Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/229

Rh Alakaosy, and the 1st of Adijàdy; others were absolutely good, e.g., the three days called Alàhamàdy, and the 2nd of Alakaràbo; others again were considered indifferent, e.g., the 1st and 2nd of Alàhasàty.

4. Some days again were not considered good in general, but still good enough for special purposes; e.g., the 1st of Alakaràbo was excellent for a house-warming; the 2nd of Adijàdy was good for marking out the ground for a new town; and the 3rd of Adimizàna was a lucky day to be born on, but a bad day for business.

5. Some days had a special peculiarity of their own; e.g., children born on the 2nd of Adàlo generally became dumb! so they say.

6. Even the bad days were generally so only in the sense of having too strong a vìntana. This was especially the reason why children born on these days were considered a very doubtful gift. Hence the infanticide in former times in the central provinces of Madagascar, and still practised in most parts of the country where Christianity has not yet been taught. Sometimes, however, the diviner managed to remedy the evil in one way or another; and occasionally nothing more was required than to give the child a name which intimated that the child would not do any harm, notwithstanding its strong vìntana. Hence such names as Itsimanòsika, Itsimandràtra, Itsimanìho, Itsimanòlaka, etc., all expressing in a general way that the child would be harmless. Those born on the 2nd of Adàlo were often called Itsimaròfy ("One who is not ill"), to avert the danger of dumbness.

Not only were the twenty-eight days of the month called after the month-names (and also after the moon-stations), but, as already mentioned, a Hova house of the old style had also its sides and corners named after the