ijo CHRISTIAN NAMES. 



especially tlie names John and Jonah, slightly altered to 

 follow the phonetic character of the orthography ; the former 

 hecoming Eajaonina, and the latter Eajonc\. So also we find 

 Samuel, Daniel, Joseph, Boanerges ( ! ), Japhet, Zechariah, and 

 many others ; and in all these the accent is carried forward 

 a syllable, so that with the name-prefix the words become 

 Easamioela, Eadaniela, Eajosefa, &c. Women's names taken 

 from Scripture are not so common ; but the Latin form ot 

 Mary, Maria, is also a native word, so that it enters into 

 the composition of many names, as Eamariav^lo, &c. A few 

 natives, chiefly elderly people, have had English names given 

 to them at their baptism, which they use prefixed to their 

 native names ; and so we find such combinations as John 

 Eainisoa, David Johns AndrianMo, Joseph Andrianaivorave- 

 lona. But in recent times it has not been considered desir- 

 able to alter native names by any foreign element, at least 

 among the Protestant missions. The Eomish missionaries 

 have given European names to their converts when baptized 

 so that numbers of the saints of the Eoman calendar are 

 represented by their Malagasy protegees. 



Some of the compound names sound curiously enough : 

 thus, one may find amongst school children, Eamosejof^ra, i.e., 

 Ba, native prefix; niose, corruption of the French monsieur ; 

 and jofera, again a native name ; and also Eamosevazuha, which 

 might be translated, " Mr-monsieur- white-man " (or foreigner) ! 



Many of the tribal names are very poetical, and remind 

 one of those borne by some of the North American Indian 

 tribes. Thus, we have in the southern-central province, the 

 BdtsiUo, "the many unconquered;" along the eastern coast 

 are the Betsimisdraha., " the many unseparated," standing 

 shoulder to shoulder against an enemy ; in the north-east- 

 central district are the SihanaJca, " the lake people," from the 

 nature of the country they inhabit ; through the dense woods 

 of the south-eastern side of the island are the Tanala, "the 

 forest people ; " while in the extreme north are the AntanJcar- 

 ana, " the rock dwellers," so called from an almost impreg- 

 nable rocky fastness in their territory. Then the central 

 tribe of Hovas are subdivided into many smaller clans. The 

 people in and around the capital city of Antananarivo are 



