H— ANTHROPOLOGY i73 



the survival of a system, of a series of ' Feasts of Merit,' such as those by 

 which social status is acquired in the Naga hills, but I have found no 

 precise information on this point. As by the Dafla in Assam and as in 

 Fiji, the nose-flute is used in the Marquesas.^*" while the attitude of 

 Marquesans to European immunity from the malign influence of wizards 

 was stated to Delmas in almost the identical words used by a Naga 

 to myself : ' You escape, because you do not believe,' ^*^ a point of 

 view which suggests that the Naga or Marquesan medicine-man fully 

 appreciates the power of suggestion in magic, though his lack of an 

 abstract vocabulary makes it difficult for him to put it into words. 



I turn now to Madagascar. Although at the opposite extreme of the 

 Oceanic area to the Marquesas, many similarities are found again with 

 Naga cultures in Assam, particularly with those of the Angami tribe. 

 As there, villages are built for security on the tops of hills with stone 

 walls, ditches and stone gateways and surrounded with thick hedges of 

 thorny acacia or of prickly pear, the stone gateways being defended with 

 heavy wooden doors.^*^ In Madagascar, as among the Angamis and the 

 Manipuris, the pantomimic war dance '^*^ is popular, and the head is 

 tabooed,^** as also the shoulder in the Marquesas and by some Nagas. 

 In Madagascar again the plantain tree seems to be used as a human 

 synonym i*^ and the blood of royalty must not be shed.^*^ 



As in Assam we find various treatments of the dead, including their 

 exposure ^*' on platforms and in canoes as well as in tombs and family 

 vaults. ^*^ Stone tombs are placed by roads or in the centre of the 

 village. They are lined with stone slabs and sometimes stepped in 

 pyramidical form.^*^ Their place may also be taken by cenotaphs in 

 the form of menhirs,^^" and ancestor worship ^^^ is much the same as it 

 is among the Angami, and a similar importance is attached to funeral 

 ceremonies,^^^ which are accompanied by musketry ^^^ and the killing of 

 large numbers of cattle in the court-yard in front of the house,^^* the skulls 

 of which are set up on the graves.^^^ Like the Ao, the Betsileo wrestle 

 with their cattle before sacrifice.^^® Graves themselves, as among the 

 Angami, may only be moved during the cold weather,^^' that is, I take 

 it, between the harvest and the sowing. In some cases miniature houses 

 are put up on the graves to accommodate the soul, and there is a con- 

 comitant belief ^^^ in the Hill of the Dead to which every soul must 

 journey. The dead again are dressed in new clothes, ^^^ and corpses 



1*° Handy, 311. ^^' Delmas, 79. 



*** Sibree, 25, 28, 116 ; Ellis, II, 147, 359, 435, 450 ; Hutton, I, 44 sq. 



1" Ellis, II, 328 ; Hodson, 67. i" Ellis, II, 344. 



1*' Sibree, 241. '*' Osborn, 201 ; Ellis, II, 291. 



"' Sibree, 3, 287, 152 sq., 180 ; "8 Eiiis_ n^ ^^^^ 451. 



i*» Osborn, 343, 344 ; Sibree, 290, 300, 310. 



I" Ellis, II, 24. 



I'l Ellis, II, 404, 410 ; Osborn, 234, 262, 280. 



»" EUis, II, 63, 93. 



I" Ellis, II, 87, 206, 217 w. ; Sibree, 288. 



1" Ellis, II, 389 ; Osborn, 229, 230. '^* Osborn, 346. 



"* Wake, 26 ; Mills, II, 259, 379. ''' Sibree, 77 ; Hutton, I, 228. 



1'' Sibree, 119; Osborn, 232. '^^ Sibree, 287. 



