33d HOUSES AND TOWNS. 



they had marked for themselves in the daytime " (Job xxiv. 

 1 6). Extraordinary stories are told of the ingenuity of some 

 of these peoj^le in taking away the bedding and clothes from 

 under persons who are sound asleep. 



And then again, as in the East, the movable property of 

 the people largely consists of " changes of raiment," in other 

 words, of a store of handsome l^mbas ; so that our Lord's 

 words about " moth corrupting" them are hardly less appropriate 

 than they were to His Jewish hearers. And like them also, 

 the money of the Malagasy is generally kept in the house, 

 buried in a hole in the ground, usually near one of the chief 

 posts supporting the roof; so that "hid treasure," so fre- 

 quently mentioned in Scripture, is quite a familiar idea to the 

 Malagasy (see Josh. vii. 2 1 ; Job iii. 21; Isa. xvii. 4 ; 

 Prov. ii. 4 ; Col. ii. 3 ; &c.) 



In the unsettled state of society which prevailed in the 

 central provinces up to the end of the last century, every 

 town and village was built on the summit of a hill, often of 

 considerable height ; so that throughout Im^rina and Betsildo, 

 as well as in other parts, all ancient towns are " cities set on 

 a hill, which cannot be hid." The capital of the island is 

 built on the summit of a long rocky ridge, 400 to 500 feet 

 high, and is visible in some directions from a distance of 

 thirty to forty miles ; and many villages in Butsileo are on 

 hills 700 feet high above the surrounding country. 



Tombs and Burial. — Like most Easterns the Malagasy do 

 not use coffins for their dead, but wrap the body in a great 

 number of cloths, proportionate to the rank and wealth of the 

 deceased (see John xi. 44 ; Acts v. 6). At the death of an 

 aged officer of the native army in 1875, a veteran said to be 

 about a hundred years old, the Queen ordered that he should 

 be wrapped in a hundred red l^mbas, of which number she 

 herself sent about a third as a mark of respect. The Mala- 

 gasy spend large sums upon their tombs, and they consider 

 it as the greatest calamity not to be buried in their own 

 family vault. So that those Hova officers who die at the 

 military posts in various parts of the island far away from 

 their native province, are always brought up to Imdrina to be 

 buried with their ancestors ; and so it is also with those who 



