Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/57

Rh

Once upon a time there were two sisters who had no children, and so they went to work the divination (sikìdy) at the house of Ratobòboka. As soon as they came in she asked, Why have you come here?" The sisters replied, "We are childless, and so have come to inquire by divination here of you." Then said Ratobòboka, " Look into my hair." So the elder one looked and saw only a bit of grass; then she said, "I saw nothing, mother, but this bit of grass." Ratobòboka replied, '" [sic]Give it me, for that is it." Then the younger girl searched, and saw only a little bit of broken charm, red in colour; so she said, "I saw nothing, mother, but this little bit of a red charm." Ratobòboka replied, "Give it me, for that is it." And upon this, Ratobòboka said, "Go alone to yonder forest to the east; and when you have arrived there the trees will all speak and say, 'I am the sacred child-charm'; but do not you speak for all that, but take the single tree which does not speak there, last of all, and take its root which lies to the east." So the two girls went away. And when they came to the forest each of the trees said, "I am the sacred child-charm" (i.e. which causes the barren to bring forth). Nevertheless the sisters passed them all by. And when they came to the single one which did not speak, they dug round the tree, and saw one of the roots which struck eastwards, which they thereupon took away.

And when they were on the road the sisters vowed, saying, "If we should bear boy and girl (i.e. if one have a boy and the other a girl), they shall marry each other." And when they came home they each drank (of the charm). Accordingly the elder one became pregnant; and after a half-year had passed the younger also was with child. And when the time came for her to be delivered the elder sister bore a daughter, and she called its name Rasòamànanòro (or Rampélasòamànanòro). In due time came the day for her younger sister to be delivered, so she went to the south of the hearth to bring forth her child. But the child in her womb, they say, spoke and said, "I am not a slave, to be taken here south of the hearth"; so his mother went north of the hearth. But it spoke again, "I am not a prince, to be taken north of the hearth." Then his mother took him to the box,