CROCODILES 251 



trees. They were at least forty feet high, and with their smooth 

 green stems almost trunks and grand broad leaves, and 

 great clusters of fruit, presented a magnificent appearance. 

 The fruit is called bntsy ; these are about a foot long and 

 a couple of inches thick, and so a single one makes a fair 

 meal. 



For several miles the river makes a great bend to the north, 

 and on following its banks again we saw crocodiles for the first 

 time on this journey. These were basking in the sunshine, 

 perfectly motionless, on a group of rocks just showing above 

 the water. At the distance we were I should not have noticed 

 them but for my men pointing them out ; but with the glass 

 every scale could be seen, and very unpleasant-looking creatures 

 they are in their slimy length, with serrated back and tail, and 

 rather small heads. Near them were several large wading- 

 birds, some white and others dark brown, and called drondovy 

 (i.e. "protector of the enemy"). These birds are constant 

 attendants on the crocodiles, performing some service for them ; 

 and where the birds are seen, the reptiles are never far distant. 

 We afterwards noticed that near all the villages on the river- 

 banks a small space in the water was enclosed with stakes, so 

 that the women and children coming to draw water could do so 

 without fear of being seized by a crocodile, or swept off into the 

 stream by his tail. 



From a remote period the Malagasy have been accustomed 

 to resort to ordeals for the detection of crime, and the ordeal by 

 the tangena poison has already been referred to in these pages 

 (see Chapter III.). But among the Tanala tribes an ordeal 

 of another kind was commonly employed to find out a guilty 

 person ; for anyone suspected of wrong-doing was taken to the 

 bank of the Matitanana, or one of its tributaries, where crocodiles 

 abound. The people having assembled, a man stood near the 

 accused, and striking the water thrice, addressed a long speech 

 to the reptiles, adjuring them to punish the guilty, but to spare 

 the innocent. The accused was then made to swim across the 

 river and back again ; and if he successfully accomplished this, 

 and was not hurt by the crocodiles, he was considered innocent, 

 and his accuser was fined four oxen. If, on the contrary, he was 

 seized and killed, he was supposed to have justly merited his 

 fate. This ordeal was termed tangem-vody (vody= crocodile). 



