272 SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS. 



sort of first-fruits. After this the people take their cattle 

 home and kill them. Connected with this doubtless is the 

 fact that in many Malagasy tribes they do not kill oxen, 

 although they have them in great abundance, unless at 

 funerals or other very important occasions. The Sakalavas 

 of Menab^ never kill a red bullock for food except in case 

 of absolute necessity, and then it is not slaughtered in the 

 ordinary manner, but Trith all the forms made use of when 

 sacrificing animals. A tribe in the Angtivo valley are said to 

 eat none of the flesh, but only the blood, of the oxen they 

 kill. In former times the Betsileo killed oxen only at reaping 

 times, while the Tanala kill chiefly at planting time ; but on 

 these occasions there is evidently some religious significance 

 in this bullock killing. The Tanala offer a great deal of the 

 flesh upon altars in their fields. 



Another noteworthy circumstance connected with the ox 

 is that the rump is the royal share of every ox killed. As 

 Dr. Davidson has pointed out, " The very name anatomists 

 give to this part is suggestive. It is called the sacrum, or 

 sacred part — the part devoted to the gods in Greece and 

 Eome. But tracing tliis up to a higher source, we find that 

 in the Levitical law, this part was specially directed to be 

 offered " (Lev. iii. 6-i i) ; see Sunday Magazine, 1873, p. 674. 



It is also worth notice that the same part of a fowl {vbdi- 

 ahbho) is the proper portion to be given by children or in- 

 feriors to their parents or superiors ; while the same portion 

 of a sheep is what is given by a man to the father and mother 

 of the girl whom he marries. This is now always a money 

 present, but it retains the original name, vbdi-bndry, and 

 makes a marriage legal and binding. 



These three animals, it may also be observed, are those 

 esteemed by the Malagasy as proper to be sacrificed. These 

 sacrifices were sometimes holocausts, but more frequently what 

 are called meat-offerings in the Mosaic law, being feasted 

 upon by the offerers ; while the blood and fat, as representing 

 the life and the best part of the animal, were alone offered. 

 These portions of the victim were smeared upon the upright 

 stones of the tombs as offerings to the ancestors, and also 

 upon other sacred stones and places. 



