HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
221 
results. Many of their applications, there is reason to 
believe, would be much more efficacious, were they not so 
frequently accompanied with useless and often injurious 
superstitious observances. 
All diseases are supposed to be inflicted by an evil 
spirit, either in consequence of evil destiny, the incanta¬ 
tions of some enemy, or the neglect of some required rite 
or ceremony. Hence, when disease appears, the friends 
of the sufferer repair to the nearest rnpanao ody , who, 
by the sikidy, or divination, professes to affirm the cause 
and nature of the malady, and specify the means that 
are to be used for its removal. These sometimes consist 
simply in change of air, by the removal of the patient from 
one dwelling or village to another, or to some particular 
spot distinctly specified: at other times by a faditra, or pre¬ 
scribed offering, for the purpose of taking away the evil, 
which it is imagined or pretended has occasioned the 
disease. Whatever injunctions the sikidy may enforce in 
this respect, are most scrupulously attended to, as they 
would deem recovery almost impossible if the prescribed 
faditra were neglected. 
Frequently, in connexion with the faditra, the patient, 
in recent times, has been instructed to apply to the Mis¬ 
sionaries for foreign medicines, with the efficacy of which, 
and superiority over their own, the natives near the capital 
have lately become very generally acquainted. The ordi¬ 
nary practice, however, is to direct the application of some 
native remedy. The native practitioners in Madagascar 
seem to be utterly ignorant of the nature of the circula¬ 
tion of the blood; and in the formation of their opinions, 
and the prescribing of their remedies, no regard what¬ 
ever is paid to the state of the patient as indicated by the 
pulse. 
