160 MORALITY EMBODIED IN WORDS. 



" father-and-mother," an expression continually applied to any 

 friend or protector or superior. 



Some of the salutations are very poetical. A frequent 

 word of welcome is arahdba, probably derived from the 

 Arabic, and equivalent to the Hebrew racked), " to be 

 enlarged," a phrase of which we have many examples in 

 Scripture ; as, " Thou hast enlarged me when I was in dis- 

 tress" (Ps. iv. i) ; see also Gen. ix. 27 ; Ps. cxix. 32; Isa. 

 ix. 5 ; &c. Then the common farewell is Veldma, " May you 

 live," while to a superior it is proper to say Trardntitra, 

 "May you reach old age." 



Something may now be said about the " morality " which 

 is embodied in many Malagasy words, a feature of the lan- 

 guage of which there are many striking examples. 



One of the most curious of these is the word for hypocrisy, 

 fihatsdranibdlatsihy, which means literally " the becoming 

 good by spreading a mat." The meaning of this, at first 

 sight obscure phrase, is seen by remembering that the clay 

 floors of the ordinary Hova houses are covered by the strong 

 and neat mats made by the women. But as the Malagasy 

 are, when untouched by Christianity, by no means as cleanly 

 a people as might be desired, when a mat becomes dirty it is 

 not usually removed, but merely covered over by a cleaner 

 one ; and so the process goes on until often there is a layer 

 of four or five mats rotting on the floor, each one being 

 dirtier than the one next above it. The habit of using 

 the native snuff in the mouth, and rejecting it again in 

 any convenient corner, the underside of the mat being often 

 the most handy place, is an additional contribution to un- 

 cleanliness. When a stranger enters the house fresh mats 

 are spread for him to sit down upon, and all looks nice and 

 clean, but, let no one look underneath, for all sorts of filth 

 may be hidden below ! The house has merely become clean 

 by " spreading a mat." And so the custom has suggested an 

 ethical use of the phrase for conduct which is all clean and 

 proper outside, but is merely a cloak for evil and impurity 

 beneath. 



Then there are two words connected with the marriage 

 relation, which also are witnesses against some of the evils 



