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CHAPTEE XV. 



MALAGASY IDOLATRY AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND OBSERVANCES. 



IDOLS AND THEIR WORSHIP — SACRIFICES — ATONEMENT AND EXPIATION — ALTARS 

 AND SACRED STONES AND PLACES — DIVINATION — AMBRONDROMBE, THE 

 MALAGASY HADES— NEW YEAR's FESTIVAL. 



The subjects of the preceding chapter and the present one are 

 so closely connected that it is impossible to draw a rigid line 

 of distinction between them, for curious superstitious notions 

 are mingled with all the religious beliefs and practic3s of the 

 Malagasy. But as a matter of convenience, they may be con- 

 sidered under the separate headings given to the present and 

 preceding chapters. 



Idols and their Worship. — The Malagasy occupy a middle 

 position among heathen nations : on the one hand, they have 

 never sunk so low as some of the South African peoples, the 

 Australian aborigines, and other tribes, who appear to have 

 lost all idea of a God or a spiritual existence, and have, there- 

 fore, no words for such ideas ; and, on the other hand, their 

 idolatry has never been developed into a system, with an 

 elaborate mythology and an organised worship, such as is 

 found in such fulness in India and other Eastern countries. 

 In Madagascar there are no temples or regular worship, and 

 nothing like shrines, pilgrimage, penance, asceticism, and self- 

 torture, and there is no priesthood, properly so called. The 

 people undoubtedly have the religious instincts far less de- 

 veloped than is seen among the Hindoos and many other 

 Asiatics. The idolatry of the Malagasy generally is indeed a 

 fetishism or worship of charms, such as are described in the 

 last chapter. But among the Hovas there had grown up, in 

 comparatively modern times, an idolatry somewhat different 

 from the charm- worship common to the people of the island 



