2SO HUSBANDS AND WIVES. 



In the ceremonies of the circumcision, tlie parent or other 

 person who carries the child to be circumcised, and also the 

 circumciser, is called rainjaza, " father of a child ; " so that he 

 and a woman who acts as mother, and is called reninjaza, are 

 a kind of godfather and godmother. 



For " father-in-law " and " mother-in-law " there is one 

 word, rafozana, but unless this is defined by the gender 

 suffixes, the word generally means " mother-in-law," and there 

 are proverbs in the language which warn people about the 

 desirability of being on good terms with one's mother-in-law, 

 speaking of it as being far more important than even agreeing 

 with one's wife ! * Vinanto is the word for " son-in-law " 

 and " daughter-in-law," and is often further defined by the 

 gender suffixes. 



For " husband " and " wife " there is but one Malagasy 

 word, vady, and it is not customary to add to this the 

 masculine and feminine suffixes, laliy and vavjj, the meaning 

 being gathered from the connection. (These words are, how- 

 ever, often used alone to distinguish the husband or wife.) 

 Vady is also used in a wide sense for pairs or things which 

 fit to each other. (In several tribes, by euphonic change of 

 consonants, vady becomes valy ; valy in Hova means an answer, 

 or anything replying to or corresponding with another.) 

 Until the spread of Christianity in the central provinces of 

 Madagascar introduced a higher idea of the marriage relation, 

 the idea of lov& between husband and wife was hardly thought 

 of among the Hovas. Marriage indeed was compared to a 

 knot so lightly tied, that it could be undone with the slightest 

 possible touch, t There was no lack of strong affection between 

 blood relations — parents and children, brothers and sisters, 

 grandparents and grandchildren ; but the marriage state was 

 regarded chiefly as a matter of mutual convenience, each party 

 carefully retaining separately his or her property. Married 

 people never address each other by any endearing epithet, but 

 the wife is called by the husband Bafdtsy or Bamatda (this, 



* Nij vady no tiana, ka ny rafdzana no malala ; " The wife is liked, but the 

 mother-in-law is loved." 



\ Ntj fannmhadiana Uy nafeliy, fa nahandrotra ; "Marriage is not (a thing) 

 tied fast, but tied in a bow. " 



