290 FADY. 



time, usually extending over several months, and in some 

 cases lasting a year. Thus at the death of Eadkma I. not 

 only was almost every one ordered to shave the head, but also 

 to use no showy dress or ornaments or unguents, not to ride 

 on horseback, or be carried in a palanquin ; not weave silk, or 

 make pottery, or work in the precious metals, or manufacture 

 sugar ; no carpentry work was to be done, or writing, or 

 plaiting- of straw ; no salutations were to be used, or musical 

 instruments played, and dancing and singing were prohibited ; 

 no beds, tables, or chairs were to be used, and no spirits were 

 to be drunk." At the decease of the late Queen Easolierina 

 in 1868 it was ordered that no musical instrument should 

 be played, that there be no building in clay, or manufacture 

 of pottery, that no one lie on a bed, or spin, or prepare silk, 

 and in case of death the corpse was to be buried without any 

 killing of bullocks or the usual ceremonies. 



The trouble the Malagasy take about their tombs is partly 

 accounted for by their belief that the spirit of the departed is 

 unrestful if the body remains unburied. There also exists a 

 general belief throughout the country in pollution as con- 

 nected with death. Thus no one who has been at a funeral 

 can enter the palace or approach the sovereign unless a 

 month has elapsed, and no corpse is allowed to be buried in 

 the capital city, or to remain in it beyond a very short time. 

 The rough bier on which the body is carried is thrown away 

 in the neighbourhood of the grave as polluted ; no one would 

 dare to use it even for firewood, but it is left to decay with 

 the weather. Besides this, after a funeral the mourners all 

 wash their dress, or at the least dip a portion of it in run- 

 ning water, a ceremony which is called afana, "freed from," 

 and is supposed to carry away the uncleanness contracted 

 from contact with or proximity to a corpse. 



Among the Sakalava such is the dread of death that when 

 it occurs in one of their villages they break up their settle- 

 ment, and remove to a distance before rebuilding their slight 

 houses. They seem to believe that the spirit of the deceased 

 will haunt the spot, and do some harm to those who stayed 



* History of Madagascar, vol. ii. p. 398. 



