HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
437 
anantsinahy. If fire be the origin of the evil, then the red 
flower, songo songo, is offered. If the evil arise from tsiny, 
the reproach or blame of parents or friends, the faditra con¬ 
sists of a broken fragment of the sing or water-vessel. If 
the sikidy suggest danger or sickness, a piece of a tree is 
offered, called sick-tree (hazomarary), meaning any tree that 
has been injured by accident, cutting, or maiming. If dan¬ 
ger of death be apprehended, then some object without 
life is offered, or a piece of vato maty, or dead-stone, the 
name given to stone, especially granite, in a state of inci¬ 
pient disintegration. If a partial danger from witchcraft 
be suspected, that is, if some person is partly inclined to 
bewitch the offerer, then the faditra consists of the kernel 
or gland found in the fat of a bullock, and is called mosa- 
vin-kena.* Should the sikidy predict danger from persons 
collecting together— fi£ here are the people’’—burial is prog¬ 
nosticated ; and then the faditra consists of a sort of tares 
called ahidratsy, or atobahoaka; at the same time some 
earth is offered, a distance of eight or ten feet is measured, 
and the faditra is thrown away from the farthest point 
measured. If the sikidy says, “ he is caught by young men 
seeking for meat,” this prognosticates a funeral at which 
meat is distributed. If it say, <£ he is caught by red earth 
thrown up,” this imports digging a grave; and if it say, “ his 
friends and relations are supporting their faces with their 
hands,” this implies their grief on account of his death. 
If it affirms the earth gives way, and masses of the soil are 
falling off, this indicates that the sick man can no longer 
* Mosavy is that which causes any one to become bewitched; hena 
(leena in composition) signifies meat—the bewitching meat. This gland 
is always removed as soon as an animal is cut up, or the meat would be¬ 
come tainted (bewitched.), 
