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HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Honours are conferred in Madagascar by the number of 
the dignity.* Rank is conferred by number, from one 
upwards. The first honour is the lowest. The scale 
ascends thus:—Privates of the line occupy the first rank, 
and field-marshals the thirteenth or highest. Higher dig¬ 
nities may be created as marks of favour and rewards of 
service ; but at present the arrangement stands thus— 
Honour the 1st —Voninahitra voalohany.Privates. 
Honour the 2nd—Voninahitra fahaova.Corporals. 
Honour the 3rd—Voninahitra fahatelo.Serjeant. 
Honour the 4th—Voninahitra fahefatra .Serjeant Major. 
Honour the 5th—Voninahitra faliadimy .Lieutenant. 
Honour the 6th—Voninahitra fahenina.Captain. 
Honour the 7th—Voninahitra fahafito .Major. 
Honour the 8th—Voninaoitra fahavalo .Lieutenant Colonel. 
Honour the 9th—Vaninahitra fahasivy .Colonel. 
Honour the 10th—Voninahitra fahafolo .Colonel folo. 
Honour the 11th—Voninahitra faharaikam- . 
bini folo.... \ Ge »eral. 
Honour the 12th—Voninahitra faharoambinifolo . Field Marshal. 
Honour the 13th—Voninahitrafahatelambinifolo. Field Marshal. 
The word <s folo,” annexed to colonels of the tenth rank, 
signifies ten, and intimates that those colonels are the 
highest, and hold an intermediate rank between colonels 
and generals. 
The same names and numbers are applied, as already 
remarked, to the officers of the civil department; so that a 
person, who is no soldier, if asked, “ What number is your 
honour?” or, “ What degree your voninahitra?” might an¬ 
swer, “ The seventh—the ninth,” &c., or “lama captain— 
a major—or a colonel/ This might seem to create some 
confusion; but it secures considerable order in the arrange¬ 
ments made for the internal government of the country, 
and probably supersedes the jealousy and dissatisfaction 
* The word for honour in Malagasy is highly significant, and conveys a 
moral lesson on its vanity— 5 ‘ Voninahitra, i.e. “ The flower of the grass /” 
