334 QUEEN RANAVALONA'S WISDOM. 



boy her adopted son, and that he should be her successor ; 

 even if she should have children of her own, his right to the 

 throne should remain good. Afterwards she had a son of her 

 own, whom she named Bakoton-dEadama ; many thought that 

 her own son would succeed her, but the declaration in favour 

 of the other was never rescinded, and hence arose much 

 animosity between the two princes. When the Queen became 

 old and feeble, the subject of the succession came up, and she 

 settled it in a singular way, substantially as follows : — She 

 held a meeting of her officers, judges, and heads of the people 

 with great solemnity within the palace, when she announced 

 her intention of making a valuable present to each of the two 

 princes. Two fine vases or covered vessels were placed on 

 the table, and the two young men were called in ; the elder 

 was first directed to choose which he would have. He did 

 so, and on opening the vase, it was found to contain some 

 beautiful gems and valuable ornaments. The younger, her 

 own son, then opened his vase, and found it contained only a 

 handful of earth. The Queen then addressed the assembly, 

 saying that the elder prince was to be advanced to high honour 

 and riches in the land ; but, as the land could not be divided, 

 the younger prince, who had received from God the handful 

 of earth, should be her successor.* (He eventually became 

 king under the name of Eadama II., but only reigned about 

 eighteen months.) 



Turning from the symbolic acts to the figurative language, 

 used by all the tribes in Madagascar, many interesting parallels 

 might be pointed out between what is common to Malagasy 

 speech and the language used in Scripture. Eeference was 

 just now made to the iron horns which the false prophet 

 Zedekiah made to encourage King Ahab ; and it will be 

 lemembered how very frequently the horn is employed in 

 the Bible as an emblem of power, strength, and confidence. It 

 is used very much in the same way in Madagascar, for the 

 long- horned and humped cattle are the largest and most 

 formidable animals known in the island, and the horns of 

 cattle are frequently seen as ornaments or symbols. Numbers 



* Quoted from ^collections of Missionary Life in Madagascar, by James 

 Cameron, Esq. 



