HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
399 
Working in the rice-grounds was to be permitted, lest by 
any neglect a famine should arise. 
Radama’s law again&t the use of any spirituous liquors, 
was recognised and confirmed, and the penalty of decapita¬ 
tion threatened for any violation of it. 
All natives passing by were required to dip their hand 
in water, kept in a canoe at the corner of the palace, and 
made sacred by a quantity of earth, from the tomb of the 
king’s father, being mixed with it. A small quantity was 
ordered to be put on the top of the head, and some was 
swallowed; the whole of this ceremony being considered 
a solemn oath of allegiance. 
These regulations were not merely issued nominally, as 
on former occasions, but so strictly enforced, that any 
deviation from them would subject the transgressor to the 
displeasure of the government, and be resented both as an 
affront to the memory of the departed monarch, and the 
authority of his successor. 
Although nominally the domestic establishment of Radama 
included twelve queens, he had but one wife who was 
recognized as the queen; this was Rasalimo, the daughter 
of the king of the Sakalavas. Rasalimo still lives at the 
capital, and receives considerable attention from Ranavalona 
who assumed the sovereignty. Rasalimo is the mother of 
Raketaka, Radama’s only surviving child, a daughter now 
about fourteen years of age. His first child is said to have 
died; but grounds are not wanting for suspicion that cruel 
means were used to destroy the infant, in order to secure 
the succession to the crown for Rakotobe, the nephew of 
the king. The reigning queen, Ranavalona, has a son who 
is called the son of Radama, although born about twelve 
months after the king’s death. 
The death of Radama, whether viewed in relation to the 
