THE ARAB IMMIGRATION INTO SOUTH-EAST MADAGASCAR. 351 
seems to have a firm hold on these people, so that when they 
return from having hired themselves to foreigners, they are 
very particular about bathing and washing their clothes 
before reaching the Matitanana. Coming from the north (the 
usual direction taken by bands of labourers), the last water 
they pass before arriving at Vohipéno or its neighbourhood 
is the River Mangatsihotra. Here they stay for a complete 
purification, ostentatiously washing their mouths and tongues, 
if they have indulged in food which is at home considered 
fady (tabooed). They also rub their tongues with an ody 
(said to be poisonous) to take away the effect of any evil 
words they may have spoken, or any curses they may have 
uttered against their household or fellow-townsmen. 
The manner of a husband’s return after a six or nine 
months’ absence is characteristic, and sheds a flood of light 
upon the usual estimate of conjugal faithfulness. The man 
does not make for his own house, but enters his father’s, 
until the fact of Iis return is made known through the 
village, and in due course to his wife. She then comes to 
him. There is no particular warmth of welcome or gladness 
expressed on either side, but the man proceeds, in the 
presence of the neighbours, to put his wife on oath regarding 
her fidelity to him during his absence. He then says: “ If 
you have done no evil, then you will submit to the usual 
ordeal, out of which you will come unhurt and receive our 
blessing ; but if you have been unfaithful, may the crocodiles 
devour you in the water.” 
If the woman is willing to submit to the ordeal, she is 
taken to the river bank, from which she throws herself into 
the water, and swims ashore. If she comes out unhurt, the 
man makes her a present of the things he has brought for her 
from the far country and receives her with gladness and 
feasting, In which, unfortunately, the rum bottle occupies a 
conspicuous place. If she either refuses the ordeal, or is 
bitten during the ceremony never so slightly, the man 
repudiates her, gives her no present, and she is gazetted 
throughout the tribe as “a wicked woman, whom no one is 
to wed for ever.” 
Unchastity among the young women is said to be almost 
unknown among the Taimoro, for the fact of unchastity of a 
young woman becoming known would at once preclude her 
from ‘obtaining a husband. This is precisely the reverse of 
the state of things among the unchristianised tribes in the 
interior, where the possession of a child, though it may be 
