Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/181

Rh it is big and long, and its skin is striped, so that makers of lambas take it as a pattern for striped cloths. During the day it is quite gentle, so that even an infant can play with it and take no harm; but when night comes on there is hardly any other creature so fierce. They say it bellows like a bull. If any animal or man meets it at night it encircles them at the loins and compresses them so tightly that in a very short time the object attacked is dead. It has the power of making its body big or little, something like india-rubber. It is very crafty, so that when it meets with a serpent (ménaràna), which is a creeping creature like itself, it appears to be afraid, and makes its body small. Then comes the serpent and twines round it, and then raises its tail to strike the dòna (for the tail of the ménaràna is barbed, they say, like a spear, and it kills its victims by this means). Then the dòna swells its body suddenly, so that the ménaràna is broken, as if cut with a knife. Such is its power that it is said to be able to force its way out of its hole, although opposed by the strength of the strongest man stopping it up with a cloth stuffed in at the entrance. Whistling, it appears, makes the dòna angry, although in the daytime it is usually tame.

6.—The Làloména or Làliména. This animal is like the ox, but lives in the water. It has two horns, and they are very red, and it is said to be amongst the strongest of the animals which live in the water. It is difficult to say exactly what its appearance and qualities are, for there is much of the fabulous mixed up with the accounts of it.

7.—The Angalàpona. This creature is among things which are related to man, they say, although it is not so large as a human being. Its abode is said to be in the water, but yet it is not wetted by it; for they say there is a cave within the water into which water does not enter, and there the angalàpona lives. The door by which it goes out and in turns in the water, and so is the road by which it passes to and fro, but yet it is not at all wet, although traversing water in this way. As regards its size, it is a little larger than a young child. Its hair is very long, so that when it stands upright its hair almost reaches the ground. It is considered by the people to be the director of divination and (fortunate) day foretelling, &c., so that the diviners call upon it when working the oracle with the words, "Arise, for thou hast come from 'Long-hair'," &c.

There are two persons still living who say that they have certainly seen it; their names are Rénisòaràhanorò and Ràinitsimanàhy. The