spirit). If a man was very ill, and especially if he was very dispirited, the mpisikidy seems to have taken the last expression literally, presuming that his spirit (ambiroa [Ar. ar-ruah, the spirit], or aloka [his shade]) had actually left him. But nevertheless he did not despair of curing him, but immediately set to work to bring the spirit back, resorting for this purpose to the following means: (1) He made a figure in the sand, representing in a rough way a human form. (2) He erected a sikidy in which there were to be eight Vontsira (..). These were called 'The eight healthy men' (Ny valo làhy salama). (3) He erected another sikidy, in which the figure Asòralahy (::) was to occur in the two rubrics Tale and Andriamanitra and nowhere else. This was called 'The present Creator' (Zanahàry manàtrika). (4) He erected another again in which the figure Alahizàny (;') was to occur in the rubric Trano and nowhere else. (5) Finally, all these figures (i.e. the beans comprised in them) were gathered and mixed with the sand of the human figure mentioned above. To this mixture was then again added the fruit (or leaves ?) of the Nonoka and Aviàvy trees (two species of Ficus) and the Tsitòhitòhina (Equisetum ramosissimum) and Arivotaombèlona (literally, 'living 1000 years,' the name of a plant [Polygonum senegalense]), some few hairs of a bullock (taken from beneath the ears), a piece of bullock's entrails (tsinaim-bèrin-kèna), and some dry grass, chosen from that on which the sick man had walked, and so placed as to point with their tips towards his house. All these things were then to be pounded together in a mortar by the sick man, while the mpisikidy was beating a blunt spade (angádi-mòndro) over his head, invoking his poweful sikidy to bring the spirit back, in the following manner: "Bring back the shade (aloka); bring back the ghost (ambiroa); even if he has been buried in the grave, even if he has been sunk down in the waters, etc. O, bring him back, ye 'Eight healthy men,' bring him back, thou 'Present Creator,' 'bring him back, thou Alahizany; for there is nothing ye cannot effect, nothing so far off that ye cannot reach it," etc.

I.-Andron-tàny (literally, 'The days of the land,' but in the sense of the different quarters or directions of the compass, as expressed by the place in the house assigned to each day). What is really meant by this somewhat indefinite heading is the art of finding out in what direction (north or south, etc.) you are to seek for a thing that has been lost, stolen, or gone astray, etc. I do not, however, mean to reproduce the eleven rules of my native about this procedure. Suffice it to say that if the sikidy brought out a certain figure in a certain rubric, the thing was to be looked for in one direction (e.g. to the south); if it brought out another, then in another direction (e.g. to the east). The rules then point out which figure agrees with each direction. These directions, however, are not named north, south, east, west, etc., but they take their names from the sides and corners of the house, as designated in the arrangement of the month all around the house (inside), one at each corner, and two on each side. If therefore the sikidy brought out a figure which pointed to the south-east, the mpisikidy did not call it so, but said it pointed to Asórotàny, the name of a constellation of the Zodiac (Cancer) and of a Malagasy month, which, in the arrangement alluded to above, had its place.

assigned to it at the south-eastern corner of the house, as will be shown more clearly under Vintana.

J.-Andro fótsy (literally, 'White days,' i.e. the days on which something expected or sought for was to happen). Suppose that I have lost a slave. It is of the utmost importance to me to know on what day I shall find him for then I do not trouble myself about searching for him before the day has come. Consequently I go to the mpisikidy. He consults his code of laws (which of course he has in his memory, and does not need to go and look up in a book, as we look for a passage in the Bible) and finds the following seven rules for the seven days of the week, commencing with Alarobia (Wednesday), which is therefore in this chapter called "Mother of the days” (Rènin' ny àndro, or Reni-andro) :— (1) Harena and Fahasivy form Alarobia. (2) Fahatelo and Marina form Alakamisy. (3) Vohitra and Nia form Zomà. (4) Andriamanitra and Zatovo form Asabòtsy. (5) Marína and Asorotany form Alahàdy. (6) Vehivavy and Mpanontany form Alàtsinainy. (7) Fahavalo and Làlana form Talata. This means that if the mpisikidy, after having erected. his sikidy, by comparing the figures in the rubrics Harena and Fahasivy in the manner described under chap. iv., § 2 (ANNUAL X. p.229), brings out a new figure which is like the one in the rubric representing the question (generally Tale; see p. 230, last clause), then he knows that what he asks about will occur on Alarobia. I have chosen only the first of the seven rules for illustration; but quite the same proceeding is applicable to the remaining six.

