88 
When he has tired himself and his audience, he takes 
off the charmed roots, and making the slave lick every 
piece, says—“ Now let him go where he pleases; the 
demons who attend me will soon inform me/’ Such 
is the influence these wretches have over the natives, 
that this mummery seldom, if ever, fails of its effect in 
keeping the slave from running away. It is no un¬ 
common circumstance, notwithstanding the foregoing 
account, for them to marry their daughters to their 
slaves, which is the strongest proof that can be given 
of the liberal sentiments they entertain respecting 
them. They evidently look upon them merely as 
prisoners of war; and though they make them 
bear the burthen and heat of the day in the field 
exercises, they by no means consider them degraded 
by it.* 
Although they have no circulating medium, many 
of the Madagascar chiefs are very rich, and their 
stores contain iron and steel, in bars, hatchets, knives, 
bills, spades, shovels, wearing apparel, plantations of 
yams, cattle, and slaves: the latter has been a great 
article of trade with them, but we trust that recent 
circumstances will have the effect of preventing it in 
future. The Zafe Ramini possess great quantities of 
* We are here speaking only of those slaves who have 
been captured in war. The Ondeves, who, as we have stated, 
are slaves by extraction, are looked upon as inferior; but the 
treatment of these is not generally harsh, and their masters 
are obligated to supply them with the necessaries of life, even 
in times of scarcity. 
