194 A CURIOUS CUSTOM 



with the most complicated and impracticable bridges we had 

 yet seen, even in Antsihanaka ; some of them were in three 

 stages, one a steepish ascent, the middle span on the level, and 

 another going down again into water, not on to dry land, and 

 none boasting more than a slippery round pole as roadway. 



Our journey of six hours and three quarters to-day was only 

 broken by half-an-hour's halt on a low hill to take observations ; 

 indeed there was no village, nor even a house, where we could 

 have stayed, for we were travelling over a perfectly uninhabited 

 country. After we left Morarano, about an hour north of 

 Amparafaravola, we saw not a single human habitation nor 

 trace of cultivation, although there were numerous fertile and 

 spacious valleys, until we arrived at Ambohijanahary. The 

 only object we saw that gave any sign of man's presence was a 

 large herd of fine cattle. I was afterwards told of a curious 

 custom formerly practised by the Sihanaka at the time of the 

 circumcision. They used to choose one of the largest oxen to 

 be found and sharpened his horns to a fine point ; after two or 

 three days' continuous drinking, when they had got perfectly 

 maddened with spirits and were ready for any foolhardy 

 adventure, a party would rush out to attack this ox, but without 

 any weapons. As the animal became infuriated, he of course 

 defended himself by goring his enemies, many of whom he gener- 

 ally seriously hurt, and some occasionally killed outright, while 

 the man who escaped without injury was considered as born 

 under a lucky star, and was resorted to by numbers of people 

 to give them charms to protect them from various kinds of 

 calamity. 



Soon after four o'clock we reached Ambohijanahary, a large 

 village of about a hundred houses, on rising ground, and 

 approached by a long narrow passage between dense thickets 

 of prickly pear. It is a poor dirty place, and the chapel the 

 smallest one we had yet seen in the district, being only twenty- 

 two feet by sixteen wide. However, it was clean and neatly 

 matted, and after stopping up a door and a window on the 

 windward side we put up the tent as a canopy for sleeping 

 under, as the gables were exceedingly well ventilated. Then 

 came speeches, beef, etc., etc., and replies as usual, my oratorical 

 efforts becoming very brief; my companions remarked that 

 the flowery parts of my speeches in reply were gradually 



