£36 SIHANAKA MOURNING RITES. 



&c, were placed on a wooden railing near the poles. This is 

 done probably from an idea that it is improper to use any- 

 thing belonging to the dead, the same notion indeed that 

 leads to the burial of royal property among the Hovas, as 

 already described. 



The mourning ceremonies among the Sihanaka often con- 

 tinue for a week ; the house being filled with men and women, 

 who weep, and sing funeral chants, and play barbaric music. 

 One man goes round the house chanting a dirge, which is 

 replied to by those in the house. Accompanying all this 

 there is a good deal of drinking of spirits and eating of beef, 

 oxen being killed every evening. On the first day of watch- 

 ing the corpse, a great many oxen are brought up into the 

 village ; these are all killed by spearing. Every one then 

 takes what meat he pleases, excepting the heads, which are 

 placed on poles near the grave. 



On the day of the funeral a number of oxen are taken on 

 the path along which the corpse is to be carried ; and as it 

 approaches, one after another of the animals are speared, and 

 their carcasses laid on the ground so that they may be stepped 

 over by those who carry the corpse. If the grave is at some 

 distance, this is done many times before the procession reaches 

 it. This custom of carrying a corpse over the bodies of newly- 

 slaughtered animals was formerly observed by the Hovas, 

 especially at the funerals of their kings ; not only oxen, or 

 rather bulls, being killed, but also some of the finest horses 

 belonging to the sovereign (see History of Madagascar, vol. L 

 pp. 251, 252). 



The Bitsimisaraka and other Eastern Tribes. — Among the 

 B^tsimisaraka and other tribes on the east coast, there are 

 certain customs which show a clear connection with those 

 common in Polynesia. The inhabitants of many of those 

 islands do not, in their heathen state, bury their dead, but 

 place them on an open stage or framework, leaving the corpse 

 to decompose and pollute the surrounding atmosphere. Much 

 the same practice exists on the eastern coast of Madagascar. 

 Of the Bezanozano people, who are near neighbours, to the 

 west, of the Betsimisaraka, Messrs. Jukes and Lord say : " Near 

 several of the villages through which we passed we noticed 



