bury their dead in a great house built of logs and surrounded by a palisade. The corpses are wrapped in a native lamba and laid side by side, and layer upon layer, the women and children on one side of the doorway (which is in the centre of the long side of the house), and the men on the other side. No one is allowed in or near this house or kibóry, as it is called, except those appointed by the tribe.

Little or no difference is made in the ceremonies observed at the burial of a king from those at the interment of one of his subjects. But the feasting and number of mourners may be greater, according to the wealth of the individual. One exception, however, is made. When the corpse of a king is carried to the kibory, it is not carried on the shoulders, but by the hands and below the knees of the bearers, to show that, although a king when alive, he has no honour above other men when dead. (It is curious that while alive, kings are never dressed in shirt or coat, nor do they wear any kind of headgear, as kings, they say, should not be covered.) When a Taimoro is approaching death, a number of old women are appointed to perform the last offices, and this they are said to do by hurrying the dying into death, and at once preparing the corpse for burial, and cutting off all the hair over the forehead. Then the scribes of the village assemble in the house, and each of them writes four passages from the sacred books upon separate pieces of bark paper. One of these slips from each scribe is taken and attached to the forehead of the corpse, and one from each on the breast and on each leg. They are then bound on with proper wrappings, that there may be no danger of displacement when the corpse is conveyed for burial. In explanation of this custom they say: "Much evil has been done while here on the earth, so we confess this to the Great Spirit and make supplication for forgiveness." It is also believed to have some power as a charm to preserve the body from decay and annihilation after burial.

The body is carried to its last resting-place, and one of the young men, who has been trained to read and remember some of the words in the books of sacred writings, repeats some passages which are considered suitable for the occasion, although, as with very much of the erudition of the tribe at present as regards their sacred writings, he may not have the remotest idea what the words mean. But they are supposed to contain a prayer to God and his prophet Mohammed for the dead.

At the entrance to the kibory a halt is made, and the women and children return home, with the exception of the old women already referred to as performing the last sad rites. These carry fat from the kidney of an ox and fire, and as they enter the gateway a chant is repeated seven times by a few of the attendants and followers, after which they all advance into the burial-house and deposit the corpse in its appointed place.

A general mourning is observed in the village for a week, during which time no bathing or cleansing of garments takes place; but on the eighth day all bathe, and the time and appearance of mourning is past, except for the widow, whose time of mourning (and what usually amounts to the same thing-widowhood) is regulated by the relatives of the dead husband, who can, at will, make the time extremely short, or indefinitely prolong the time during which she is unable to become the wife of another.

When a wife dies, the widower remains secluded for a week or perhaps even a fortnight, by which time the relatives of the late wife bring to him his deceased wife's sister or other near female relative of hers as his future wife. This is evidently done as a matter of worldly prudence on the part of the relatives to prevent both the property and the children from passing into the keeping of others than those over whom they have some influence.

us.

DISCUSSION.

The CHAIRMAN.-I think I should only be anticipating your wishes by expressing our very hearty and sincere thanks to the Rev. George Shaw for the interesting paper which he has given It deals with a subject that I think hardly any of us had much knowledge of before. It is a subject upon which the lecturer is well qualified to speak by his residence in Madagascar and upon which hardly any one could gain knowledge except by living in the place and doing missionary work, I venture to say, among the people.

*This chant sounds like: Kibaralà, kibaralà, kilìa, làlañolůlo, kibaralà, kibaralà, kibaralà, vòclàlamíndo.

There are one or two points which seem thoroughly to corroborate what the lecturer said, though not referring actually to Madagascar, but to Arab immigration elsewhere.

It is a known fact that the Arabs seem to have had the power to practise some faculty of immigration, and to have adopted the same customs the lecturer spoke of.

In regard to the custom mentioned of suspected infidelity-" if you have been unfaithful, may the crocodiles devour you in the water"-it is a very curious fact, as stated in Flinders Petrie's Tales of Madagascar, that there is a similar tale told; and again, with regard to tearing up pieces of paper and throwing them into water and drinking it, to this day in Upper Egypt frequented by Egyptians you see, in the Temple of Isis, women, who hope to become mothers, scraping the dust out of the hollows and putting it in water and drinking it.

The SECRETARY (Professor E. HULL, LL.D.).-I was struck, on looking at the photographs, by the remarkable difference in the physiognomy of the Christian natives as compared with those of the Arabic natives-namely, the very great improvement in the type of feature of the former.

