244 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
spot. Publicity and elevation are their two principal requi¬ 
sites. Sometimes a tomb is placed immediately in front of 
the house of the person by whom it is built, or it occupies 
a conspicuous place by the road-side. At other times, 
tombs are built on an elevation in the midst of the capital, 
or village, or where two or more roads meet, and very 
frequently they are built on the outskirts of the towns 
and villages. 
The site having been chosen, a large excavation is 
made in the earth, and the sides and roof of the vault 
are formed of immense slabs of stone. Incredible labour 
is often employed in bringing these slabs from a distance 
to the spot where the grave is to be constructed. When 
they are fixed in their appointed positions, each side or 
wall of a vault or tomb, six or seven feet high, and ten 
or twelve feet square, is often formed of a single stone of 
the above dimensions. A sort of subterranean room is thus 
built; which, in some parts of the country, is lined with 
rough pieces of timber. The stones are covered with 
earth to the height of from fifteen to eighteen inches. 
This mound of earth is surrounded by a curb of stone¬ 
work, and a second and third parapet of earth is formed 
within the lower curb or coping, generally from twelve to 
eighteen inches in height, each diminishing in extent 
as they rise one above another, forming a flat pyramidal 
mound of earth, composed of successive terraces with stone¬ 
facing and border, and resembling, in appearance, the 
former heathen temples of the South Sea islanders, or the 
pyramidal structures of the aborigines of South America: 
the summit of the grave is ornamented with large pieces of 
rose or white quartz. The stone-work exhibits, in many 
instances, very good workmanship, and reflects great credit 
on the skill of the native masons. Some of these rude 
