410 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
king is supremea motto not unworthy of the genius of 
a despotic government. This idol is kept in the court-yard 
of the palace; and although strictly the metropolitan idol, 
he holds no higher than the third rank in point of importance 
and honour, and, in popular estimation, yields precedence 
both to Rakelimalaza and Ramahavaly. When the sovereign 
goes out to a campaign in his own proper person, this idol 
of the capital is carried with him. At all other times he 
remains quietly within his own residence, as if to recruit 
his vigour after the fatigues of a military expedition. His 
prohibitions are similar to those of other idols, with the 
addition that no corpse may be conveyed within the pre¬ 
cincts of his residence. The specific good which he is 
supposed to effect, is, the extension of the territories of the 
sovereign; in fact, the securing of exclusive dominion for 
the one monarch—the very idea included in his anti-demo- 
cratical appellation. 
There is one other idol, of considerable fame, of which 
a separate notice may be taken before closing the account 
of these divinities, namely, Ranakandriana. His residence 
is reputed to be at Andringitra, a high mountain north¬ 
west of Tananarivo, and about thirty miles distant. To 
him is ascribed the honour of having imparted the know¬ 
ledge of divination to the Malagasy. He is said, also, to 
give an audible reply to any who may salute him. There 
is an echo reverberating from that part of the rock where 
his altars are erected; and this may easily have given rise 
to the idea of a response from the mysterious divinity. 
The altars are similar to those erected to the vazimba; 
amply saturated with the fat and blood of victims, and sur¬ 
rounded with the horns of bullocks and the heads of sheep 
and fowls, some of which are affixed to short stakes and 
poles placed upright in the ground. The divinity is said 
