Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/18

10 a marsh,” &c. Whether these efforts were successful is left to conjecture; one may hope that after such moving appeals the injured and indignant wife came back to her family; especially since they are followed by this additional address of the husband to the people at large to help him out of his difficulty:—

Second Speech of Ratsàrahòby.

Help me, good folks, for. the fowl I had all but caught has flown off into the long grass, and the bird I had almost obtained for rearing has been carried off by the flood, and the bull I should have obtained for fighting has escaped to the top of the high mountain. So help me, good people, and say thus to Rafàra: (I) will be humble in spirit without obstinacy, and will follow what you have done; for if thou art as the storm destroying the rice, let me be the tree-trunk plucked up. And if thou art as hail destroying the rice, let me be the wide field on which it is scattered. And if thou art as the thunderbolt falling to the earth, let me be the rock on which it dances. And if thou art as the whirlwind blinding the eyes, let me be the lake, substitute for eyes. Because gone is my obstinacy, for gentleness only remains, for there is no support of life, since Rafàra is the support of life; so send me home Rafàra, lest I become a fool.

In Malagasy philosophy, as in that of all nations, there occurs frequent mention of life and its shortness; and, in the absence of any certainty as to a future life, a sentiment somewhat parallel to the old heathen saying, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,” as thus:—

Take your fill of Pleasure while you live.

O ye prosperous people, ye well-to-do folks, take your fill of pleasure while you live; for when dead and come to the “stone with the little mouth” [the native tombs, among the Hova, are made of large undressed slabs of basalt rock, in one of which a small entrance is cut] it is not to return the same day, but to stop there to sleep; it is not to visit only, but to remain. The covering-stone is what presses down over one, the red earth is above the breast, a temporary roof and tent walls surround one; no turning round, no rising up.