Descent of Man from Animals 165 



Betsimisaraka believe that the curious nocturnal animal called the 

 aye-aye (Cheiromys madagascariensis) "is the embodiment of 

 their forefathers, and hence will not touch it, much less do it an 

 injury. It is said that when one is discovered dead in the forest, 

 these people make a tomb for it and bury it with all the forms of 

 a funeral. They think that if they attempt to entrap it, they will 

 surely die in consequence 1 ." Some Malagasy tribes believe themselves 

 descended from crocodiles and accordingly they deem the formidable 

 reptiles their brothers. If one of these scaly brothers so far forgets 

 the ties of kinship as to devour a man, the chief of the tribe, or in his 

 absence an old man familiar with the tribal customs, repairs at the 

 head of the people to the edge of the water, and summons the family 

 of the culprit to deliver him up to the arm of justice. A hook is 

 then baited and cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty 

 brother or one of his family is dragged ashore, formally tried, 

 sentenced to death, and executed. The claims of justice being thus 

 satisfied, the dead animal is lamented and buried like a kinsman ; a 

 mound is raised over his grave and a stone marks the place of his 

 head 2 . 



Amongst the Tshi-speaking tribes of the Gold Coast in West 

 Africa the Horse-mackerel family traces its descent from a real horse- 

 mackerel whom an ancestor of theirs once took to wife. She lived with 

 him happily in human shape on shore till one day a second wife, 

 whom the man had married, cruelly taunted her with being nothing 

 but a fish. That hurt her so much that bidding her husband farewell 

 she returned to her old home in the sea, with her youngest child in 

 her arms, and never came back again. But ever since the Horse- 

 mackerel people have refrained from eating horse-mackerels, because 

 the lost wife and mother was a fish of that sort 3 . Some of the Land 

 Dyaks of Borneo tell a similar tale to explain a similar custom. 

 " There is a fish which is taken in their rivers called a puttin, which 

 they would on no account touch, under the idea that if they did 

 they would be eating their relations. The tradition respecting it is, 

 that a solitary old man went out fishing and caught a puttin, which 

 he dragged out of the water and laid down in his boat. On turning 

 round, he found it had changed into a very pretty little girl. Con- 

 ceiving the idea she would make, what he had long wished for, a 



1 G. A. Shaw, "The Aye-aye," Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, 

 Vol. n. (Antananarivo, 1896), pp. 201, 203 (Reprint of the Second four Numbers). Com- 

 pare A. van Gennep, Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar, pp. 223 sq. 



2 Father Abinal, "Croyances fabuleuses des Malgaches," Les Missions Catholiques, xn. 

 (1880), p. 527 ; A. van Genuep, Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar, pp. 281 sq. 



3 A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa (London, 

 1887), pp. 208 11. A similar tale is told by another fish family who abstain from eating the 

 fish (appei) from which they take their name (A. B. Ellis, op. cit. pp. 211 sq.). 



