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HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
some of the speakers exhibit immense powers of voice, 
and are able, though in the open air, to command the 
attention of several thousands of people. In speaking they 
use considerable action, which is frequently bold, energetic, 
impassioned, and sometimes graceful, though at other times 
it is excessively awkward. 
The voices of the females, though better adapted for 
singing than those of the men, are for the most part 
deficient in sweetness and melody. There is indeed a 
softness in some of them which pleases, and might be made 
to charm, if well cultivated, and regulated according to 
scientific rules. They are most effective in chorus. 
Very few can gratify when heard singly; and hence, per¬ 
haps, the usual practice of singing in chorus. The 
constant and regular clapping of the hands, as if beating 
time to their notes, is to the ear of a foreigner, if not 
exactly discord, a miserable substitute for the harp, the 
flute, or the violin. 
The sovereign has a large band of female singers, who 
attend in the court-yard, and who accompany their monarch 
whenever he takes an excursion, either for a short airing 
or a distant journey. 
The songs are principally composed of detached sentences. 
They are highly figurative, but not so highly sentimental. 
In general, they may rather be characterized as tame and 
insipid; the Malagasy language being itself too deficient 
in descriptive epithets, in adjectives and adverbs of quality, 
to admit of any fulness, richness, or luxuriance in their 
songs. Their festive songs are neither rhyme nor blank 
verse; yet they are not destitute of a sort of cadence, 
partly arising from the number of syllables admitted, and 
partly from the emphasis laid on corresponding stanzas. 
The characteristic feature of most Malagasy singing in 
