HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR.' 
339 
by the inclination of his own. Profiting by his instructions, 
the chief attempted to bow, but while he repeated the 
not inappropriate words, his head moved backward instead 
of forward; nor was it until a repetition of the lesson, that 
he could accomplish any thing approaching to the proposed 
obeisance. 
With the same apparent apathetic indifference which 
characterised his manners in the first interview, he listened 
to all that Mr. Hastie told him of the greatness of Radama. 
On one subject alone he evinced the slightest curiosity, 
and that was, to see the horses which he had heard were 
now in the possession of the king. He asked what horses 
were like, if they were like camels? of which animals 
he was not ignorant, having once had three given him, 
one of which had died, another had strayed away, and, 
with regard to the third, having heard that the flesh of 
camels was good eating, he had had it killed for the pur¬ 
pose of tasting for himself. 
The Moors, however, had succeeded in converting him 
to their religion, at least in persuading him to wear a string 
of beads attached to his wrist, and to perform certain cere¬ 
monies at stated intervals, which greatly retarded his 
journey to the camp, where they arrived, after many delays, 
on the 19th of July. Here he assumed a sort of sullen 
calmness, unequal to the concealment of his real trepi¬ 
dation, which increased perceptibly on his being led to 
the kabary through the ranks of disciplined soldiers, who 
fired by companies in open columns. 
The ceremony of introduction was rather awkwardly 
performed on the part of the chief; after which, one of 
Radama’s generals made a long and eloquent speech in 
honour of his sovereign, and, calling upon the army to 
support him in his just and noble measures, the people 
z 2 