Mr. MARTIN ROUSE.-Yes, decidedly-in the appearance of the face; there is a cheerful and benign expression in the faces of the Christians.

I think it is very remarkable that these people should abstain not only from eating pork, but also from eating eels and other fish. This must have come originally from the Israelites. I did not know until I read this, that it was an Arab custom according to the Koran (but perhaps some one may confirm this) that they were not only to eat no pork, but no fish that had not fins and scales. It looks as if the Taifàsy were also of Arabic or partially of Arabic origin, but coming at an earlier period into the country, inasmuch as they do not keep pigs; and that is in agreement with another fact that we have read earlier-that whereas the Onjàtsy are treated in the legend as a tribe already there, when these immigrants came from Arabia, the Onjàtsy themselves possess one of the only two remaining copies of the Koran. So there seem to have been Arabian immigrants there prior to the arrival of the Taimoro.

The custom of one set of people in a tribe killing animals for the rest is very curious. The lecturer remarked in the course of

reading his paper that the people so employed resemble the kosher butchers of the Jews; but I do not know that such butchers have to belong to a certain family. Is that so? Perhaps some one can inform us. It seems to me, rather, to come down from the most ancient times, when the killing of animals was probably always accompanied by sacrifice: whenever an animal was killed, its blood was poured out on the ground in sacrifice to God. I gather that from several ancient passages in the Scriptures; and I think this is in keeping with it. A certain set of people probably acted as semi-priests; and they alone killed for all the rest, and poured out the blood on their behalf.

It is very remarkable that these people who came from Arabia. and professed to worship only the one God should have become the manufacturers of idols for the Malagasy; but we heard in a paper on the Moslems of Arabia how their worship of the one God became blended with the worshipping of holy men, or saints; and with many of their ancient pagan customs; how the Wahabîs determined to put this down and did so for some time; but how they have themselves returned to the same kind of observances.

Professor ORCHARD, M.A.-There are some points brought before us in the paper which tend to show that some of the customs of these curious tribes are of Israelitish origin; for instance, the prohibition of marriage with other kinds of people and the chant repeated seven times. That seems to convey the idea of number, the Israelites regarding seven as a perfect number. Then on the eighth day the time of mourning is suspended. We know that the Israelites regard the eighth day as the inauguration of a new state of things. So in the New Testament it becomes the first day-the day of the resurrection.

I should like to ask Mr. Shaw whether these names for the days of the week and days of the month have any translatable meaning, or whether they are only mere sounds as far as he is

aware.

If they have any meaning it would be interesting to know what they are; and, also, with regard to the chant.

I was much struck with what the author says "It seems strange that these people who, when they first arrived in the island, were without doubt Mohammedans and in possession of the Koran, should have degenerated into the idol and charm

manufacturers they have now become." It seems to be but another illustration of the fact of the essential depravity of human nature-a depravity which nothing but a new birth, through faith in Christ, has power to cure.

I am sure those of us who have seen the photographs of these people must admit that they by no means lack the appearance of natural intelligence.

The CHAIRMAN.-Before Mr. Shaw answers the questions put to him there are one or two other points which I think we should like to get information on.

I presume the Taimoro were kept in subjection by the Hova; but I do not know how it is now that the Hova supremacy has been, so to speak, knocked on the head, and I believe local disturbances have been created.

Then again with regard to the chant of hired mourners as recorded in Scripture, we know that is a very monotonous thing, and it is the same sharp thin cry emitted by the women simultaneously with slapping their faces and then their breasts and hips, and a stamping sound in rapid succession and the monotony of this magic chant which seem to be very similar. This chant appears to be delivered by the attendants as they deposit the corpse in its appointed resting place.

Rev. G. A. SHAW.-In two or three words I will try to reply to the questions that have been brought forward. I certainly did not mean that the Mpanombily amongst the Taimoro were in exactly the same position as the kosher butchers amongst the Jews. I simply referred to that as indicating a separation that they were the only ones that could kill the animals in such a way as that the tribe would accept, as food, the animals so killed. As I said in the beginning of the paper the highest class, or chiefs, or lords, were called the Mpanombily, which translated into English means those who killed for the rest of the tribe, and inasmuch as the king was very frequently in old times, the priest, it is not at all unlikely that these Mpanombily were also the priests.

Then with regard to the rice, I think it is a matter of notoriety that the redder it is the harder it is. It is a much smaller grain. It is not so pleasant looking, and certainly is not pleasant looking when it is cooked, and in proportion to its hardness, it is so much the more indigestible. When the natives eat a certain portion of