482 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
ledgment and demonstration of guilt Any one acting so, 
belonging to a member of the royal family, would be imme¬ 
diately put to death. And even in ordinary cases, when 
the proper authorities have decided on giving the tangena, 
should the party refuse to drink it, he would fall a victim 
instantly.* 
Occasionally confession is made by a guilty party when 
about to take the draught. His own evidence is accepted, 
and he is put to death on the spot. A case occurred not 
long ago, of a man, when in the act of taking the tangena, 
confessing, in plain terms, “I am a mpamosavy, 4 a be¬ 
witched person/ ” “ What have you done ?” asked the par¬ 
ties around him. “ I have killed by poison some of my 
relations.” “And why did you kill them?” “Because, 
being poor myself, I could never obtain any meat; and I 
knew that as, at their death, some would be distributed, I 
should then get a portion, and I killed them for the sake of 
the meat.” He was at once put to death, on this melan¬ 
choly confession of depravity. While such an instance 
demonstrates that cruelty dwells in the dark places of the 
earth, and that men may be “ without natural affection,” it 
has a powerful tendency to confirm the superstitious attach¬ 
ment of the Malagasy to this mode of judgment, since even 
the very dread of such a test extorted the confession of 
long-concealed turpitude. 
The following instances, related by Mr. Hastie from his 
own personal knowledge, as occurring under his own obser¬ 
vation, are sufficient evidence of the mockery of justice 
with which this scourge of a benighted people is admi¬ 
nistered :— 
* In 1829, a man having drank a small quantity, lehised to drink the 
remainder. His brains were instantly dashed out by a blow struck him on 
the spot with a large pestle used in pounding rice. 
