given an amount of rice soup or rice water to drink. 
When this had been done, he was given three pieces of 
chicken skin to swallow without chewing, each piece 
approximately the size of a silver dollar. Then he was 
fed the tanghin, which had been mashed and mixed with 
the juice of bananas and either the leaves or the juice of 
cardamons. Since the poison acted rapidly, one of the 
judges would immediately place his hands on the head of 
the accused and utter these or similar incantations to the 
genie of the nut: (Perrot and Vogt, 1913) 
Listen! Listen! Listen! 
And be attentive, 
Rainimanamango? 
You are a round egg 
Which God has made perfectly. 
Although you do not have ears, listen! 
Although you have no mouth, respond! 
Listen! Listen! Listen! 
And be attentive 
O Rainimanamango!’’ 
The prayer continues, but it is largely repetitive, request- 
ing that if the accused is innocent, he should vomit the 
three pieces of chicken skin. There are also imprecations 
which were to apply if he were guilty. During or after 
the prayer, the accused usually vomited. If this were 
delayed, he was fed more rice water or soup. When he 
did vomit, the egested material was examined closely for 
the three pieces of skin, the evidence of his innocence. 
If all three were not found, or if the subject’s stomach 
failed to reject the mixture, he was immediately pro- 
nounced guilty. Often the person who was thus deemed 
guilty died before the end of the test. But more often, 
the poison was not allowed to complete its work. In- 
stead, as soon as these condemning effects became estab- 
lished, the people fell on the convicted one and shortly 
dispatched him. The relatives of the person executed in 
[ 274 ] 
