HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
487 
trial. It is supposed that about one-tenth of the population 
take the tangena in the course of their lives,—(some take it 
twice, three times, and even more,)—and out of one-tenth 
taking it, it is computed that on the average one-fifth die. 
And thus a fiftieth part of the population is carried off by 
this most formidable instrument of destruction ; which, sup¬ 
posing it to be generally practised through the island, (and 
there is reason to believe that it, or something analogous to 
it, is,) gives not much below one hundred thousand persons 
in every successive generation as its victims !—upwards of 
three thousand a year, and most of these persons in the prime 
of life ! The misery and distress introduced into families by 
the sudden and entire loss of all their property in cases of 
conviction for offences, many of which are purely imaginary, 
is another great, though comparatively smaller part of the 
enormous and overwhelming evil. 
Reference having been made, in several parts of the 
account of the superstitions of the Malagasy, to the mamo- 
savy, some brief but distinct account of it seems to be 
required. The root of the word is mosavy, and by this is 
meant “ that which bewitches”—the essence of witchcraft, 
the abstract idea of whatever renders a person bewitched, 
whether it be some evil spirit, some malignant but invisible 
agency, some poison secretly conveyed in food—in short, 
the genius of witchcraft and sorcery. Mamosavy is the 
active verb to bewitch; and mpamosavy, the person capable of 
bewitching others. Yet the word is by no means confined 
to acts of sorcery, but applied, as appears from the curses 
denounced in the tangena, and the common usage of the 
expression, to any who are guilty of great offences. This 
proceeds on the fallacious supposition that no one could 
perpetrate such deeds, unless he were under the influence 
of some mosavy; that is, unless he were really bewitched. 
