300 RAFANTAKA. 



no earthly power could remedy. From the native drawing it 

 appears that this idol consisted of two small rude wooden 

 figures of lizards, ornamented with coral beads and pieces of 

 silver. And from an interesting account of the burning of 

 this idol given to me by a Malagasy friend, it seems that 

 the idol had several coverings of different kinds of cloth, the 

 outer ones profusely ornamented with silver and beads, and 

 made respectively of dark-blue cotton, of native silk, and of 

 scarlet cloth. Together with the idol itself, there were burnt 

 twenty-six large and small baskets, all filled with leaves and 

 pieces of wood used as charms ; and nine wooden boxes filled 

 wdtli charms to be used as fillets for the head, necklaces, or 

 armlets, and supposed to give the bearer certain protection in 

 battle."" The tabooed things and acts of this idol were onions, 

 and funeral beef ; vegetables to be cooked must not be put 

 to boil inside the house, but out of doors, and the rice about 

 to be eaten must not be mixed up in the middle of the 

 Dooking-pot. No serpent must be killed, nor could any 

 attendant at a recent funeral enter the idol house ; it could 

 not be carried abroad on Thursday, and those who sought its 

 aid paid fourpence and a cock to the keepers as a fee. 



Next perhaps in importance was the idol Eafant5,ka. This 

 was kept at the old capital and sacred city of Ambohim^nga, 

 about eleven miles north of Antananarivo. From the native 

 drawing already referred too, it appears to have been simply 

 the curved tusk of a wild-boar, to which was attached a long 

 ribbon-like piece of dark-red native silk. At each end of 

 this was a kind of fringe made of coral beads and small 

 pieces of silver. The fady or tabooed objects and actions of 

 Eafantaka were the following : — Onions, kidneys, the herb 

 called ana-niafititra, tripe, and funeral beef, and food tasted, 

 or removed, while cooking, in an improper way from the fire. 

 It was forbidden to take into its house the rolls of twisted 

 grass used to place under anything carried on the head, or the 

 rush called vbndro7ia ; and the reed called by the same name 

 as the idol, fantaka, must not be burned, or the wood called 

 harbngana. Chaff must not be scattered, and if the idol's house 

 were crossed by a td^katra, an ox with horns growing down- 



* See Sunday at Home, April, 1879, pp. 213-216. 



