HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
431 
ative and reverential tendency of mind might be attributed 
to them, almost equal to that which classic history records 
of the more refined and civilized idolaters of ancient times. 
But the judgment is startled, on proceeding through the 
examination of their superstitions, to find that, with all 
their veneration for antiquity, their belief in traditionary 
lore, and their minute and somewhat metaphysical dis¬ 
tinctions of the character and attributes of the supernatural 
agencies by which they believe their lives to be governed, 
they are still in the habit of referring every doubt and every 
difficulty to the decision of a table of divination, which can 
be worked out like a game of chess; and hence their 
actions and impressions, though irrevocably fixed by tins 
decision, must again be mentally referred to another agency, 
capable, as already observed, of being described by no other 
appellation than that of fate. 
The origin of the term sikidy is not known. It is a 
word used by the Malagasy to denote a certain kind of 
divination to which they are devotedly attached, and by 
which they obtain decisions relating to all the most import¬ 
ant acts of their lives, whether public or private. It is 
neither astrology nor necromancy. It consists neither of 
the flight of birds, the inspection of the entrails of sacri¬ 
ficed animals, nor in the interpretation of dreams. It par¬ 
takes neither of the nature of magic, legerdemain, nor 
incantation. But its nature is oracular, and it directs to 
the use of charms and incantations. It is the mode of 
working a particular process by means of beans, rice, straw, 
sand, or any other object that can be easily counted or 
divided. Definite and invariable rules are given for working 
the process and deciding upon the results. Decisions are 
formed in the cases under inquiry by a comparison between 
one and another line of numbers which are produced by 
