A STUBBORN CHIEF. 



333 



requiring him to come and acknowledge his father. The 

 B^tsileo chief, however, replied that he was no son of the 

 Hova king, but that they were brothers, each possessing his 

 own territory. The Hova returned for answer, " I have a 

 large cloth (to cover me), but thou hast a small one ; so that 

 if you are far from me you are cold ; for I am the island to 

 which all the little ones resort, therefore come to me, thy 

 father, for thou art my son." When the Betsildo chief re- 

 ceived this message he measured a piece of wood between 

 his extended arms (the refy or standard measure of the 

 Malagasy, between the tips of the fingers when the arms 

 are stretched apart to the utmost), and sent it to the king, 

 with the words, " This wood is my measure, bid Andrian- 

 ampdina (the Hova king) equal it ; if he can span it, then I 

 am his son and not his brother." Upon Andrianampoina 

 trying it he was unable to reach it, for the Betsile'o chief 

 was long in the arms. But the Hova king would not give 

 up his point, and replied, " My measurement of the wood is 

 of no consequence, for kingship does not consist in length of 

 arms ; thou art little, therefore my son, I am great, therefore 

 thy father." 



Still the southern chief was unwilling to submit,, and sent 

 a particular kind of native cloth ornamented with beads, with 

 a request that an ox should be cut up upon it, as another sign 

 whether he was to acknowledge the Hova king as his superior 

 or not. This test also turned out to his own advantage ; but 

 at length Andrianampoina would have no further trifling. He 

 sent back the cloth with a piece cut off one end of it, and a 

 spear hole through the middle, as a significant warning of 

 his intentions unless immediate submission was made. The 

 lesson was not lost upon the weaker chief; he returned a 

 humble answer, begging that he might not be killed, saying, 

 " While it is to-day, all day let me eat of the tender (food) of 

 the earth, for Andrianampoina is lord of the kingdom." 



Something of a similar kind of symbolic act is related of 

 Queen Banavalona I. When she came to the throne in 1828 

 there was a little boy not many months old at that time, of 

 the true seed royal, and descended from the line of the ancient 

 kings. The Queen then announced that she had made this 



