SAMOAN TUADITION OF CKEATION AND THE DKliUGE. 165 



country calling themselves the Anglo-Israelites. It so happened that an 

 account of that discussion came to Madagascar, and was read by a few of the 

 chiefs who could understand English. They at once said, very much to our 

 astonishment, that they were the lost Ten Tribes. Very soon after the advent 

 of this report, some of the nobles of the country came to me and said — "We 

 see that in England the English people are saying they are descended from 

 the Israelites— that tliey are the lost Ten Tribes. Do you not consider that 

 we are the lost Ten Tribes, because we have this custom, which you are 

 perfectly well acquainted with?" It was one that I knew and had noticed 

 many a time, namely, at the New Year— that is to say, at the Malagasy 

 New Year, which does not correspond with ours, as they reckon the year by 

 the lunar months, in consequence of which the New Year is constantly 

 moving — at the feast of the New Year they had always, from time im- 

 memorial, kept up the custom of taking to the Queen, or the Sovereign, a 

 bullock which had been fattened and prepared purposely. The animal must 

 have been a bullock without spot or blemish, and of one colour only, as a 

 single hair of another colour rendered it altogether useless for the j^urpose 

 intended. Its horns must have been symmetrical, that is to say each must 

 have sloped out from the head in precisely the same way. This bullock was 

 taken to the Sovereign as an offering from the people ; and not only did the 

 Malagasy always speak of the Supreme Being as Andriamanitra, but it 

 had always been their custom that when anything supremely great or good 

 was marked by a clearly distinctive characteristic, it was always called 

 Andriamanitra ; and although the people are aware that this was only 

 used in a figurative sense, it helps us to understand the custom, one 

 illustration of which is that the Queen was also called Andriamanitra, 

 inasmuch as she was the supremely great personage of the realm. The 

 bullock taken to the Queen as an ofifering was killed by one of the 

 priests, who was thoroughly examined, and if he had any spot, or scratch, 

 or mark, or sore, he was disqualified. He was dressed in a clean white 

 lamba, and after the bullock was killed, its blood was sprinkled by a wisp of 

 grass on the lintels, or door-posts, of the houses. I give this as an illus- 

 tration of the point I am endeavouring to establish, that these traditions 

 cannot be taken as any indication of the origin of the people. We know 

 very well in Madagascar where all these traditions, or rather those things 

 which have grown from traditions into proverbs, have come from. The Arabs 

 have from time immemorial been a maritime people, and it is well known, not 

 from written history but by the traditional history which has been handed 

 down among the people, that the Arabs came to Madagascar some centuries 

 ago ; and there is not the least doubt that from the traders who sailed from 

 Arabia to Madagascar came these traditions and proverbs, and that from 

 them also came the names of the Malagasy months, all of which are Arabic, 

 and likewise most of the days of the week. This is the only point I have 

 to notice in connexion with Mr. Powell's paper, and I have thrown out the 

 remarks I have offered, not because I feel myself qualified to disprove that 

 which Mr. Powell is anxious to make clear, namely, that the Samoans and 



