366 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
In the course of the afternoon of the great feast-day, the 
beef is cut up into small pieces and cooked. It is then 
placed on rice, and handed round in each family to any 
friends and acquaintance who may be present. To enter 
a house on such an occasion without being invited, would 
be deemed an intrusion; though, having entered, the guest 
would be invited to partake of the food. This is called 
eating the jaka. It is usual to give mutual invitations, and 
to send presents amongst friends from one to another, and 
in some cases the whole of a bullock is distributed in this 
manner. Those who have no beef to give, endeavour to 
send a small piece of cut money as a jaka, or new year’s 
gift, to their friends. 
The whole of the first month of the year is called 
Volompadina, or sacred month, and is not unfrequently 
occupied by an interchange of visits, to partake of each 
family’s jaka. Friends often travel a very considerable 
distance on such occasions, to prove their attachment and 
respect. Radama was in the habit of inviting his family 
and nobles to eat the jaka with him, and in return he went 
and partook of theirs. The act of eating the jaka with 
any one is by the Malagasy considered as a pledge of 
amity—a sacred test and bond of mutual friendship and 
concord. 
Amongst the most important customs and ceremonies of 
the Malagasy, connected with the government of the country, 
is that of taking the oath of allegiance, which is adminis¬ 
tered to the principal captives taken in war, on being 
restored to their freedom, with permission to return home, 
and to persons suspected of disaffection towards the govern¬ 
ment, or who have risen in rebellion, or excited others to 
rebel, and yet have subsequently promised to submit and 
remain faithful. Extermination or slavery is the usual 
