HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
177 
arms, legs, noses, and ears cut off, were precipitated from 
the rock, the children from the surrounding crowd amusing 
themselves for nearly an hour after with throwing stones 
upon their mangled bodies. The two young princes were 
seen thus employed: and such was the general indifference 
to the fate of the sufferers, that Mr, Hastie, who did not 
approach nearer than forty yards to the rock, could not see 
one anxious countenance in the whole crowd, who thronged 
to witness the scene. The women were all young, and the 
favourite handsome. As a part of this system of injustice, 
the survivor was handsomely rewarded. 
As may be supposed from what has just been related of 
the young princes, they were now fast returning to the 
ordinary habits of their countrymen, although Mr. Hastie 
still acted as their preceptor, and did his utmost to inspire 
them with higher tastes and feelings. A few days after 
they had taken a part in this barbarous and inhuman pas¬ 
time, the elder of the youths not appearing at the usual 
time in the morning, his tutor sent to request his attend¬ 
ance, and, on being told that he was still asleep, went him¬ 
self to arouse his young pupil, prompted partly by curiosity 
to see the interior of his dwelling. He found him in a 
small and mean apartment, his sleeping-place within a yard 
of the fire-place, and presenting a picture of idleness and 
filth scarcely to be surpassed in the meanest dwellings of 
the common people. The tutor remonstrated with his 
pupil upon this deviation from the habits he had acquired 
in the Isle of France ; to which the young prince could only 
reply, that dirt was warm, and the weather cold, and he 
chose the former because it was customary. 
When the time for Mr. Hastie’s departure arrived, so 
great was Radama’s desire to detain him, that he first 
endeavoured to persuade Mr.H. it was the governor’s wish 
ii. 
N 
