118 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
companions. All approving of the new kind of food, the 
people were summoned together, two or three bullocks killed, 
and different methods of cooking adopted, by way of finding 
out the best. Rabiby sent a small piece to each person; 
and this is said to be the origin of the “jaka,” or present, 
still observed at the annual festivals. The chief tasted the 
different parts of the animal when cooked, commencing at 
the head, and proceeding to the tail, and gave the decided 
preference to the rump; which part has, ever since, been 
given, as a tribute to the sovereign, from every bullock 
killed at the festival and in the markets. Rabiby ordered 
fahitra, or folds, to be made, in which the cattle might be 
kept when collected. At the next change of the moon 
after the above experiment, he ordered his people to bathe, 
to kill the bullock on the following morning, and to make 
the feast; desiring the vodi-hena, or rump, of the beef to be 
presented to himself. This is said to be the origin of the 
annual festival, kept, to the present time, in the moon of 
Alahamady, and of which the principal circumstances are 
like those related of the chief Ralambo. 
It is said of this renowned epicurean, that he found, 
afterwards, an immense wild hog, which defended itself so 
bravely, that it required the chief and a hundred of his men 
to kill it. This animal also made a feast for them, and was 
found to be excellent food. From the circumstances of so 
splendid a victory, the chieftain’s name was changed from 
“biby,” the animal, into “lambo,” the wild hog; and in¬ 
stead of Rabiby, he was ever afterwards called Ralambo. 
Many of the nobles in Imerina claim their origin from 
Ralambo, and deem it no small honour to boast of such an 
ancestry; pride of blood flowing in the veins of a Malagasy 
as warmly as it ever does in those of a polished European. 
The village where Ralambo dwelt still retains his name, 
