2(32 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Common swearing is almost universal, yet swearing of 
a much less profane character than that too frequently 
heard in more civilized countries. In familiar conversation, 
and especially in making sales in the markets, an oath, 
meant by way of confirmation, is uttered with almost every 
sentence. 
The people swear neither by God nor by their idols, but 
chiefly by their mother or by the sovereign. During the 
time of the late king, the general custom was for the males 
to swear by the king’s mother, and the females by the king. 
Radama, however, disapproved of this, and sent a sharp 
kabary, or official message, to the markets to forbid it, 
desiring that the name of the king and his mother should 
not be used on every trifling occasion, but only appealed 
to on affairs of importance, and in a solemn and delibe¬ 
rate manner. The people were still allowed to swear by 
parents, sisters, and brothers. 
In abusive language the Malagasy are not deficient, and, 
lest it should fall into disuse, a common practice exists, by 
way of amusement, for persons to form themselves into two 
parties in order to abuse each other in the most virulent 
language their imaginations can invent; and those who excel 
in the most abusive vituperation, obtain the plaudits of the 
spectators. 
Of the amusements of the Malagasy, as they consist 
chiefly in bodily exercises, a brief notice will suffice. 
Many an hour is spent by them, when not occupied with 
business, perched upon their heels on the walls around 
their houses, or on any convenient spot for observing the 
monotonous little that is to be seen. To take a walk for 
the mere gratification of the exercise, or, in other words, to 
walk about when a person might sit still, would be regarded 
by them as an approximation to insanity. The Malagasy 
