HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
473 
easy to account for such revivifications, without implicating 
the virtues of the tangena; since they ascribe all won¬ 
derful events to the influence of some appropriate charm ; 
and imagine there is a charm or medicine of life, by the 
application of which, a person recovers even from death 
itself. 
Many are purposely buried alive in Madagascar. An 
instance of this occurred near the house of one of the Mis¬ 
sionaries : two men were digging the grave, whilst the 
victim was partly driven and partly dragged towards it; on 
reaching the brink, he was hurled in, and heavy stones 
dashed upon him, to deprive him of sensation before 
throwing in the soil. 
After the body of the party pronounced guilty has been 
removed, a kind of abjuration is pronounced by the voanjo 
on the children of the deceased. Some water mixed with 
earth obtained from the grave of the king’s father, is put 
into the rice-fan, while the voanjo, taking hold of a spear, 
says, 44 Ye children, if ye are mamosavy—if ye are of the 
same ody with him—if ye do evil as he has done;—if ye 
conceal the property, whether much or little, it is seen— 
seen clearly—then be ye accursed. O god, O heaven, 
and earth given to be inhabited ! O moon, O sun, O morn¬ 
ing, and O evening; O night for lying down, and day for 
rising up, O poor little lamb, O sacred herb, O all that is 
sacred by Andria-masina-valona, and the sacred portion to 
be drank, O all that is sacred by the twelve kings, O all 
that is sacred by Ikelamalaza, (here are repeated the names 
of all the principal idols;) O all that is sacred by the 
twelve hills, (naming the town Tananarivo, and eleven 
other principal towns,) and O this sacred water—if ye 
have done this, be accursed, be without progeny, be cast 
when ye litigate causes, be utterly destitute y let not that 