It is easy to see that this was a very convenient way of saving much time and trouble. Suppose I expect a friend from Fianarantsoa on Monday; but he may have postponed his departure from that place, or he may have been delayed on the road; well, I go to the mpisikidy, and he tells me that he will not arrive before Saturday. Fancy now that I had not been prudent enough to do so; what would have been the consequence? To say nothing of other inconveniences, my wife would cer tainly have kept the dinner ready for him from noon to night every day from Monday to Saturday; and if she had not been an angel-which of course she is-she would certainly have looked very cross when he at last appeared! What a blessing these mpisikidy must have been, especially in the good days of old, when there were no doctors and no telegraphs!

It has frequently come before our notice in the preceding sections that all depended on what figures were placed in each rubric by the erecting of the sikidy. As the first four rubrics were filled in a manner that seems to have depended entirely on hap-hazard, and the filling of the others depended upon these four (see chapter iv. § 1 and 2, p. 229), we should conclude that nothing so far was arbitrary, and that the mpisikidy had no control over the form of the sikidy he erected, or, in other words, that he could not decide beforehand what figures he would get in each rubric. But I understand that sometimes (e.g. in producing love-charms, trade-charms, etc.) he took the liberty of filling the first four rubrics with figures which he knew beforehand (from theory and experience) would, in the further procedure, produce exactly the figures

he wanted, and in the rubrics he would want them, for the sikidy in question. How else could he have got a sikidy in which Adikasajy (·) occurred eleven times? or in which Vontsira () occurred eight times? or in which Vontsira came into Harena, and Kizo (:) into Nia and nowhere else? I believe he would often have had to erect his sikidy some thousand times, before that could 'happen,' if he did not 'make it happen' in the manner intimated above. No doubt he generally began working on the hap-hazard principle; but after having destroyed his erected sikidy several times and begun anew-just sufficient to make his spectators understand that it was a very serious affair-he had resort to artificial means and made it succeed. I fancy that this was the general practice in producing the charms described above.

I have not exhausted the subject of Miscellaneous Sikidy yet, but I must stop here, as every thing must have an end. And if I had described all the tricks of the diviners, and, especially, if I had tried to expose all the artifices by which they managed to make their business pay, I should have wanted more space than any magazine could possibly have given me.

I am sorry I do not know more of the sikidy practice on the coast. From the little I know I should conclude that it is not nearly so well developed in most of the coast provinces as in the interior. Perhaps, however, Màtitànana may be an exception; for this is the country of the Antaimóro, who seem formerly to have been more connected with the Arabs than were any other tribes in Madagascar, with the exception perhaps of their neighbours to the south as far as Fort Dauphin, who, according to Flacourt, for centuries have had much to do with the Arabs, who also had taught them geomancy, astrology, and the sikidy. I am therefore particularly sorry that I have not been able to procure any information about the sikidy practice amongst these tribes (Antaimoro and Antanòsy).

An intelligent native at Tamatave, who read and translated part of my former article on sikidy to some other natives there (Bétsimisàraka, I presume), writes me that they explained to him that besides the more systematic kind of sikidy treated of in my article (Sikidy Alànana), they were acquainted with no less than six other kinds, viz. :

(1) Joria (very common, they say); (2) Sikidy Alánam-pòza (common amongst the Sakalàva); (3) Sikidy Alakaràbo; (4) Sikidy Kofàfa; (5) Sikidy Vero; and (6) Sikidy Tendrifàsika.* These are all said to be much simpler than the ordinary sikidy; but in the short description he gives of some of them I am unable to see any clear theory. Joria is said to have only two rubrics (columns or rows). Sikidy Alakarabo has also only two rubrics, but these are filled in a manner different from what is used in ordinary sikidy; for the mpisikidy takes out three and three of the beans he has taken into his hand, and if the last beans left in his hand are three, he puts three into the square to be filled; if two, he puts two; if only one, he puts one. The Sikidy Kofafa and Vèro canas my native also remarks-scarcely be called a sikidy at all. The procedure is simply the following: You take an indefinite number of

* I may add that they also speak of Sikidin-andròvy, as a kind of simplified sikidy.

short pieces of kofafa or vero (vero is a tall grass, kofafa a broom made of grass stalks), in your hand, and you then take out two and two until you have only one or two left. But you must have settled in your own mind at the outset whether one left should mean good luck, and two bad luck, or vice versa.

Most of us may be acquainted with a similar practice amongst Europeans, but of course only as an amusement. Some pieces of straw of different lengths held in the closed hand are drawn out by different persons in order to see who gets the shortest one. My native helper says that some Malagasy who had seen Europeans do so had not the slightest doubt that they were practising a kind of sikidy. When my native friend dissented, they said: "Why are the Europeans here accustomed to leave their own houses a few days before they set out on their journey for Europe, if it is not to practise sikidy?" He replied that they did so because they had sold or packed up all their things. "Well," they said, "you are a young man yet and do not understand it better."

