328 FOOD. 



heavenly, visitors at Mamre (Gen. xviiL 8). It is also the 

 custom for the Malagasy to send a servant at the exact time 

 the feast is ready to bid the guests come and partake (see 

 Luke xiv. 1 7). 



The Christianised Malagasy are scrupulous about not 

 eating food until a blessing has been asked, but this takes a 

 superstitious form, from being considered not so much as the 

 thanksgiving of the partaker as a consecration of the food 

 itself, which is then termed vita fisaorana, or " properly 

 blessed ; " much indeed as the people of Zuph (?) would not 

 eat of the sacrifice until it had been blessed by Samuel (i 

 Sam. ix. 1 3). So they ask of any food, " Is it blessed ? " 

 and it is said that some graceless people, who wished to save 

 themselves trouble, have been so economical of time as to 

 ask a blessing over the whole store of provision in their rice- 

 pit ! considering that all future thanksgiving would thus be 

 unnecessary. 



In the more primitive state of society existing in the still 

 heathen tribes of Madagascar, it is common to see menial 

 ofiices, which are left to slaves in the more civilised capital of 

 the country, performed by the female relatives of the chiefs. 

 Thus at Ivohitrosa, among the forest people, I remember 

 being much surprised to see the daughters and wives of the 

 King and his family pounding rice and fetching water, &c., 

 while still arrayed in the ornaments proper to their rank. 

 But it will be remembered that this is just what both 

 Eebekah and Eachel did, although they were near relatives of 

 a wealthy and prosperous man, doubtless a sheikh, or chief 

 of the district where he resided (see Gen. xxiv. 15—20; xxix. 

 9, 10). There is, however, the same distinction among the 

 Malagasy as among Easterns in the way of carrying the 

 water pitcher ; free women carry it on the sJioulder, as did 

 Kebekah (Gen. xxiv. 15), while slaves carry it on the head. 

 Almost every Malagasy town and village presents the same 

 scene now, morning and evening, as is described in i Sam. 

 ix. II: " Young maidens going out to draw water " for the 

 daily use of each household ; and in every house there are two 

 or more waterpots placed, as there were at Cana in Galilee 

 (John ii. 6). 



