168 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
are comparatively rare: and concubinage, or polygamy, 
with all its inevitable train of miseries, prevails very 
generally. 
The very term by which polygamy is designated in the 
native language implies the evils of which it is the fruit¬ 
ful source—famporafesana, i. e., “ the means of causing 
enmity as if referring to the interminable jealousies and 
hostilities created among the several wives of one husband. 
With all its admitted and numerous evils, polygamy, how¬ 
ever, exists under the sanction of the highest examples and 
authorities a native can appeal to. Every monarch is 
complimented as having twelve wives: and most of the 
nobles or chieftains, who can afford to maintain a plurality 
of wives, deem it essential to their rank and honour, if not 
to their happiness, to take more than one wife. 
The only law to regulate polygamy seems to be, that no 
man may take twelve wives excepting the sovereign. And 
while very many have but one, the cases are, however, 
comparatively few, in which a man has more than three or 
four. Custom has established various rules as to the manner 
in which a husband takes an additional wife. The following 
sketch is given as an illustration. It will not strictly 
and literally apply in every individual case, but such course 
of proceeding, or something extremely analogous to it, is 
usually followed. 
The husband disposed to take an additional wife, selects 
his favourite, obtains her consent privately, without the 
knowledge of his wife. He then communicates his intention 
to the latter, probably at first in apparent jest; he afterwards 
tells her plainly, calling her, Rafotsy, (a title of respect,) 
* Rafy, signifies enmity; Rafy-lahy, an enemy; Mamporafy, to cause 
enmity ; Mpamporafy, a causer of enmity, a polygamist; Famporafesana 
the cause of enmity, polygamy. 
