228 HOVA TOMBS. 



a small vault or chamber, sunk for about half its depth below 

 the surface of the ground, and forming a cube of from eight 

 to twelve feet. The four sides of this vault are made of rough 

 slabs of the hard blue basalt rock found so extensively all 

 over the certain portions of Madagascar. These slabs are not 

 hewn, but are detached from the surface of the rock by heat. 

 Small fires of cow-dung are kindled and kept burning for 

 several hours on the line along which it is wished to break oif 

 the slab ; then being suddenly withdrawn, the unequal con- 

 traction of the rock, and the employment of heavy crowbars, 

 causes immense slabs, from four or five to ten or twelve inches 

 thick, to be detached. These heavy pieces of rock are dragged, 

 by the simple force of numbers, from the place where they are 

 quarried to the spot where the tomb is to be constructed ; the 

 owner getting the assistance of all his relatives and the people 

 of his tribe, as well as those of the village where he resides, 

 if he is a person of any consequence. No money payment 

 is made for such services, but quantities of food have to be 

 cooked and many bullocks killed during the many days it 

 takes (often at long intervals) to drag these massive stones 

 to their destination. And as everybody helps every one else, 

 a considerable portion of the time of the people is spent in 

 such services, it being one of the most frequent causes of in- 

 terruption to Bible-classes and other instruction. One of the 

 most common sights on the chief roads is to meet two or three 

 hundred men and women and slaves, all dragging by repeated 

 jerks at the rough ropes attached to the stone, which is fixed 

 to a rude sledge. One or two persons who act as fuglemen 

 stand upon the stone, and with violent gesticulation and 

 flourishing of a handkerchief, encourage the people to pull ; 

 but as the roads are of the roughest kind, while the stones 

 have often to be taken across country, up and down hills, and 

 across rice-fields, &c., the progress made every day is often 

 only two or three hundred yards ; so that a considerable time 

 elapses before the four side stones, the smaller ones for 

 shelves, and then the great rangolahy or covering- stone over 

 the whole, are all brought to their destined position. 



It will be seen, therefore, that building a tomb is a costly 

 and lengthy operation ; but upon nothing is expense more 



