Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/63

Rh together again, and Life-giver made them live. And they continued invoking blessings until flesh grew and a little breath came, and until he could eat a little rice, and so on, until at length he could eat as he had formerly been used to do. And when he was alive again he prepared to go and fetch his wife away from Ravàtovòlovoày. So he went off, and when he came to his village there was the chief playing the game called fanòrona (something like "fox and geese") above the gateway. When he saw Ibonia he asked him, "Where are you going?" Said Ibonia, "To get my wife"; and, having thus answered each other, Ibonia struck him with the palm of his hand, and he became as grease in his hand; so Ibonia got everything that had belonged to Ravàtovòlovoày.

A concise outline of another variant of the story of Ibonia is given by the Rev. J. Richardson in the third number of the Antanànarìvo Annual, pp. 102-104; and, as this differs in several respects from the foregoing, I shall venture to quote it here in full. Mr. Richardson entitles it

A prince who lived in the centre of the land had long been married, but no child had been born to him. He and his wife, anxious to become parents, sought out an old woman who could work an oracle, and she told them what to do to bring about the gratification of their wishes. They carried out her instructions by going into the forest and seeking out a suitable tree, and before it offered as a sacrifice a sheep and a goat. In due time a son was born in a most wonderful manner. They gave him the name of Bonia; and he appropriated to himself a razor his mother had swallowed, and used it ever afterwards as a wonder-working staff.

Another prince and his wife were also childless. They too sought out the old woman; and by carrying out her instructions obtained a daughter; but she was a cripple and deformed. They called her Rakétabòlaména, or, as I will render it, "The Golden Beauty." This girl, ashamed of her lot, threatened to destroy herself if her father and mother would not station her on an island at some distance from their home. The poor father and mother were constrained sorrowfully to carry out her wish. To this lake the sons of several other princes resorted for wild-bird shooting, and were attracted to the house in