240 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Should any persons be carrying it on the high road, they 
must retire out of the way while a member of the royal 
family passes them, or the bearers of any thing belonging 
to the court, or of any article intended for the use of the 
royal family. 
At the ceremony of Manao afana, it is usual for a senior 
relative of the family to address to the children of the 
deceased, an admonitory and impressive speech. This is 
delivered with considerable formality and apparent gravity. 
The children are formally arranged, the eldest being placed 
to the north,* and the youngest towards the south, a senior 
relative commences, and continues his exhortation generally 
in something like the following terms. <e I am about to 
address you, arranging a few words to deliver a kabary 
(message) to you; let blame be taken from me, let me not 
be censured—I am rising first to speak, and am not able to 
sustain censure, for blame is like the rain above us, which, 
though we see it not, may fall, and injure us, ’tis as a smooth 
road where we may slide without perceiving it, ’tis as a 
stone in a path, against which we may stumble without 
being aware; wherefore do not blame me in saying, “ Let 
not the father be disgraced by his descendants; let there 
not be a failure in due service; let not the young ox be 
always lean and small; let not the young rice-plants be 
stunted in their growth; let not the performance of what is 
just and right be neglected.” The speaker then expresses 
some customary salutations to the king and royal family, 
and afterwards proceeds. “ Here are the relations come 
from the north and south, from the east and west. What 
* In the interior of the island, particularly in Ankova, a feeling of venera¬ 
tion is associated with the north side of the houses, as the part sacred to 
their ancestors. Should the spirits of the departed visit their former abodes, 
the northern part of the house is the place in which they would be heard. 
