310 ORACLE OF THE SIKIDY. 



evils. It will be seen, therefore, that there was a mixture of 

 chance and of fixed rules in the working of this oracle. In 

 Ellis's History of Madagascar (vol. i. chaps, xv., xvi.) will be 

 found diagrams of these tables, with minute particulars as 

 to the methods employed in ascertaining the decisions. In 

 illness, in buying and selling, in going on a journey, in dread 

 of any calamity, recourse was had to the sikidy, and im- 

 plicit belief placed in its direction, as of divine origin. The 

 first Queen Eanavalona had recourse to the divination for 

 the directing of almost every action and event of her life. 

 "She could scarcely venture to take even an ordinary meal 

 of rice without having it worked ten or a dozen times. First, 

 the diviners must decide from what class of the people the 

 rice is to be obtained ; then, in what direction it may be 

 fetched ; then, who is to fetch it, in what kind of basket ; 

 who is to cook it, with what fuel ; in what dish to serve it 

 up ; on which side it is to be served out ; what may be eaten 

 with it, drank with it, &c. &c. All this is thought needful 

 to guard against witchcraft and sorcery." * 



To avert the evils pointed out by the sikidy various offer- 

 ings, of the kind already described and called faditra and sbrona, 

 were made. These offerings had generally some verbal connec- 

 tion with the particular evil to be averted. Thus, for evil be- 

 lieved to come from heaven, a herb called tsikbbondanitra, 

 " stirred up by heaven," was presented ; if from sheep, a small 

 fish called ondrindrdno, " water-sheep," was offered ; while if 

 death was feared, a piece of disintegrated granite called vato 

 maty, or " dead-stone," was the faditra. In other cases there was 

 a different kind of connection between the evil and the remedy ; 

 thus, if fire was the origin of the evil, then the scarlet flowers 

 of the sbngosbngo {Euphorbia splendens) was offered. When 

 it was wished to bring home a person from a distance, a reed 

 was erected upon a mountain in accordance with the instruc- 

 tions of the sikidy, and this was called manainga-ldvitra, 

 "to raise up afar off." 



The Hova diviners were acquainted with the science of 

 casting nativities, and those who practised this art were called 

 mpanandro, i.e., " makers of days." It was not, however, done 



* Narrative of the Persecution, p. 60. 



