84 
MADAGASCAR. 
unlawful for any one who has been near a corpse 
to enter a royal palace or to approach the 
presence for at least a month. The ruling idea 
of the Malagasy is that the angatra , or spirits of 
the departed, still have power in the affairs of the 
world and everyday life; and their religious system 
seems built up in great measure upon this central 
article of belief. Their view of God is indefinite 
and vague, and partakes more of the nature of an 
opinion than a belief, God being to them more a 
principle than a person perhaps. The spirits of 
the dead are supposed still to hover about the 
tombs, and even to revisit their former homes; 
and it is customary in great floods or downpours 
of rain for the people to beat the sides of their 
houses with great violence, to drive away, as they 
say, the angatra or spirits who may be seeking 
to re-enter and shelter themselves beneath the 
ancestral roof. They do not appear to have any 
very definite idea of future rewards and punish¬ 
ments, and there is no national religious idea 
prevalent amongst the people, but each family 
appears to have its own peculiar form of belief 
and set of idols or sampys. These, however, are 
not worshipped as having power in themselves, 
but are regarded as charms to defend the home 
or wearer from evil, and are venerated as having 
been so used by the family for many generations. 
The first duty of a Malagasy is to be on good 
