THE CORONATION OF RAN AVALON A III. 261 
with many of their companions. The proceedings 
really commenced on the 21st, at noon, when thousands 
of people, principally school children, from all parts of 
Imerina, assembled on the large plain of Imahamasina, 
where the chief acts of the ceremony took place. This 
extensive plain, about a thousand feet long by as many 
wide, is immediately at the foot of the high hill on 
which stands the royal palace; and as the young Queen 
appeared on one of the balconies of this palace, in full 
view of the multitudes below, she was received with 
frantic enthusiasm and excitement, whilst at the same 
moment a salute of twenty-one guns, reverberating 
over the hills of Imerina, announced to all that the 
first part of the important ceremony had taken place. 
On the morning of the 22d, at five o’clock, another dis¬ 
charge of twenty-one guns awoke us out of our sleep ; 
but before this many thousands had already taken their 
places on Imahamasina. The official ‘ Gazette ’ had 
announced that the Queen would leave her palace at 
eight o’clock a.m. ; and for once we hoped that punctu¬ 
ality would be the order of the day, but it was not so to 
be. A few of the foreign residents had been invited to 
meet the Queen at Andohalo, in the centre of the city, 
where is one of the sacred stones on which the sover¬ 
eign must stand. She was to have arrived at half-past 
eight, but it was nearly eleven o’clock before the guns 
announced that she had left the palace. At Andohalo 
comparatively few people were assembled, strict orders 
having been issued for them to proceed to Imahamasina. 
The sacred stone was guarded by a smart troop of boy- 
soldiers, from the schools of the capital, formed into a 
square of two deep; the regular troops who accom¬ 
panied the Queen formed another square outside this 
