472 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
afterwards brought them to the Missionaries, gratefully 
declaring their thankfulness for the instruction they had 
received, and exhibiting the idols as a proof of their 
sincerity in avowed attachment to the Lord Jesus as their 
only Saviour. 
Amongst the idols thus renounced, was one which had 
belonged to several clans or families who resided about six 
miles from the capital; it was considered as the more 
immediate property of the head-man, or chief of the district, 
in whose family it had been kept for many generations ; but 
most of the people in the neighbourhood were its votaries, 
and united in providing the bullocks and sheep that were 
sacrificed to it, or the money given to its keepers. 
The idol is a most unmeaning object, consisting of a 
number of small pieces of wood, ornaments of ivory, of 
silver, and brass, and beads, fastened together with silver 
wire, and decorated with a number of silver rings. The 
central piece of wood is circular, about seven inches high, 
and three-quarters of an inch in diameter. This central 
piece is surrounded by six short pieces of wood, and six 
hollow silver ornaments, called crocodile’s teeth, from their 
resemblance to the teeth of that animal. Three pieces of 
wood are placed on one side of the central piece of wood, 
and three on the side opposite ,* the intervening space being 
filled up by the three silver and brazen ornaments. These 
ornaments are hollow, and those of brass were occasionally 
anointed with what was regarded as sacred oil, or other un¬ 
guents, which were much used in the consecration of charms 
and other emblems of native superstition. The silver orna¬ 
ments were detached from the idol, filled with small pieces 
of consecrated wood, and worn upon the persons of the 
keepers when going to war, or passing through a fever district, 
as a means of preservation, Besides the pieces of wood in 
