HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
421 
advanced towards the obtruder, striking the air violently 
with his right arm as he approached, until the obstruction 
was withdrawn. On arriving at any place or house sus¬ 
pected to be the abode of evil or sorcery, it was sprinkled, 
in order to remove either the power of inflicting evil, or the 
liability of suffering harm. On arriving at any place sup¬ 
posed to be in danger from lightning, fire, or any other 
accident, the act of sprinkling was again performed, in 
order to ward off* the apprehended calamity. On reaching 
a house or fence which the idol required to be removed, a 
sign was made, by destroying a part, to indicate that such 
was the intention of the divinity, and the owner was under 
the necessity of removing the whole. 
Mr. Jones relates, that about the end of November, 1818, 
he witnessed the ceremony of sacrificing a bullock at the 
beginning of planting of rice. 
The animal, which belonged to one of the slave-dealers 
at Tamatave, was thrown down in a corner of the field, 
after which his four legs were tied together. The priestess 
who officiated on the occasion, was called Senegala. She 
made a long prayer to Zanahary. She then sprinkled the 
bullock with holy water from a horn, after which the throat 
was cut by one of the attendants, and it was cut up to be 
divided in the evening amongst the rice planters, so that 
all was eaten except the blood. This ceremony being over, 
all the people commenced planting the rice; but it was not 
until their work was done, that the flesh of the bullock was 
divided amongst them, and at the same time they partook 
of a distribution of arrack. Before this, however, the 
priestess put some arrack in a cup made of a leaf, and 
stating that she presented it as a drink-offering, prayed the 
Angatra to allow the rice to grow. She then placed the 
leaf-made cup, with the arrack in it, in a safe place in the 
