88 
MADAGASCAR 
a balustrade of stakes and posts tastefully carved. The 
custom, now abandoned by the Hova, of sticking upon 
these balustrades the skulls of the oxen slaughtered for 
the funeral feast, is still often kept up in Betsileo-land. 
Among the Betsileo is also found the custom, equally 
strange and loathsome, of tapping the body as it decays 
and collecting what runs from it in great earthen pots until 
nothing is left but skin and bone. Sibree says of the 
Sihanaka, that they carry the body over freshly slaugh¬ 
tered oxen. A certain number of these animals are placed 
beside the way which the funeral procession has to take, 
and at its approach one ox after another is killed with 
a spear, and the skulls are then stuck on high poles. 
Memorial poles of this kind generally stand in groups at 
the entrance of a villaofe. The Betsimisaraka and other 
tribes of the East do not bury their dead in the ground, 
but lay them in rude wooden coffins which are disposed 
in rows in a shady wood or in the primeval forest. In 
the interior of the island I have often observed the skulls 
of oxen on wooden poles. Among the Bara, according 
to Richardson, a terrible howling is raised, accompanied 
by the discharge of musketry, on the death of one of 
the tribe, and the third part of the oxen belonging to 
the deceased is killed before the burial takes place. 
The naked corpse is either laid to rest in the earth and 
covered with a long heap of stones three feet high, or 
a cave in the rock is made use of, and in this they deposit 
the corpse. The entrance is closed with stones and on 
these they fasten the skulls of the oxen slaughtered at 
the funeral. The place of burial is held sacred and no 
one may tread there. 
I had the opportunity of attending a funeral ceremony 
among the Sakalava. A woman who had died of apoplexy 
was forthwith wrapped in white cloths, and near her were 
placed several pots of incense. All day long the mourn¬ 
ing-women were entering the house to chant their funeral 
