HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
415 
The man went home, and did so; and while the bard was 
singing, the son of a nobleman came, bringing Rafotribe, 
by whom the sick child was cured. Then the man gave 
money and jewels to the son of the nobleman, but retained 
the idol himself.’ , 
It would be tedious repetition to recount his antipathies 
and imagined power; which, though differing in particulars, 
agree, in the general principle, with what has been stated 
of others. One of his peculiar attributes is to give the 
power of locomotion to charms; so that when the keeper 
says to the enchanted thing, “ If thou liest not, dance” it 
will dance; and, 66 If thou liest not, be fixed as a stone or 
firmly-rooted tree,” it will be so. This dancing is applied 
to the discovery of theft and falsehood, by making him 
dance if such or such a person in his presence be guilty. 
