158 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
But should the delicate, frail, and tender body of the help¬ 
less victim be mangled and crushed to death by the rugged 
feet of the oxen, which is most frequently the case, the 
parents return to mourn in bitterness of grief their loss, 
with no other consolation than that which the monstrous 
absurdities of their delusions supply—that, had their beloved 
infant survived, it would have been exposed to the influ¬ 
ence of that destiny which now required its exposure to 
destruction. 
Distressing, however, as this is, it is in some respects less 
so than the practice which remains to be noticed. This 
refers to the instances in which it is declared that exposure 
will not be sufficient, that there is no possibility of avoid¬ 
ing the doom pronounced, and that death must be inflicted. 
No labour would secure exemption for the hapless victim ; 
no offering or sacrifice could propitiate the powers on 
whom its destiny depended, and avert its destruction; no 
treasures could purchase for it permission to live; and those 
who otherwise would have cherished it with the tenderest 
affection, and have fostered it with unceasing care through 
infancy and childhood, are reduced to the dire necessity of 
extinguishing that life which the dictates of nature would 
have taught them to regard as equally precious with their 
own. When this inhuman decision of the astrologers has 
been announced, the death of the innocent victim is usually 
effected by suffocation; the rice-pan, a circular wooden 
utensil, slightly concave on one side and hollow on the 
other, is generally employed. It is filled with water, and 
the infant is held with its face downwards in the water, till 
life becomes extinct; sometimes a piece of cloth is placed 
on the child’s mouth, to render its suffocation more 
speedy. The remains of the infant thns murdered, are 
buried on the south side of the parents’ house, that being 
