' BOUND BY BLOOD " 235 



About twenty miles to the east of our route, although per- 

 fectly hidden by the intervening rugged country and lines of 

 forest-covered hills, is a very strongly defended Tanala town 

 called Ik6ngo, a place which maintained its independence of 

 Hova domination until the French conquest. With consider- 

 able difficulty and some personal risk, my friend, Mr G. A. 

 Shaw, managed to gain permission to visit this stronghold and 

 introduce Christian teaching. The native chief, who became 

 very friendly, wished to become closely allied to him by the 

 custom of fdto-drd, or fdti-drd. This is a curious ceremony, in 

 use among many Malagasy peoples, by which persons of different 

 tribes or nationalities become bound to one another in the 

 closest possible fashion. The name for it of fdto-drd i.e. 

 " bound by blood " denotes that its object is to make those 

 entering into the covenant to become as brothers, devoted to 

 each other's welfare, and ready to make any sacrifice for the 

 other, since they thus become of one blood. 



The ceremony consists in taking a small quantity of blood 

 from the breast or side of each contracting party ; this is mixed 

 with other ingredients, stirred up with a spear-point, and then 

 a little of the strange mixture is swallowed by each of them. 

 Imprecations are uttered against those who shall be guilty of 

 violating the solemn engagement thus entered into. A few 

 Europeans, who have overcome their natural disgust to the 

 ceremonial, and to whom it has been a matter of great impor- 

 tance to keep on good terms with some powerful chief, have 

 occasionally consented to make this covenant. Thus the 

 celebrated French scientist, M. Alfred Grandidier, became a 

 brother by blood with Zomena, a chief of the south-western 

 Tandsy, in order to gain his good will and help in proceeding 

 farther into the interior. But in his case the blood was not 

 taken from the contracting parties, but from an ox sacrificed 

 for the purpose ; the ceremony is then called jamakl. In this 

 case, a pinch of salt, a little soot, a leaden ball, and a gold bead 

 were put into the blood, which was mixed with water. Some- 

 times pulverised flint, earth and gunpowder are added to the 

 mixture. In the case of Count Benyowski, who in 1770 was 

 made king of a large tribe on the eastern coast, he and the 

 principal chiefs sucked a little blood from each others' breasts. 

 The Hova formerly followed a similar custom, but with some 



