Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/21

Rh Each boasting.

Says Rafàralàhy [i e. last male, or youngest son]: “Art thou Andrianaivo, who art child of Naméhana: rising up, eating the àviàvy (fruit), and when stooping eating amòntana (fruit); at evening playing with citrons, and in the morning bowling lemons?” “Just so.” Then says Andrianàivo [middle male]: “Art thou Rafàralàhy, who art child of Iarìvo: when poor, having money in the mouth, and when rich, not sought for by creditors; riding on horseback, yet not calumniated; and carried in a palanquin, yet not abused?” “Just so.”

A careful study of these Malagasy sayings, together with the native proverbs, throws considerable light upon the notions of the people as regards morals. Many of them contain much good counsel as to the avoidance of various vices and follies, together with rebukes of the loose native habits as regards marriage; for example, there is one against forsaking one’s wife to marry a richer one! Then we have warnings against bad company, gluttony, dishonesty, and prodigality, and very many against lying and liars. The good and the evil man are compared, patience under misfortune is commended, and we are cautioned against trusting in appearances in the following references to the habits of the crocodile, the most dreaded of all the animals inhabiting Madagascar:—

The Slow-going one is to be feared.

A red male crocodile going down the Ikiòpa with the stream, its sly advance unheard, its movements unobserved, lying still in the pools without diving, and lying in the water without paddling. So then, say I, good folks, perhaps the old fellow [lit. “your elder brother”] is dead, and therefore does not show up, or is somehow prevented and so does not return.

But the people say: Thou art indeed childish and dost not perhaps consider that the crocodile, when he lies in the deep pools and does not dive, there is the warm place where he sleeps; and when he lies still in the water, not moving a foot, that there is the place where he