234 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Some of the natives actually tear their hair from their 
heads, and violently smite upon their breasts. They are 
also accustomed to address themselves in an impassioned 
manner to the deceased in terms resembling the following: 
“ O! fetch me, my relative, my beloved relation, let me 
accompany you in your path; come for me, for now am 
I wretched indeed, and I have no one here to be what you 
were to me!” 
As soon as the first paroxysms of grief have subsided, 
a number of the friends present confer respecting the 
interment, the quantity of cloth in which the corpse is to 
be folded, and the number of cattle to be killed. If the 
deceased have left property of his own, it is taken 
for the purchase of the cloth, &c. required; if not, they 
borrow, and immediately send a person to the market to 
obtain the articles. 
In general, the quantity of cloth used, and of bullocks 
killed, and the number of muskets fired, all depend upon 
the amount of property the deceased has died worth. The 
house in which the corpse lies is now lined with cloth, and 
clean matting is spread on the floor. No kind of work is 
performed in it till after the interment, and the termination 
of the family mourning. 
An ox is usually killed in the evening after the death 
has taken place, and certain portions of it allotted to the 
slaughterer of the animal, to the slave who cuts it up, to 
the owner of the axe used on the occasion, to the owner of 
the cord by which the animal had been tied, and then to 
the assembled relatives of the deceased. 
An adjoining house is appropriated to the use of the 
guests during the night, and meat and rice provided for 
them. A portion is also prepared for those who are 
appointed to watch the corpse during the night, and for 
