234 FUNERAL RITES. 



deep in the earth, some of them being as much as sixty feet 

 deep, and are approached by a gradually-descending passage 

 opening some forty or fifty feet distant irom the tomb. The 

 tombs of the rich are som.etimes fifteen or sixteen feet square, 

 and are quite on the surface of the ground ; the four walls 

 and roof are formed of five immense slabs, Avhich are brought 

 from great distances, and involve almost incredible labour. I 

 measured one such stone, and found it to be 1 8 feet long, i o 

 feet wide, and nearly 3 feet thick in some parts." Mention is 

 also made of a circular memorial stone, 1 2 feet in circumference, 

 and nearly 20 feet high above the ground. This was said 

 to have occupied four years in making and dragging to the 

 place where it is erected. Mr, Eichardson also describes other 

 tombs as having " the skulls of all the oxen killed at the 

 funeral regularly arranged on the cornice. I have seen one," 

 he says, " now rapidly falling into decay, on which were no 

 less than 500 such skulls. The most symmetrical that I 

 ever saw was a new tomb, on which on the outer square were 

 arranged 108 skulls of oxen in most regular order; every 

 other skull being that of an ox whose horns had grown down- 

 wards. There were also two other squares of skulls arranged 

 behind this one." * 



In the same paper Mr. Eichardson gives a detailed account 

 of the strange ceremonies he once witnessed at the funeral of 

 a child of noble birth. This is too lengthy to be given here 

 in full, but one or two of the chief features of the proceedings 

 may be briefly described. One of the earliest portions of 

 the ceremonies was the killing of a couple of oxen ; these, 

 however, were first wrestled with, a man to each, and being 

 thrown down after a hard struggle, the forelegs of each were 

 dexterously, but cruelly, turned over its head and locked 

 behind the horns. As soon as the first blood was drawn, 

 a portion was taken to the child's grandfather to be tasted. 

 During these proceedings a procession of women, carrying 

 the property of the deceased, kept entering the house by the 

 south door and leaving it again by the west door. The 

 corpse was placed in a long box covered with coloured cloth 

 and with a roof-like top ; upon this were arranged about thirty 



* Antananarivo Annual. No. i. pp. 74, 75- 



