472 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
preventing the fair operation of the tangena. Sometimes 
the sikidy directs the relations to pray , for the accused 
has been guilty of something abominable, and therefore is 
“held,” or they must reject the worn-out spade, or some 
kind of weed, as a faditra, or that they must pay some 
money. All its orders are promptly complied with. 
Should the accused be pronounced guilty, the people 
outside the house are ordered to retire and go to their 
homes. And in such cases, even relations themselves 
appear anxious to disown any former connexion which had 
subsisted between them and the “ bewitched.” They then 
separate, and the corpse is dragged away from the house, 
wrapped in some old matting, with the head placed south¬ 
ward. Sometimes the body is hastily buried; but frequently 
is merely dragged to a distance from the house or village, 
and left for the dogs, or birds of prey. 
It is extremely probable that many of the sufferers are 
buried alive; numbers toward the conclusion of the tra¬ 
gical scene are strangled or suffocated; the people on 
such occasions never waiting to finish effectually the 
dreadful work, but escaping from the house as soon as 
they imagine the spirit to be departing, lest they should 
come in contact with it in its flight. It is a fact, that 
the administrators can, and in the case of the slaves 
actually do, restore the individuals to animation; yet, on 
other occasions, the unfortunate creatures are either in¬ 
stantly tumbled into a grave, and covered with earth and 
stones, or they are left in the open air, a prey to the wild 
animals which are continually prowling about at night. 
The numerous fabulous tales that obtain credit among 
the natives, of persons recovering after death, and appear¬ 
ing again after burial, &c., probably owe their origin to 
reanimations after the tangena. The natives make it very 
