1870.] of the Channel Islands. 159 



suggestive and parallel examples the methods of sepulture as 

 practised up to this day by the tribe of Hovas, the inhabitants 

 of the mountainous plateaux in the interior of Madagascar. The 

 Hovas begin to erect their tombs in early life, and make their 

 completion through a series of years one of the most important 

 objects of their existence, as an effectual means of being held in 

 honourable remembrance by posterity. These tombs are family 

 vaults or catacombs, and in their construction an immensity of 

 money, time, and labour is expended, limited solely by the wealth 

 of the builder. In erecting a tomb the first consideration is the 

 selection of an eligible site, publicity and elevation being the two 

 principal requisites. Sometimes a tomb is placed immediately in 

 front of the house of the person by whom it is built, so the tombs 

 of the kings are within the precincts of the palace at Anantananarivo, 

 the tomb of the first Eadama being a conspicuous object in the 

 palace yard. The site having been chosen, an excavation is made 

 in the earth, and a stone vault made, the sides and roof of which 

 are made of immense slabs of stone, unhewn granite, flat at least 

 on the inner side. Each side of this hist, sometimes seven feet high 

 and twelve feet in length, is of ten formed of a single stone. A sort 

 of subterranean grotto is thus made, the entrance to which, always 

 to the north or east, is closed by a large. upright block of stone,* 

 which is removed when a corpse is taken in, and fixed again at the 

 termination of the funeral. In reading this, does it not remind one 

 of our European kistvaens and cromlechs of the Stone age ? This 

 stone sepulchre is covered over with earth, and by means of stone 

 copings gradually diminishing, presents from the exterior a pyra- 

 midal form. These structures, which we may call pyramidal 

 tumuli, containing stone chambers, bear at all events a certain 

 analogy to the chambered tumuli of western and northern Europe. 

 Some of these structures measure 50 feet in length by 20 in 

 breadth. 



The large slabs used in forming these megalithic structures are 

 usually of granite and syenite. The Hovas mark out the required 

 dimensions of the slab by odies or charms (the idol-keepers being 

 well acquainted with the cleavage of the rock, and taking advantage 

 of this circumstance) ; large fires of cow-dung are made along the 

 line thus indicated, and when the rock has become heated, water is 

 dashed upon it, by which means, and with the help of long levers, 

 large masses are detached from the mountain side. When the slab 

 is to be removed, ropes of native hemp (rofia fibre, or the bark of 

 the hibiscus, and a long tough grass are all used in the manufacture 



* Compare Nilsson, ' The Sunny Side,' p. 127 ; also Ellis relates that one of the 

 Hovas requested his sons, shortly before his death, that after his interment they 

 would occasionally remove the large stone slab that would form the door of his 

 sepulchre, and let the sun shine in upon him. 



