HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
233 
ments, or herbs, and, in some cases, the singing of a child. 
In these offerings, prayer is presented, addressed to God,* 
to the Vazimba, and to the manes, or spirits, of their 
ancestors. And when the symptoms assume a decidedly 
unfavourable aspect, and the post of observation is dark¬ 
ening every hour, and hopes of life are surrendered, 
arrangements are usually made for the disposal of property: 
the heir is appointed, and the dying man, if a parent, com¬ 
mends his children to surviving relatives, frequently under 
evident anxiety, from the gloom and uncertainty surrounding 
the unknown future, upon which his reluctant and often 
agitated spirit is about to enter. Unlike the Christian, 
to whom death is the portal to immortality, the faint and 
feeble Malagasy meets death as an unwelcome doom, which 
he can neither avert nor delay. 
After it is ascertained that death has taken place, the 
relations and friends maintain the absolute control over 
their feelings, as the law requires, till evening,f when they 
give unrestricted vent to their grief in weeping, accom¬ 
panied by the most frantic wailing and lamentations. 
Whether from custom or sympathy, or both, so many of the 
friends of the deceased attend on those occasions, that not 
only is the house filled, but many others sit around it out¬ 
side, expressing their sadness by tears and the most melan¬ 
choly cries. All wear their hair dishevelled. The rela¬ 
tives also throw ashes upon their heads, and, though they 
do not literally clothe themselves in sackcloth, wear only 
their most coarse and worthless garments, making their 
grief in appearance at least the most piteous and affecting. 
* An account of the ideas attached to this term and service by the 
Malagasy, will be given in a subsequent part of the work. 
f Should a person die at noon, or even in the morning, no one is allowed 
to mourn till after sunset. 
