336 MALAGASY TIME. 



sufficient to discharge their obligations, their wives and children 

 can also be enslaved, just as in the Parable, where the lord of 

 a certain " servant commanded him to be sold, and payment 

 to be made " (Matt, xviii. 25). As to the marriage of a free- 

 man with a slave girl, and the close similarity between what 

 is enjoined by the Malagasy law and by the law of Moses, 

 see p. 256. 



This chapter may be appropriately concluded by a remark 

 upon time, as reckoned by the Malagasy. I have been re- 

 peatedly struck by the exact correspondence there is between 

 their way of reckoning time, and that of the Jews, viz., in the 

 inclusive way of counting days. For instance, from a Friday to 

 a Sunday they would call three days, as it is reckoned in the 

 Gospels, when speaking of the time our Lord lay in the tomb, 

 and which is so puzzling to English readers. In like manner 

 they call a week eight days, as we see in Luke ix. 2 8 (" about 

 an eight days after these sayings ; " cf. Matt. xvii. 1, Mark ix. 

 2). They also reckon the day to begin after sunset, just as 

 in Genesis we read, " and the evening and the morning were 

 the first day," &c. 



It will be seen from the foregoing examples that in our 

 intercourse with such a people as the Malagasy we are con- 

 stantly reminded of Scripture customs and allusions. Very 

 many others might no doubt be given, but these will be suffi- 

 cient to show how wide a range of subject there is ; and it is 

 pleasant to think that in many cases the words and figures of 

 the sacred writings have a familiarity to our people which 

 must help to impress the most important truths upon their 

 understandings, and eventually, we may hope, upon their 

 hearts and lives. 



