HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
477 
extreme. His bowels, he said, were writhing as if in knots. 
His groans were awful. His eyes seemed ready to start from 
their sockets. His whole countenance assumed a terrific 
appearance, and his entire frame was convulsed with torture. 
His irons were taken off, and he confessed having stolen 
part of the property. His comrade was taken in the course 
of the evening, and threatened with a similar trial. The 
threat induced confession, and part of the cloth was 
returned. The chieftain next morning published a kabary, 
that if any persons were found guilty of concealing any of 
the stolen cloth, they should be reduced to slavery. In the 
course of the day nearly the whole was recovered, and 
the two thieves, though released from irons, were degraded 
into slaves. 
In the lengthened form of the ceremonial attending all 
these cases, especially the part prior to the draught being 
actually taken, so as to encourage a confession, there is 
something analogous to the ceremonial of the ordeal by 
66 bitter waters” among the Jews, mentioned in Numbers, 
ch. xxxi. ver. 11; though it must be confessed that the 
crime for which that ordeal was ordained among the 
Israelites would scarcely be deemed a sufficient reason for 
giving the tangena, by the Malagasy.* 
The administration of the tangena prevails so exten¬ 
sively, and is so essentially connected with many of the 
customs and consuetudinary laws of the Malagasy, that a 
few additional points deserve specific notice. 
The tangena is often given to all the slaves in a 
family in case of illness occurring to any member of the 
family. Some one is suspected of having caused the illness 
by means of witchcraft; and to find out the culprit, the 
See Michaelis’ Commentary on the Laws of Moses, 263d article. 
