WORDS USED IN RELIGION. 163 



formerly had a wide and vague signification become specia- 

 lised and limited. Thus the word for church and congrega- 

 tion is fiangdnana, which originally meant simply an assembly 

 for any purpose, but is now entirely confined to assemblies 

 for religious worship. So also with the word for pastor, 

 mpitdndrina, which is literally "one taking care of" or 

 superintending, a word formerly applied to any superin- 

 tendent, but now being gradually limited to denote the 

 overseer or pastor of a Christian congregation ; much, in 

 fact, in the same way as the word episcopos was gradually 

 specialised to mean an ecclesiastical overseer, a primitive 

 bishop. And, still in the same line of things, just as by the 

 influence of Christianity and by their use in the New Testa- 

 ment, many Greek words were purified and raised to a higher 

 level, so it has been with many Malagasy words, such as 

 those employed as equivalents for " grace," " faith," " justifica- 

 tion," " righteousness," &c. These have now a fulness and 

 meaning which they never conveyed to the Malagasy in their 

 heathen condition. It is also, perhaps, worthy of remark 

 that many native words have acquired the same double 

 meaning that they have in our own language, one simply 

 referring to physical qualities, and the other having an 

 ethical significance. As with us, milolia, crooked, means 

 also morally crooked, i.e., wicked; mahitsy, upright, means 

 also upright in conduct; marina, level, is also right and 

 true ; and madio, clean, is also used for moral purity and 

 innocence. 



Although in such widely-separated countries as England 

 and Madagascar a great deal of difference of course exists in 

 the modes of thinking, it is curious to observe how close a 

 resemblance there often is between the idioms used in each. 

 For instance, we speak of " stealing a march " on any one ; 

 the Malagasy say " stealing a step " (mangdla-dia). We 

 speak of "stealing a look," the Malagasy idiom is precisely 

 the same (riiangdla-pijery). When overtaken by heavy 

 calamity we say we are " overwhelmed by sorrow," and 

 the Malagasy say they are "flooded in sorrow" (difotr' 

 alalielo). While we speak of youthful people being "in the 

 flower of their age," the Malagasy say they are in " the cream 



