HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
383 
All persons found guilty of concealing the property of those who 
die childless, or the property of those who die by the tangena, or 
who consume the property of the sovereign without permission, 
or receive a bribe from a thief to screen him from justice, or who 
take the law into their own hands by imposing a fine on another, 
or who settle the affair of a robbery without informing the sove¬ 
reign, or who eat the rump of the ox without the permission of the 
sovereign, or the nobles to whom it belongs, shall each pay a fine of 
ten bullocks and ten dollars, and an additional sum of thirty 
dollars to the informer; but if they gain their cause, they shall be 
paid three bullocks and three dollars. 
All persons guilty of stealing in the markets, for whatever they 
steal (excepting kidnapping, stealing bullocks, cutting off a part 
of cloth, or untying a part of a cloth in which money is tied) they 
shall pay a fine of seven bullocks and seven dollars, and twenty 
dollars to the informer. 
If a person seizes another person or his property, and sells or 
keeps his person or property for debt, without permission of the 
sovereign or consent of the debtor, he shall forfeit the debt, and 
pay a fine of five bullocks and five dollars. 
And for all small thefts, whether of pigs, or sheep, or goats, or 
poultry, or money, or rice, or sugarcane, or manioc, or sweet 
potatoes, or cotton, or Indian corn, or pumkins, or vovo (nets), or 
bananas, or horirikia, or lemons, or yams, or grapes, or voanjo, or 
French beans, with all other small thefts whatsoever—the person 
or persons (being detected by the owners of the property stolen) 
shall pay a fine of seven bullocks and seven dollars; and if in¬ 
formed against by others, shall pay an additional sum of twenty 
dollars to the informer, and be put in irons for a week ; and if they 
cannot pay the fine, and their family gives them up, they shall be 
sold; but if they gain the cause, they shall be paid two bullocks 
and two dollars by the accuser. 
If a tsiarondahy, or a slave, be found guilty of theft, and cannot 
pay the fine, he shall be sold, (but not his wife and children,) and 
one third of his price shall belong to the master; if he can pay 
the fine, it shall be at the same rate as for free people. 
If a slave absconds from his master, and commits theft, the 
master of the said slave shall pay two and a half dollars for catch- 
