154 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
The names first given are by many retained through life, 
but are by others exchanged for names descriptive of some 
particular circumstance, relationship, or event. There are 
also certain generic names applied to children, for which 
they often receive others in after years; thus, for example, a 
boy is called Ikoto, or Rakota, “ the lada female, Rake- 
taka, “ the girl.” The first-born female in a family is 
generally designated Ramatoa, “ eldest female,” and the 
last Ra-fara-vavy, “ last born female.” The first-born male, 
Lahimatoa, “first-male,” and the last Ra-fara-lahy, or 
Andriampaivo, or Lahi-zandrina “ the younger;” any 
female born between the first and the last is called Ra- 
ivo “ the intermediate,” and any male between the eldest and 
the youngest, Andrianivo “intermediate male,” or Lah-ivo. 
As these terms respectively signify the circumstances 
stated, the children do not necessarily take the name of 
the parents, and from this cause also, almost every family 
in a town has children of the same names. Parents some¬ 
times assume the name of their children, especially should 
they rise to distinction in public service, as Rai-ni-Mahay, 
“ Father of Mahay,” Rai-ni-Maka, “ Father of Maka.” 
In connexion with the above usages, referring to the 
periods of infancy and childhood among the Malagasy, it 
is requisite to notice others of an opposite and melancholy 
character—the destruction of life, and the practice of 
infanticide. In families above the lowest grade in society, 
as little expense is incurred in providing for the mainte¬ 
nance of children, and but little trouble occasioned by 
additions to the domestic circle, children generally find a 
welcome, even though a merciless and gloomy superstition, 
professing to divine the future destiny of the unconscious, 
unoffending infants, should, shortly after their entrance into 
the world, require them to be destroyed. It is not, however, 
