259 
every reason to hope that their improvement and happiness 
will materially increase, and that every vestige of superstition 
will be swept away. 
Polygamy, in the common acceptation of the word, does 
not generally exist in Emerina, though it is practised in a 
manner still more repugnant to European ideas; as, for 
instance, a man may marry several sisters, or take a widow 
and her daughters at the same time; and it is impossible to 
persuade them of the impropriety of such conduct. It is 
customary for the parties to live sometime together before a 
formal marriage takes place, and then the following cere- 
monies are observed. When the families and friends are 
assembled, the father, or the oldest man present, takes the 
word, and to him the engaged couple declare their intention, 
and make their vows. A great feast then takes place, in 
which mutton is the principal viand, and the tail of the animal 
is always reserved for the mother of the girl. When a man 
desires to marry a second time, that is, to take another wife, - 
he must make a present to his first wife, otherwise she would 
be at liberty to quit him, though not to divorce herself, which 
can never be done without the husband's consent. "The man 
also pays a piastre to the king. The men may quit their 
wives without opposition or objection, and this is commonly 
done at the Bathing Festival. The affection that parents 
feel in Madagascar for their children is remarkably strong; 
they rarely punish them, and both husband and wife fre- 
quently carry their little ones on their backs, wrapped in a 
cloth, and, thus encumbered, perform their daily labour. The 
infants are never confined by any bandage, and are soon 
allowed to creep on the ground with the full use of their 
limbs : thus they early learn to walk and help themselves, and 
4 cripple is hardly ever seen. They marry, too, very young. 
As to the funerals of the Huwa, they are thus performed :— 
As soon as a person expires, the corpse is laid on a bed, and 
washed, the hair is unbraided, and the body is rolled in three 
or four different cloths, while the hands and feet are adorned 
with jewellery, and the neck enriched with strings of coral, 
and other Arabian stones. Here it remains, till all the family, 
s2 : 