There is another kind of sikidy (if we like to call it so) which I have been told has been practised by an old woman here in town. Something had been stolen, and nobody knew the thief, but they suspected he was to be found among the servants. So the old woman said: "Look here, I will show you who has stolen it. Let each of you bring me a little piece of wood." This being done, she cut all the pieces exactly to the same length, gave them back to them, and said: "After a little while you all bring me your pieces, and you will see that the one belonging to the thief will have become a little longer than the rest." But when they brought their pieces, lo! one of them had become a little shorter than the rest; for the man who was conscious of being guilty had thought it best to secure himself by cutting off a little of his piece, which was exactly what the sly old woman had calculated would take place. So the thief was found out. This was smartly done, but I do not think it can be a very common practice; for if so, it would become known, and consequently be useless. For ordinary cases of this kind the Ati-pako,† so much in use here, would work better.‡

*

L. DAHLE.

(On account of the demands on our space, we are obliged to defer the concluding portion of Mr. Dahle's paper, on "Vintana and San-andro," to our next Number.--EDS.)

A similar practice is found among Oriental peoples; see an exactly parallel account to the above in Rev. Dr. Thomson's The Land and the Book, 1883 ed., p. 153.-EDS.

+ "ATJ-PAKO, s. [FAKO, sweepings.] A mode of recovering stolen property without detecting the thief; all the servants or employées are required to bring something, as a small bundle of grass, etc., and to put it in a general heap; this affords an opportunity to the thief of secretly returning the thing stolen."-Mal.-Eng. Dict. p. 70.

Readers of this and of Mr. Dahle's previous paper on Sikidy will be amused to hear that from the perusal of the paper in last year's ANNUAL, a old friend of mine and occasional contributor to the ANNUAL, Mr. C. Staniland Wake, has contrived a parlour game which he calls "The Game of Skiddy," to be "played with boards of 8 squares, markers, counters, and dice." He has kindly sent me a copy of the Rules of this game, which may be had, I believe, from the author, Clevedon, Westbourne Avenue, Hull.-J.S. (ED.)

"L

HOW WE GOT TO MADAGASCAR :

A VOYAGE FROM PORT LOUIS TO MANANJARA.

OOSE your sails, for the pilot will be on board in a few minutes." Such were the instructions which, as I stood on the deck of the Sophia, I heard given to the first mate of that vessel, on the morning of Tuesday, 27th July 1886. Soon after 10 o'clock the pilot came on board, and having completed the necessary preliminary arrangements for starting the vessel, he shouted to a man who was waiting for the command, "Let go your hawser," when, with a gentle breeze, the Sophia dipped her flag three times, the seaman's professional way of saying "Good bye" when starting on a voyage.

The distance from Port Louis to Mànanjàra is about 500 miles, and our thoughts on leaving the harbour were that perhaps on Friday, but at the latest on Saturday, we should land at the port for which we were bound. We were, however, to find that the doings of our little bark could not be calculated with the accuracy with which we had been able to forecast the runs of the Castle Mail Packets Garth and Duart, in the former of which we had come from England to Cape Town, and in the latter, from Cape Town to Port Louis.

During Thursday we were almost becalmed off Réunion, but, once away from that island, the wind favoured us, and at 9 o'clock on Saturday evening, the captain estimated that we could not be more than about 25 miles from the land; and fearing to approach nearer in the night to a coast which he was now making for the first time, where coral reefs abound, and where there are no lighthouses, he ordered the vessel to be put "about," and for four hours the Sophia retraced her course, when she was again 'bouted,' and her bow put for the land. The morning of Sunday was cloudy and rainy, and no land could be seen when I went on deck at 6 o'clock. At noon the sun was obscured, and no observation could be taken, and it was late in the afternoon before the weather cleared; even then, however, land was not in sight. On Monday morning it was seen on the distant horizon, and the captain greeted me by saying jocularly, "Here we are, somewhere off the coast of Madagascar." Our hopes were raised, and we confidently assured ourselves that e'er the sun set we should be at anchor off Mananjara, if not on shore there. Alas! we were sadly disappointed, for neither that day, nor the next, nor the day after, nor indeed for sixteen days from that morning of bright hopes, did we see the port for which we were bound. A gentle breeze carried us slowly onward toward the land till, at noon, the captain took his observation, when, to his surprise and to our intense disappointment, he found that his "somewhere" of the morning was 75 miles to the south of Mananjara!

The order, "To the north," was immediately given; and the wind being favourable, we tried to believe that, after all, the mistake would not prove a very serious affair. During Monday afternoon and night we did.