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CHAPTEE XII. 



■RELATIONSHIPS, AND THE NAMES USED FOR THEM, AltfONG THE 

 PEOPLES OF MADAGASCAE, CHIEFLY THE HOVAS. 



AS ILLUSTRATING MORALS, MARRIAGE CUSTOMS AND RESTRICTIONS, 

 AND SOCIAL AND FAMILY LIFE. 



The subject of relationsliips and marriage customs among 

 primitive peoples has excited much interest and received 

 considerable attention from ethnologists during the last few 

 years. And as there are several facts connected with this 

 subject as found among the Malagasy tribes, which have not, 

 I believe, as yet been brought into public notice, it may, 

 perhaps, be of some service to note them down as a slight 

 contribution to a fuller knowledge of the state of society 

 among the less-known races of mankind."^^ 



When a foreigner begins to study the Malagasy language, 

 he finds in many classes of words strange deficiencies as 

 compared with English, while at the same time there is in 

 other groups a much greater fulness and minuteness of dis- 

 tinction than exists in his own or allied languages. 



This remark applies fully to the names used for relation- 

 ships among the Hovas, if not also to those employed by the 

 other Malagasy tribes. 



The words for " father," ray, and " mother," rmy, are used 

 with a very wide signification, and are applied not only to 

 the actual father and mother, but also to step-father and 

 step-mother (who are also called raiMly and rinikehj, " little 

 father," and " little mother "), and to uncles and aunts, with 

 their wives and husbands ; so that it is almost impossible 

 to get to know the exact relationship people bear to one 



* My attention was first drawn to this subject by tlie perusal of a paper 

 by my friend, C. Staniland Wake, Esq., M.A.I., upon "The Origin of the 

 Classificatory System of Relationsliips used among Primitive Peoples " (Proc. 

 Anthrop. Inst, Nov. 1878). 



