CHAP. XIV. 
AFFECTING CASES OF SICKNESS. 
391 
female friends, and carefully covered over; when the hearers 
came in, took up their burden, and, followed by the husband 
and friends, carried her back to her home, which I was told 
was at some distance. 
As soon as I was up the next morning I was asked to 
go and see a number of sick persons from a distance, who 
were in an adjacent house. I found a whole family—the 
mother with an infant in her arms, and three other children 
—all suffering from what seemed to be a severe attack of 
influenza. When I had spoken to the mother, the father 
asked me if I could afford any relief to a young woman who 
had come with her, who had been struck by lightning and 
was deaf. He then pointed to another in the company who, 
he said, was an orphan, and a martyr’s child. While en¬ 
gaged with this little company of sufferers, I was sent for to 
my own house, where I found an officer from the palace, who 
asked for some medicine for himself and his children, and 
who also told me that the queen was waiting for what the 
diviners should declare to be a lucky day, in order to receive 
the presents I had brought. I mentioned my want of a table 
for photographic purposes, and in the course of the afternoon 
one was sent from the prince’s establishment; and a right 
royal table it was,—so large and heavy, as only with diffi¬ 
culty to be got into the house. 
Amongst my visitors in the evening were a chief and one 
of his companions, who had been during the past year to 
Ibali. He stated that, in consequence of reports of a foreign 
teacher being at Ibali, a place on the western coast of Ma¬ 
dagascar, a letter had been written stating that they had 
heard of his arrival, but did not know whether he was 
English, or French, or American, and that the bearer of the 
letter had come to see him. My visitor, accompanied by five 
others, had undertaken to convey this letter. Their equip¬ 
ment consisted of two guns with ammunition, a spade to dig 
c c 4 
