Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/247

Rh came the messenger again, saying, "Why, Ikòtobòribòry, haven't you got a wife, you fellow? and yet why have you not put out your fire?" Ikbto replied, "He has not yet given possessions according to my heart's desire." "What then does your heart desire, fellow?" said the messenger. "Wisdom, honour, many slaves, many cattle, much money, long life." So the messenger went away to God and told him. Then said God, "Give them to him, for my children are choked." So they gave him what he asked.

Then Ikòto put out his fire, and having become very rich he went back to his father and mother. And when he came into their house they did not recognize him. So he said, "Where is your child?" They replied, "Ikbtobbribbry was his name, but he followed his father to the forest and died there." "Am I not he, father and mother?" They replied, "You are telling lies, for he had no arms and legs as you have!" He said again, "It was I who jumped into the bag and was thrown away by father when he came to the forest." Then his father and mother fell at his feet, and his father said, "It is true I threw you away, child; but however have you got feet and hands and wife and possessions?" He replied, "I so troubled God with my smoke that I obtained all I desired. My father will love me now I am so well off." Then his father replied, "I was very much to blame, child."

Then said Andrianambìniny (Mr. Prosperous), for that was the name Ikòto took after he became wealthy, "I am the child who did not disown the father, although the father disowned the child." So all the family rejoiced for the coming of Andrianambìniny, whom they thought dead, but who was still living, wealthy and beloved by all. And this is the origin of the saying, "A relative is a relative to those who have property; a father is a father to the well-to-do; but it is the mother who does not forsake whatever is one's condition."—(Translated from a contribution by Rev. C. F. Moss to the Publications of the Malagasy Folk-Lore Society.)

A variant of the above story is given by the Rev. W. Montgomery under the title of Ilòhanihiàny, i. e., "His-head-only." In this version it is the deformed boy's brothers who leave him in the forest, but the main story and incidents are substantially the same. The concluding sentence is, "This is the origin of the old saying, "Although men wait not for God, I will yet wait for Him.'"