HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
381 
in taxes, and to decide in judgment between contending 
parties. But if they are unable to adjust such differences, 
the action must be brought before the judges at the 
capital, and from that court there is no appeal. The 
farantsa perform nearly the same duties in the country as 
those at the capital, acting both as magistrates and judges. 
Under them again are the Loholana, or the heads of the 
villages in a district. 
Causes brought before the judges are such as relate to 
charges for capital offences, and litigations respecting pro¬ 
perty, the boundaries of rice-grounds, and cases of bequest. 
The parties confront each other, and every man is advo¬ 
cate in his own cause, or he may engage his friends to 
appear, and plead his cause before the judges. Evidence is 
carefully examined, the witnesses being questioned in the 
hearing of each other, and the decision is formed on the 
testimony produced. If the evidence appear equal between 
the plaintiff and the defendant, or on the part of the 
accuser and the accused, recourse is usually had to trial 
by ordeal, or administering the tangena to fowls or dogs, 
two of which are supposed to represent the two parties 
opposed to each other: and according to the operation of the 
poison upon these two substitutes, the case is finally decided. 
Such are the imperfect, and in some instances barbarous, 
laws of Madagascar, adapted to the political exigencies of 
a partially civilized people, yet at the same time partaking 
of the inconsistency, superstition, and cruelty which charac¬ 
terize the public and domestic regulations of most heathen 
nations. 
The laws by which the island is at present governed were 
issued by the present sovereign on ascending the throne. 
They are entitled “ The Laws of the Kingdom, or the Com¬ 
mands of the Sovereign, with the Fines to be imposed on 
