460 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
the chapels could hold ; and houses of prayer multiplied wonder¬ 
fully both within and out of our station—the capital. Rabenohaja 
was among the earliest and most zealous of the 1 believers/ as the 
Christians were termed in derision. He was ever active in teach¬ 
ing some to read; persuading others to attend divine service; and 
assisting at the prayer-meetings established among themselves. 
“Rabenohaja w r as shortly afterwards employed in teaching a 
school about seventy miles from the capital. Whilst engaged in 
imparting the elements of knowledge to the scholars, he habitually 
sought to communicate some portion of the life-giving truths of 
the Gospel; and when disengaged, especially in the evenings, he 
endeavoured, by conversation and prayer-meetings, to make the 
adults acquainted with the same eternal truths. 
“ Rabenohaja had been among the first of the natives who 
expressed a wish to be baptized, and would gladly have joined the 
first baptisms in May, 1831, but his master had not then granted 
his consent, nor allowed him to spend a fortnight or three weeks in 
town, as he wished to do on that occasion. Afterwards, however, 
permission was given, and he immediately repaired to town for 
that purpose. There needed very little examination before bap¬ 
tizing Rabenohaja, as his conduct had long been, not merely 
irreproachable, but truly ornamental to his Christian profession. 
He was therefore admitted by the Rev. Mr. Griffiths to the ordi¬ 
nances of baptism and the Lord’s supper, on November 5, 1831. 
“ With regard to his new name, it may be remarked, that we had 
never encouraged, but rather discouraged the natives in changing 
their proper and original names, both to prevent any appearance 
of affectation in the choice of scriptural names, and to avoid the 
appearance of singularity, which the change would occasion in the 
eyes of the unbelieving multitude. The converts, therefore, pro¬ 
nounced their names immediately before the administration of 
baptism, no previous inquiry being made. It was then that 
Rabenohaja first pronounced for his name the singular word, ‘ Ra- 
poor-negro.’ Mr. Griffiths was rather surprised, and inquired 
again, i Ra-poor-negro, do you say V ‘ Yes/ said he, ‘ that is 
the name I wish to take / and so he was forthwith baptized, 
Ra-poor-negro. The monosyllable i Ra/ it should be observed, 
has no meaning in itself, but is merely a prefix, showing the word 
