ASTROLOGERS. 311 



by astrology, for the vintana, or fate of persons, depended upon 

 the age and situation of the moon at their birth. 



Among the Tanala tribes, however, there appears to be an 

 astrology, strictly so called. Some of their diviners " look at 

 the little stars that are visible about three o'clock in the 

 morning in the eastern sky, and from which they foretell an}' 

 calamity that may be hanging over any person or town. 

 They also know from them who will die and who will live ; 

 and before the time of their death comes they are able to give 

 them something to ward it off and make them live longer. 

 These star-gazers are the chiefs of the diviners. Some others 

 look into a glass or a white plate, and they say they see 

 there what will make people ill, and give medicine to ward 

 off the calamity. The diviners in the Taimoro district are 

 said to have a large book, and on looking into this book they 

 are able to foretell what will kill any one, and what will 

 ward off death." So runs the native account ; but the 

 " book," and the looking into a glass or white plate, seem so 

 unlike indigenous Malagasy customs that I strongly suspect 

 they are derived from the Arabs, who are known to have 

 settled in the south-east coast of Madagascar, and to have 

 advanced inland, becoming chiefs of some of the forest tribes, 

 as well as of others on the coast. (See chapter v.) 



Ambbndrombi, the Malagasy Hades. — The old ideas of the 

 Malagasy concerning the state of men after death seem very 

 confused and obscure. Sometimes the dead were spoken of 

 as lasan-Tco-rivotra, " gone into air," or as having become 

 nothing ; and yet there was doubtless a belief also in their 

 continued existence, as they were prayed to and invoked on all 

 religious observances, and were said to have gone away and 

 "become God " (lasan-ko Andriamanitra), a noteworthy phrase, 

 implying something of a pantheistic idea. In a remarkable 

 speech attributed to Andrianimpoinimerina, father of the first 

 Eadama, who died in the year 1 8 1 o, he told his friends and 

 family that he was " fetched by God," and was " going home 

 £0 heaven." And a phrase used in speaking of the dead, who 

 are said to have nddy m&ndry, which means literally " gone 

 home to rest," also seems to imply a return from the grave, 



