74 



THM tTHNOLOOT OF THE INDIAN AllCHf PELaQO. 



caves, keeping the bones of the dead in the house and car- 

 rying them about for a time, the preservation of the skulla of 

 ancestor*, slaughtering homed animals and placing the horns on 

 pole* or trees around the grave ; ordeals, oaths and engagements 

 by drinking blood ; conical and hemirpherienl huts ; boomerangs, 

 poisoned arrow?, the ahape of shields, spears, &c., earthen*wnre 

 manufacture, the pecttliar style and ornature of carved wooden 

 articles, cluhs, spoons, imnpes, or letishea of animals, god-, &c, the 

 ttyle of plaiting caps, haskets, dec, procuring fire by working a 

 piece of stick in a oavity made in another piece, tubular bellows 

 worked by a piston, the resemblance between thepeculiir cylindrical 

 beads worn by the ancient Guanches of the Canaries and those 

 worn by the Timoreans;* many social usages, such M those con- 

 nected with the *exes, ceremonies attending circumcision or the 

 initiation of youths to test their courage fee, and promote great 

 endurance of 'odily pain, peculiar secivt societies fco. kc. 



The cor^ iteration of the place which Madagascar occupies 

 omoo£6t the Atricc-lndian connections of Asianesia i* so important 

 in •itself and so much dependent on linguistic evidence, that I 

 would have reserved it altogether, if the prevalent opinions 

 respecting its nature had not been so decidedly opposed to my 

 conclusions. I will limit myself to a few remarks, as I shall return 

 to the subject as soon as enquiries which I am prosecuting 

 into the Malgaei languages, with die aid of some natives of the 

 island, are completed. ^ I may state, in the first place, that the 

 connection in language and customs between Africa and Asianesia 

 can be establ ished independently of Madagascar* I f this connection 

 originated in the passage of Africans to Asianesia, a probability 

 immediately arises that the connection with Madagascar was caused 

 by the transfer of Malgasis to A&ianesia, either directly or by the 

 intermediate shores and islands of the Indian Ocean- The belief 

 that the language of Madagascar has been derived from Asianesia, 

 •originated in the supposition that the winds of the Indian Ocean 

 would prevent the transport of boats from the former to the latter, 

 iind this remaining as an axiom in M.i.lgasi ethnography, the subse- 

 quent discovery of the intimate ideologic alliance of its languages, 

 with those of Asianesia, Jed to the rejection of the idea that occa- 

 sional tempest driven boats from the* Archipelago had given rise to the 

 verbal connection, and the adoption of the hypothesis that a colony or 

 tribe of Indonesians, called Hovas, settled in Madagascar, acquired 

 earthen jam, topvtaer with food suitable ibr them- Such wa» the practice in this 

 ] idmir. They would die 0$ some little time after being placed there. Such 

 kind of earthen jar* mw terrunl MfttaiuaccaclinU Though Uwwt were placed tn 

 •*rly v, ! , -vu m>« m.i:tv -ik . <liu!a fjiuns or bucket*) arc lobe seen. Human 

 bones, and 'drinking leuel* which had been placed therein, hare been taken out, 

 j mi paifsd ' 



t "Which. I apprehend, most be rendered— 'heretic dog kenseL' [Is Matama not 

 & name tor Mcutamn or Martahaa Jar* ? see note, pemt L.1 



* I» this kind of necklace an imitation, on the art of making earth en -vrare 

 being dbcovared, of the earlier one framed of pieces of reed strong together, which U 

 pmtrrrd by the ruder Austraffana ? 



