Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/219

Rh what sort of thing may grow over the grave that we will eat." So the family agreed together to bury Raràky, but to eat the first thing that should grow upon the grave.

And when things began to grow there, tobacco was the first of all which appeared. So the family took some to eat, according to their agreement. They took some of the green tobacco leaves and all ate; but the green tobacco was raw and uneatable, for it was bitter, and made them sick. So they thought again how they could eat it. "Let us cook it first before eating," said they. So they did this, but it made them more sick than before. So they considered again how they could take it. "Come, let us dry it for rubbing, and toss it into the mouth." So they tried this plan, and still they were sick; besides which it intoxicated them, and made them ill. How then could it be made possible to eat it? For it could not be changed for something else, because what grew first upon the grave was agreed to be eaten, and it was tobacco which grew there first. So, by their agreement, they could not change it. So they rubbed it fine, together with ashes, and by that means they were able to take a little into their mouths.

So this is what people are now accustomed to; and this, they say, was the origin of people's use of tobacco to the present day.—(Translated from a contribution by Rev. W. C. Pickersgill to the Publications of the Malagasy Folk-Lore Society.)

(To be continued.)

HE position of S. Swithin as a Rain-Saint, or Deity, has been thoroughly considered in its relation to a period of heavy rain, or continuous rain, which is supposed to be probable at certain periods of the year. It is open to question whether this view of the legend be correct, and the Rev. John Earle says, "The real origin appears to have been the habit