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CHAPTEE VIII. 



CURIOSITIES OF MALAGASY NAMES: PERSONAL, TEIBAL, AND 

 GEOGRAPHICAL. 



LENGTH — NO FAMILY NAMES — PERSONAL PREFIX — DESIGNATION FROM CHIL- 

 DREN — UNPLEASANT NAMES — TABOOED WORDS IN CHIEFS' NAMES — ROYAL 

 NAMES — SAKALAVA CUSTOMS — CHRISTIAN NAMES — TRIBAL APPELLA- 

 TIONS — PLACE-NAMES — FOREIGN NOMENCLATURE IN COAST GEOGRAPHY. 



Almost every one unacquainted with the Malagasy language 

 is struck by the length of many of the names, both of places 

 and people, but especially of the latter. Thus, to a European, 

 there seems an unconscionable length in such names as 

 Bavoninahitriniarivo, Eainivoninahitriniony, and Babodonan- 

 drian-ampoinimerina ! The last but one of these was the 

 name of the former Prime Minister ; the last was the sacred 

 name of the persecuting Queen Banavalona. But such 

 names are of course compound words, being quite a little 

 sentence in themselves ; and when analysed are seen to con- 

 sist of a number of simple roots of two or three syllables, with 

 a good deal of meaning in them, and often with no little 

 poetry of expression as well. Thus, Ba-vonin'ahitri-ni-arivo 

 is (omitting the Ba, to be explained presently) "the glory of 

 a thousand," the word for " glory " being, as was shown in the 

 previous chapter, literally " the flower of the grass." Then, 

 Eai-ni-vonin'ahitri-ni-6ny is "the father of the glory of (or, 

 the flower of the grass of) the river," or, in other words, the 

 father of a son named Eavoninahitriniony. And Ba-bodon'- 

 andrian-am-poin-irnerina is " the simple one (or child) of 

 Andrian-am-poin-imenna," which latter name means " the 

 prince in the heart of Imerina " (the central province). 



