2-^0 BURIAL CUSTOMS. 



styles, and occasionally having a sort of open square arcade 

 surmounting the tomb. One of the most remarkable struc- 

 tures of this kind is the immense family tomb of the Prime 

 Minister in the north-west suburbs of Antananarivo. This is 

 a spacious vault with numerous chambers opening out from it, 

 and about sixty feet square. It is surrounded by a massive 

 verandah of stone columns and flat segmental arches, and a 

 flight of steps leads up to the roof, about fourteen feet high. 

 Upon this is an open arcade of columns and arches, and steps 

 lead down to the interior, which is entered by a massive door 

 of brass. The doors leading into the tombs are often of stone, 

 the hinge being a tenon cut out of the stone and turning in 

 hollows above and below. At two of the angles of this 

 great tomb are elegant columnar structures carrying the 

 lightning-conductors. 



The dead are not enclosed in coffins in Imerina, but are 

 tightly wrapped up in a number of dark-red silk lamhas. In 

 some cases these are very numerous. Four or five years ago 

 the senior officer of the native army, an aged general named 

 Kainingory, died ; and as he was believed to be about i oo 

 years old, the Queen gave orders that he should be wrapped 

 in a hundred Ikmbas, of which number she herself sent about 

 thirty. The corpse thus bandaged is laid upon one of the 

 stone shelves in the vault. Funerals usually take place in 

 Imerina on the day after decease, or at least upon the second 

 day after, according to the time of death. The house where 

 the corpse is laid is lined with the richest silk lambas belong- 

 ing to the family, or sometimes only witli white calico, while 

 the corpse is deposited in a small tent, either in the house or 

 in the courtyard. When carried to the grave it is sometimes 

 covered with a uniform coat and cocked-hat, if the deceased 

 were an officer ; and I have occasionally seen bonnets and 

 other articles of female dress surmounting the bier of a Hova 

 woman. The attendants carry small paper fans, of diamond 

 shape, to keep away flies, and these are stuck into the ground 

 at the head of the grave. 



The tombs of the sovereign and of the highest ranks of 

 Andrians have a small and neatly-finished wooden house 

 erected on the top of the stone structure. This exactly 



