RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
83 
—an observance now almost discontinued—has 
also a striking resemblance to tbe great act of the 
Jewish Passover. The festival of the fandroana 
used to be marked by great licentiousness; but 
in this, as so many other matters, there has been 
a great change in the direction of civilisation and 
propriety. 
Perhaps one of the most distressing sights in 
the island is the number of lepers upon the 
road from the capital to the country residence of 
the Queen at Ambohimanga. These miserable 
creatures dwell by themselves in villages of 
wretched huts away from the Hova towns, and 
they subsist by begging from the passers-by. They 
are not allowed to approach the jilanjdna , but 
they place small baskets by the wayside, into 
which the traveller casts money or food, and these 
are removed by the unhappy victims of disease 
after the donors have passed on. 
The Malagasy entertain great respect for their 
dead. They also seem to fear them to a consid¬ 
erable extent; and a great deal of their wealth is 
often expended, in the case of sickness or trouble 
befalling themselves or their families, in sacrificing 
oxen at the tombs of their ancestors, to propitiate 
them and appease their wrath, as they consider 
any calamity a sure sign of the displeasure of 
their forefathers. As with the Jews, an idea of 
uncleanness is connected with the dead; and it is 
