164 REV. T. rOWELL ON THE 



Madagascar, I may say that I feel more at home, as I am better 

 acquainted with Malagasy questions. I am bound to say that certain 

 references that have been made, not only to the Samoans but also to 

 the Malagasy as coming from Yemen, I consider very open to some 

 question. I think it scarcely fair that we should take isolated words in one 

 language and compare theni with isolated words in another, especially if they 

 happen to be the names or portions of names of places in another country, 

 and conclude that therefore the original name of the place spoken of in Samoa 

 had its home in Arabia or Syria or some other country. It is true that 

 traditions and myths are found distributed all over the world in the most 

 remarkable manner, but I do not think it is right to take those various myths 

 and traditions and found upon them statements as to the origin of a people 

 or a language. For instance, that tradition to which we have been listening 

 with so much pleasure, and especially the latter part of it, which has been 

 rendered by Mr. Powell into such admirable poetry, does, as I suppose we 

 can all of us see, carry out to a very remarkable degree the written 

 Word as we have it in God's Book. The same remark is applicable to various 

 traditions in Madagascar, although there, unfortunately, we have never had 

 any family similar to that mentioned by Mr. Powell as residing in Manu'a, 

 which have kept up for a long series of generations those traditions either in 

 verse or otherwise. Hence we have not in Madagascar, as far as my know- 

 ledge goes, any connected myth or tradition which can be written in the way 

 in which Mr. Powell has put the Samoan legend before us, or that can be 

 said to bear, in any sense of the term, a resemblance to anything in the Book 

 of Genesis. Nevertheless, there was in Madagascar, and has been handed 

 down to the date of the introduction of Christianity, a very clear and distinct 

 idea both of Creation and of a Creator; but the various particulars that have 

 been mentioned as to the Samoan tradition cannot be cited in regard to any 

 tradition I have come across in Madagascar; that is to say, that before the 

 introduction of Christianity they had a clear idea of God, whom they 

 called Andriamanitra, which literally translated is Andriana, or Chief 

 of Heaven ; or the latter part of the word may be supposed to indicate the 

 word Lanitra, or Heaven, It can also be translated, and many ima- 

 gine that this is the better translation, as " The Sweet Smelling Prince, 

 or Chief," which shows how clearly the Malagasy entertained the idea that 

 the true God above them was not looked upon in any sense as a Being ex- 

 citing fear or terror, but rather as one who arouses the idea of love. They had 

 also no fear of the Creator, and in many parts of Madagascar I have found 

 the people joining the two names together, and speak of the Supreme Being 

 as Andriamanitr'Andriananahary, that is to say, " The Sweet Smelling Prince 

 who was the Creator." But there are also in their mythology some customs 

 which, if we looked on them with an eye to eliciting their origin, might 

 certainly lead to a supposition similar to that which Mr. Powell has 

 placed before us this evening. For instance, a few years ago here in England, 

 there was considerable discussion as to the whereabouts of the lost Ten 

 Tribes, and at that time the question was much argued by a society in this 



