226 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. IX. 
Practice of surgery among the natives—Method of treating wounds and 
fractures—Tooth-drawing—Native mode of cupping—Bleeding—Anec¬ 
dote of Radama—Feast on occasion of his recovery—Treatment of the 
sick in general—Influence of divination in the selection of means of reco¬ 
very—The faditra, or offering to remove pollution—The sorona, or sup¬ 
plicatory offering—Usages in reference to death—Mourning—Addresses 
to the deceased—Watching the corpse—Presents of money to the chief 
mourner—Method of disposing of the body—Manner of interment—Cus¬ 
toms at funerals in the southern part of the island described by Drury— 
Property deposited in the tombs—Imagined pollution from touching a 
corpse—Badges of mourning—Period of its duration—The manao afana, 
or slaughter of bullocks, to avert evil from the deceased—Criminals not 
allowed the rite of burial—Places of sepulture—Size and nature of their 
tombs—Costly and gorgeous ceremonies of mourning on occasion of the 
death of Radama; description of his coffin of silver, mausoleum, &c. ; 
money buried with him ; number of cattle slain—Cenotaphs—Singular 
custom of bringing home to the family the bones of those slain in war— 
Monumental pillars. 
In the judicious and successful practice of surgery, the 
Malagasy have scarcely advanced further than in the dis¬ 
pensing of medicine. Their operations are certainly less 
rude and perilous than those of the South Sea islanders, but 
are scarcely performed on better principles. Many have 
perished, whose lives, operations the most simple and easy 
to a scientific practitioner^ there is reason to believe, might 
have preserved—such operations as those required to reduce 
a dislocation, or to give relief in dropsical complaints; but 
notwithstanding these deficiencies, a simple kind of what 
may be termed native surgery, has long been in use among 
them. 
