256 DISTINCTIONS AND RESTRICTIONS. 



Hdvan-tsi-aina (" a relative without life ") is a word used 

 for an unkind relation ; and a curious word for near relations, 

 or consanguinity, is dtin-kdvana, or ali-havana, dty meaning 

 " liver," or the " inside " of a thing. Ldfy, which also means 

 " side," is another word for relative. 



It is a matter for great satisfaction that during the last 

 few years, owing to the influence of Christianity, great changes 

 for the better have passed over society in the central provinces 

 of Madagascar. The marriage relation is every year being 

 raised in the estimation of the people ; a much higher standard 

 of morals is being formed ; polygamy may be said to be at 

 an end, and divorce is very much less frequent than it used 

 to be ; and an enlightened public opinion is gradually shaming 

 out many of the immoral practices which formerly passed 

 unreproved. 



A word or two may be said in conclusion as to class 

 distinctions, and the marriage restrictions which keep separate 

 different ranks of society. As already described in chapter 

 ix., the Hova population consists of three great divisions : the 

 nobles, the Hovas * or commoners, and the slaves, and these 

 classes, with few exceptions, cannot intermarry. 



The nobles are divided into six clans, from the third of 

 which the sovereign can take a wife. Some of the ranks of 

 nobles can intermarry with certain of the inferior ranks, and 

 only those of the highest ranks can marry a commoner. 



The second great class, that of the Hovas, the mass of the 

 free people, is subdivided into a considerable number of tribes 

 and clans and families, and these, as a rule, do not intermarry 

 with each other, but keep to their own clan, and largely to 

 their own family. A free man cannot marry a slave, except 

 by redeeming her first; should he divorce her she continues 

 free, much in the same way as according to the provisions of 

 the Mosaic law (Exod. xxi. 7-1 o; Deut. xxi. 11- 14). 



There is among the Malagasy much strong family affection 

 and tribal and clannish feeling, and one of the most dreaded 

 evils that can befall any one is to be ariana, or cast off by 



* This is a restricted use of the word, for, of course, all the free people, with 

 the nobles, and the first class of slaves as well, are Hovas, as distinct from the 

 other tribes inhabiting the country. 



