( 3i8 ) 



CHAPTEE XVT. 



NEW LIGHT ON OLD TEXTS: ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRITTUIIE 

 FEOM MALAGASY CUSTOMS. 



EOYALTY AND GOVERNMENT — FAMILY LIFE — MARRIAGE — BENEDICTIONS, 

 CURSES, AND SALUTATIONS — DRESS AND FOOD — ^TEAPONS — HOUSES AND 

 TOWNS— TOMBS AND BURIAL — ROADS AND PATHS — SYMBOLIC ACTS AND 

 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE — AGRICULTURE — SLAVERY — TIME. 



It has been often remarked that " the Bible is an Eastern 

 book ; " and perhaps it is impossible for those who have 

 never lived in any but a temperate climate to fully appre- 

 ciate, not merely the figures and allusions in which the 

 Scriptures abound, but the whole Eastern feeling and atmo- 

 sphere in which they are steeped. The researches of a host 

 of travellers and of residents in the East have, however, 

 now enabled those who stay at home to understand the 

 Oriental colouring of the Bible far more clearly than it was 

 possible to do only a few years ago ; and some of the most 

 trivial, and at first sight unimportant, details are found to 

 contribute most essentially to the vividness of the narratives 

 and teachings of the Scriptures. 



But although the Book of God is, of course, most clearly 

 seen in the light derived from Palestine and Egypt, Assyria 

 and Persia, all tropical countries and peoples have more or 

 less affinity with the land and peoples of the Bible ; and 

 illustrations of Biblical customs may be derived from almost 

 every mission-field. This subject has already been treated 

 of in some missionary works, but it has by no means been 

 exhausted ; and, as in the course of several years' labour in 

 Madagascar, I have frequently been struck by the close 

 analogies between native customs and those described and 

 referred to in the Scriptures, it may not be uninteresting to 



