PARENTS AND CHILDREN. 245 



fill "U'ay of addressing an elderly woman. The word endry is 

 also used, almost exclusively so in some tribes, for mother, 

 and also ima, and jary, probably the same as zdry, which 

 means " made," " formed," " created." 



There is no exact equivalent for our word " parent." The 

 compound phrase rai-aman-dr^ny, i.e., " father together with 

 mother," is applied to any superior, elder, or patron, male or 

 female, and is given as a title of respect by the sovereign to 

 the people, and by the people again to the sovereign. In 

 some of the early editions of the IMalagasy Scriptures the 

 Fifth Commandment was wrongly translated, " Manaja ny 

 rai-aman-drcninao" instead of "Manaja ny rainao sy ny 

 reninao" and has accordingly, at least on one occasion, been 

 preached from by a native whose knowledge was not equal 

 to his zeal, as containing a command to honour the Govern- 

 ment and the great people of the country. 



In the Sakalava dialect, a man is joJidry, which in Hova 

 means chief, president, or governor, " the lord of the creation," 

 in fact ; while " woman " is harera, a word which in Hova 

 means " to brood over," as a bird over its young. 



Then the word for " child," zcmaka or dnaha (the latter is a 

 more affectionate and respectful word used in direct address), 

 is used in an equally wide sense for children actually borne 

 or begotten, for step-children, and for nephews and nieces, for 

 which last relationship, as already remarked, there are no 

 distinct words. The word zdnaka, in like manner with its 

 complements ray and r(^ny, is used in a wide sense in address- 

 ing or speaking of a younger person. " Son " is zdnaJca-ldhy, 

 and " daughter," zoMaha-vdvy* " Boy " is zdza-IdJiy, and 

 " girl," zdza-vdvy ; while a girl who is an only child is called 

 by the curious compound vdvildhy, literally, " male-female." 

 {Ldhy and xdvy are " male " and " female," or " masculine " 

 and "feminine.") A child dying under two years of age 

 is termed rdno, the word for " water," and used also figura- 

 tively for anything soft and delicate. 



A girl is in many tribes called zdza-ampdla, that is, " spindle- 



* My friend Mr. Wake •wrote to me : " Have you ever thought of the amus- 

 ing fact, that while anah means 'small' in so many Liiiguages, in Hebrew 

 the Anakim were sons of the ffiant ? " 



