348 REV. GEORGE A. SHAW, I.Z.S., ON 
people. The ink is a gummy solution of lamp-black and, 
judging by some of the specimens I have seen, is very 
durable, as well as of a brilliant blackness. 
The utmost care seems to have been taken both with the 
instruction of the male children in the art of reading and 
writing the characters, and in the endeavour to secure 
accurate transcripts of the original books. The scholars 
are required to rigorously observe the various fady, on pain 
of expulsion from their families and tribe. They are required 
to abstain from certain foods, such as eels, certain sea fish, 
pork, ete., and an absolute moral purity is enjoined. 
In case of war, or fire, or hurricane, or other event likely 
to imperil the safety of the Sora-be, the keepers answer for 
their preservation with their lives ; if they are able to escape 
the calamity, whatever it may be, they are considered as 
able to save the sacred books. ‘These must come before 
considerations of money, property, or family; and hence, 
through all the disturbances and unrest of a semi-savage 
state of society, the books have been preserved. 
The books, ‘besides being called the Sora-be, are also called 
by the educated (the readers of them), the Kardna, evidently 
a corruption of * Koran.” But im the course of generations 
the actual meaning of the word—as applied to one book— 
has been to a great extent lost, and is used to represent the 
various stages or standards through which the students pass. 
For instance: the normal character or sign of the consonants 
is called the Karana véalihany, we. the first Karana; the 
pointing of these consonants with some of the simplest vowels 
is called the second Karana; while those who are able to 
read any of the books are said to have mastered the third 
Karana. 
The possession of these books, together with the natural 
acuteness and exclusiveness of the Taimoro, has secured for 
them a certain kind of reverence from other tribes, which 
they have not been slow to turn to their own profit. It is 
said that the vast majority of the ddy (charms) and idols 
used in the country came from the Taimoro. Even the 
noted Kélimalaza, one of the Hova idols destroyed by the 
late Queen in 1869, came originally from this part of the 
country, having been captured in one of the wars and taken 
to Imerina as legitimate spoil. At the present day men 
travel about the country with reputed ody, and secure a 
good living through the gullibilty of the villagers. The 
mode of operating may be varied to suit different cases, but 
