148 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
is reason to believe a change is already in progress in those 
parts of the country where foreigners have been accustomed 
to reside or visit. 
In noticing the manners and customs of the Malagasy, we 
commence with their habits and usages in social life, and 
direct our attention to the circumstances of their infancy, 
childhood, and youth. 
In this department of their manners and customs, there 
are many observances peculiar and interesting, blended 
with others that excite intense and very mingled feelings. 
We behold much that is grateful to a humane and an 
enlightened mind, as well as unusual in what is generally 
termed barbarous or uncivilized society, with much that is 
so repulsive to every dictate of humanity and virtue, that 
the union of practices so opposite among the same people 
presents an anomaly in human society as remarkable as it 
is distressing. 
Thus, in regard to their offspring in general, the Malagasy 
are fond of children ; to have a numerous family, is a source 
of satisfaction to the parents, and of honourable esteem in 
the community. It is, however, a source of satisfaction far 
from being general, as few, comparatively speaking, have 
large families, and a far greater number are strangers to the 
happiness of being parents, than in more civilized society. 
This is probably to be ascribed, in a great degree, to the 
gross immorality that prevails among all classes from early 
youth, and is the source of so much of their depravity and 
suffering. 
In those families, however, wherein the enjoyments of 
parentage are known, as the period approaches at which a 
Malagasy wife expects to become a mother, she not only 
takes additional care of herself , 44 as nature dictates,” but is 
encouraged to do so by the prevailing dispositions and 
