260 
MADAGASCAR. 
exercised on the day of her public acceptance 
of the regal dignity to remind the spectators of 
this fact. Although adopting the once execrated 
name of “ Ranavalona,” the people no longer 
feared the revival of those fatal scenes, which 
the name was likely to recall to the memory 
of some of the older inhabitants of Antananarivo. 
The last bearer of the title had shown that it 
could be adorned by one who was remarkable 
for tenderness, and love, and sympathy for her 
people, as it had formerly been degraded by 
one who was the scatterer and destroyer of her 
children; and the sweet, gentle remembrance 
of the second Ranavalona had already eclipsed 
and overshadowed the recollection of the Jezebel 
who had reigned as Ranavalona I. A graphic 
letter from a spectator thus describes the recent 
enthronement or jisheoana :— 
“ The ceremony of crowning the third queen of this 
name was considerably affected by the peculiar position 
of the country at the time, and it was made the occasion 
for a vast and imposing military display, all the men 
bearing arms, from the Prime Minister, who has married 
the young queen, and who is commander-in-chief of the 
army, down to the youngest school-hoy, with his sword 
and gun, or spear and shield, as the case might be. 
The royal guard, indeed, for the occasion, consisted of 
five hundred picked boys from the high schools of the 
town: it seems probable that this is but preliminary to 
their being permanently placed in the army, together 
