GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDCHILDREN. 249 



tabooed, and not allowable down to the fifth generation, 

 that is, to the great-great-great-grandchildren of such two 

 sisters. So when a man divorces his wife he calls her 

 anabavy, " sister," implying that any intercourse between them 

 is henceforth impossible. 



There are also special words for the eldest, middle, and 

 youngest children of a family, both male and female. Thus, 

 the eldest son is termed Andriamatda, the eldest girl, 

 Ramatba ; the middle sons, Andrianaivo or Randivo, the 

 middle girl, Raivo ; the youngest son, Rafdraldhy (last male), 

 and the youngest girl, Rafdravdvy (last female). Except the 

 two first of these words these are often retained as proper 

 names, either alone or combined with others; and the two 

 first are frequently prefixed as a complimentary addition to 

 the names of elderly men and women, whether they be the 

 eldest of their brothers and sisters or not, and they are also 

 used as a complimentary form of address to men and women 

 generally. 



Grandchildren are dfy or zdfy, a word also used widely for 

 " descendants ;" and for tribal names, as Zafin-dralambo, Zafin 

 Ibrahim, Zafimando, &c. (taranaka is also a word nearly equi- 

 valent, and used for " posterity, generation ") ; great-grand- 

 children are zafiafy, great-great-grandchildren are zafimafy, 

 great-great-great-grandchildren are zafin-dohalika, i.e., " de- 

 scendants of the knee," and great-great-great-great-grand- 

 children are zafim-paladla, " descendants of the sole of the 

 foot." Zafindoria is a word used for a very distant relation ; 

 doria is a word denoting " everlasting," probably through the 

 Arabic from a Semitic root of the same meaning. 



The words for grandfather and grandmother are exactly 

 equivalent to our own : raibi (bi, great) and rimhi ; '"' but 

 there appear to be no distinctive terms for any relationships 

 further back, all previous to grandparents are known by the 

 general term rdzana, ancestors. To all ancestors a kind of 

 divinity is ascribed, for they are spoken of as lasan-ko Andri- 

 amanitra, " gone to be gods," and they are invoked in prayers 

 immediately after the Supreme Being. 



* In Sakalava the words for grandfather and grandmother are dadilaliy and 

 dadivavy, both, but especially the latter, very curious combinations. 



