1832.] On the Poetry of Madagascar. 87 



as destitute of proof. 1 make these remarks as introductory to the 

 opinion that quantity (except so far as quantity and the number of 

 syllables and accents may be regarded as necessarily synonimous) 

 furnishes no rule for measuring Malagasy verses. No examples have 

 come to my knowledge of lines having a credible claim to correctness, 

 in which two apparently short syllables of one line are put to corre- 

 spond with one long syllable of an equivalent line ; but, where the 

 number of syllables in a line exceeds those of a corresponding linp, the 

 metre is preserved by cutting off some syllables ; and thence gliding two 

 into one reading, and by lengthening the half syllables of verbal 

 terminations into perfect syllables. 



Every word in the language is strongly marked by one accent or 

 more, corresponding in this respect with English. But in English it 

 is observable, that the accent, falling on the vowel, leaves the syllable 

 always long, and falling on the consonant, leaves the syllable short. 

 I do not observe any similar distinction in Malagasy, excepting that 

 there are a few words terminating in e long, and thence carrying the 

 accent. Probably in Malagasy the accented syllable is universally long, 

 and the long syllable universally accented. 



Granting the Malagasy verses to be divisible into feet and capable 

 of beino- scanned, there is perhaps no instance to be found of a line 

 corresponding with a line in Latin. In Latin, the number of syllables 

 varies, and the last is deemed long; the reverse of these two cases is 

 the fact with regard to Malagasy. Moreover the feet, constituting a 

 line, seem to have no correspondence with the purest metres in Latin. 

 Thus the most harmonious lines in Malagasy coincide syllable for 

 syllable and accent for accent with the following : 



" Tsy hlta nao va ny maty Dost thou not see the dead 



JWaraina tsy mba mamindro." Morning not warm at the fireside. 



Consisting of an amphibrach, trochee, and amphibrach. These the 

 natives regard as the most harmonious lines ; yet there are in the 

 same ode lines quite different in respect to the situation of the accented 

 syllables; as in the following couplet : 



" Tsy mahalala havan ko tonga. Not knowing what kindred shall come 

 Aiza ny' olona ireny." Where are people a* these? 



Lines which, notwithstanding their diversity, do not appear essentially 

 destitute of harmony. 



These lines have more similarity to English, so far as that a certain 

 uniformity of syllables and accent is essential in both languages; and 



