HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
423 
the flags into the hands of their keepers, the priests, the 
door of the tomb was shut. 
After her majesty had returned the flags, she entered 
her palanquin, which was covered with superfine scarlet 
cloth richly adorned with gold lace, and was carried by 
the royal bearers to the northern court-yard, where the 
procession was formed. At a quarter before one o’clock, 
the firing of twenty-one cannons announced the departure 
of the procession from the palace. 
Lieutenant-colonel Benea, heading the royal military 
bands, led forward the grenadiers, and other troops of the 
Tananarivo division of the army. The civil officers fol¬ 
lowed, wearing European dresses. After another military 
band, came the lieutenants and captains, majors, and lieu¬ 
tenant-colonels, colonels, and major-generals; the generals 
followed, with the young prince royal, Rambosalamara- 
zaka. 
After the young prince, the procession moved forward in 
the following order:—officers of the palace, and attendants 
of her majesty; the queen’s body-guard, comprising equal 
numbers of Arabs, and of Malagasy, from Iboina on the 
western coast, armed with spears and swords, the latter 
carried in the scabbards; the queen, borne by lieutenants 
of the troops of the capital, on her right hand were women- 
singers from the east coast, and on their right the body¬ 
guard, called Tsimamakivolana, walked with spears in 
their hands. On the left of the queen were the wornen- 
singers from the western coast, and on their left was the 
body-guard of Sakalavas, with spears in their hands; then 
behind the queen were the singing-women of Imerina, called 
Tsimiriry. The members of the queen’s family riding in 
native palanquins covered with white cloth, followed the 
queen; after these, the Tsimandoavavy? (wives of the town 
body-guard,) dressed in the blue lamba, followed, singing 
