246 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
bands of straw are fastened round it, to prevent breakage 
in the removal. Strong ropes are attached to the slab, 
and, amidst the boisterous vociferations of the workmen, 
it is dragged away from the quarry. In ascending a hill, 
they place wooden rollers under the stone, and move them 
forward as it advances. 
Sometimes five or six hundred men are employed in drag¬ 
ging a single stone. A man usually stands on the stone, 
acting as director or pioneer. He holds a cloth in his 
hand, and waives it, with loud and incessant shouts, to 
animate those who are dragging the ponderous block. At 
his shout they pull in concert, and so far his shouting 
is of real service. Holy water is also sprinkled on the 
stone as a means of facilitating its progress, till at length, 
after immense shouting, sprinkling, and pulling, it reaches 
its destination. 
When the tomb is erected for a person deceased, but not 
yet buried, no noise is made in dragging the stones for its 
construction. Profound silence is regarded as indicating 
the respect of the parties employed. In some cases a corpse 
is buried in a dwelling-house pro tempore , till the new 
tomb is finished, when it is disinterred, and removed to 
its final resting-place with the usual ceremonies. 
It has been already observed, that lepers are not interred 
in the burying-places of the families to which they belong; 
but after they have been under ground a year, the relatives 
are permitted to take their bodies up, and deposit them with 
the customary ceremonies among the sepulchres of their 
ancestors. 
The tombs are occasionally washed with a mixture of 
lime or white clay; and, though literally 66 whited sepul¬ 
chres,” furnish to the eye of a traveller a pleasing variety 
in the objects around him. The entrance to the vault is 
