiny ("small, but sticks to what is intended"). These charms were also used as trade-charms, as the great object in view in trade also is to make the customers "love" (that is, like) the things sold.

D.—General charms.—If a sikìdy was erected in which the figure Vànda miòndrika occurred only in the column Andrìamànitra, this was a good general charm for everything.

E.—Fanìndri-lòa (charms against vomiting).—The diviner arranged his beans so as to make a rough figure of a man. Then he gathered them together and mixed them with a decoction of two plants and made the patient drink the mixture.

F.—Odin’ ny òlona tòhina (charms against dislike to food).—Here is a useful prescription for those whose appetite is failing. The diviner arranges his beans so as to make four different figures. These are then mixed with water, which is drunk by the person in question, and the cure is complete. At any rate, says Mr. Dahle, the diviner did not, he believes, mention a single case in which it had failed!

G.—Fangalàn-kèo (remedy for diseases caused by eating food in which there was a matòatòa, the spirit of a dead man); and

H.—Fampodìan àloka or ambiròa (the bringing back a semi-departed spirit).—Time and space forbid that I should give in detail the strange mixture of chance and jugglery by which the diviners professed to be able to effect the