178 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
observance of this rite shall take place, the parents and 
relations make their arrangements for the day: this is ne¬ 
cessary, because the different branches of the same family 
assemble for convenience in one house on the occasion. As 
chanting and singing form a considerable part of the pro¬ 
ceedings, these exercises are practised by the people, in 
their respective villages, for some days before the arrival 
of the time for the circumcision. The females employ 
considerable time in preparing ornaments and decorations 
for their persons, particularly in plaiting their hair in the 
finest manner possible. Slaying of oxen, and feasting in 
each other’s houses, generally occupy the week imme¬ 
diately preceding the ceremony. 
These preliminaries adjusted, the “ binding the calabash 
or gourd,” fehi-voatava, follows. A gourd or calabash, 
used for fetching or holding water, is selected, and carried 
in procession by a number of men to the sovereign, or his 
representative, on the occasion. The leader of the proces¬ 
sion carries a spear and a shield. The calabash is intended 
to be used in fetching the water called holy or sacred, 
employed in the ceremony, and is carried in this formal 
manner to the king, who is also high-priest on this occasion, 
in order that it may be consecrated. Its consecration con¬ 
sists in the king’s striking off, with his spear, the top of the 
gourd, and afterwards binding it in cross plaits with a par¬ 
ticular kind of grass, and the slender branches of a native 
shrub. In performing this part of the ceremony, the king, 
holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right, 
imitates the action of a warrior, and exhorts the fathers 
of those children who are about to undergo the rite, to 
enforce on their attention the duty of loyalty and devoted¬ 
ness to their sovereign, that they may serve, honour, and 
do homage to him. 
