POLITICS AND RELIGION 
95 
Assemblies of the people played a great part in the 
government. On the publication of a royal message, 
the people streamed in from all sides towards the capital 
and awaited the arrival of the officials, who were 
accompanied by bands of music and soldiers in uni¬ 
form. In important cases it was the prime minister who 
presented himself before the people with great pomp 
and displayed all the arts of a brilliant orator, supple¬ 
menting the animation of his words by passionate 
gestures, tearing from his shoulder his picturesque lamba 
and throwing it on the ground, or flourishing about his 
spear. Then the assembly would also be seized with 
enthusiasm, which was expressed by leaping from the 
ground and by acclamations of assent. A Malagasy 
Kabary always presented an imposing spectacle to a 
European. Transgression of the laws was severely 
punished, and an iron discipline was maintained. In 
former times the Trial by Ordeal or the judgment of 
God played a fatal part in Malagasy jurisdiction. A kind 
of ordeal by poison, the so-called Tangen-trial, stood in 
high esteem among the people even in the middle of 
this century, and the Hova government still applied it to 
the discovery of crime. Pieces of the fruit of the 
tangen tree (Tanghinia veiteniferd) were administered 
to the delinquent, and if these were vomited his inno¬ 
cence was proved. This tangen tree in some degree 
resembles an oleander in its mode of growth. It blooms 
at the end of September and bears from 20 to 25 blos¬ 
soms at the end of its thickly-leaved branches; the 
flower-buds are of a red colour. The spherical fruit is of 
the size of an apple, and the soft pulp has a kernel as big 
as an almond, which contains an active poison. In small 
doses it acts as an emetic, but taken in larger quantities 
it destroys the most important nerve centres of the 
vegetable functions. According to the information I re¬ 
ceived, it seems to have lain in the power of the judge 
