138 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
sex before marriage, consequently it is not expected, and 
its absence is not regarded as a vice. 
The relative affections, as might be expected, are often 
feeble and uncertain. Family feuds are frequent, and many 
of the public trials before the judges are between branches of 
the same family. Occasionally two brothers, or a brother 
and sister, avoid all friendly intercourse for years; and the 
conjugal, parental, and filial ties are often dissevered for the 
most trivial causes. Yet the claims of relationship are 
distinctly recognized by custom and law. If one branch 
of a family becomes poor, the members of the same family 
support him; if he be sold into slavery for debt, they often 
unite in furnishing the price of his redemption; if he dies, 
they bury him, and provide for his survivors; and if he is 
engaged in government service, the sovereign expects them 
to support him. The laws facilitate and encourage, and 
sometimes even enforce, such acts of kindness. In many 
instances, where a person is condemned to slavery, which 
is called being lost , the farantsa, a sort of public appraisers, 
put a nominal value on him, by the payment of which he 
can be redeemed by his relatives, but not by any other per¬ 
sons. Public odium frequently attends the non-performance 
of relative duties. But in such cases the previous dis¬ 
owning of a relative exonerates the party from all obliga¬ 
tions to the disowned, just as the adoption of a child, or the 
marrying a wife, involves all the claims of these relation¬ 
ships. 
Friendships by compact are often faithful, lasting, and 
highly beneficial; very great kindness is also shown by 
parties not bound by formal compact, but merely by the 
ties of acquaintance and neighbourhood. Visiting, assisting 
in distress, lending and borrowing property and money, &c. 
