Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/209

 THE ORATORY, SONGS, LEGENDS, AND FOLK-TALES OF THE MALAGASY.

(Continued from page 174.)

CHAPTER VI.

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E now come to the last and chief division of Mr. Dahle’s book—that of Folk-tales—or, as they are called in Malagasy, Angàno, or Arìra: i.e., fables, tales, or legends. These occupy nearly two-thirds of the book (294 pp.), and include eighty-four separate pieces, some occupying a single paragraph, others extending to a considerable length. The longest story, that of Ibonia, occupies forty-seven pages; another, twenty-three pages; another, thirteen pages, and so on, down to a page or two. About twenty of these stories are fables, chiefly referring to animals; several relate passages in the adventures of two Malagasy rogues, whose fuller history had previously been published in a separate form (as already mentioned, ante, p. 4); some, it will be seen, partake of the character of nursery rhymes; some are mythic, professing to explain the origin of man and nature; and several are giant stories, in which a monster called Itrìmobé is a prominent actor.

One or two of the longest of the stories must be given in outline only, but most of the specimens of each kind of tale we shall translate fully, and as literally as is consistent with clearness, giving, as before, explanatory notes on obscure points at the foot of the page.

As many of these tales have various forms in different parts of the island, I would refer the reader to the ethnological map at p. 144 of Rh