HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
359 
and others, the isarapangady is paid to the holders of the 
estate. In all other cases it goes to the sovereign. 
Duties and customs are imposed on vessels entering the 
harbours or ports of the island, and on all articles exported 
and imported. Some attempts have been made by foreign 
traders to farm these, by paying an annual amount for their 
own vessels to pass free from all specific duties, and re¬ 
quiring an augmented amount to be laid on other vessels 
and the commerce of other traders, but the plan does not 
appear to have succeeded. 
A portion of all fines imposed by the judges becomes 
the property of the king. Of persons sold into slavery for 
the payment of debts, one-third of the amount of the pur¬ 
chase is paid to the king. The property of all who die in 
consequence of drinking the tangena is confiscated, and a 
portion of this also falls by right to the king. The pro¬ 
perty of persons convicted of defrauding the sovereign, of 
high treason, or rebellion, is confiscated, and appropriated 
in the same manner. The king also claims the property 
of those who die intestate, whose wishes have not been ex¬ 
pressed in the presence of competent witnesses, or who die 
without personal or adopted heirs. 
The veneration of the Malagasy for the customs derived 
from tradition, or any accounts of their ancestors, is one of 
the most striking features of their national character. This 
feeling influences both their public and private habits; and 
upon no individual is it more imperative than upon their 
monarch, who, absolute as he is in other respects, wants 
either the will or the power to break through the long- 
established regulations of a superstitious people. 
The king of Madagascar, in addition to his other dig¬ 
nities and responsibilities, is high-priest of the realm. At 
the commencement of the new year, when a bullock is 
