severe as it is. To be pronounced innocent by the ordeal removes a man above suspicion, however clear else may be the proof of his guilt; to be condemned by it is a demonstration of guilt, however strong the proof of his innocence may be on other grounds. The ordeal consists in administering an emetic draught, formed of the nut of the tangena, (Cerbera Tangena,) accompanied with a portion of the juice of the banana tree. This draught acts on a stomach previously supplied with a large meal of boiled rice; after eating which, three pieces of the skin of a fowl, killed for the occasion, are swallowed. If the three pieces are returned from the stomach, innocence is demonstrated, the party is pronounced "Velona,” “living,” and in due time led up by his friends to his village with much pomp and ceremony, as "Madio," "pure;" if the skin remain, guilt has seized its victim; a large rice pestle is used as a club, and terminates, on the spot, the sufferings and fears of the party; or if he be a slave belonging to the people, (and not to the sovereign or the nobility,) he is sent to some distant part of the country and sold, where happily no report of his being under a malevolent influence may have reached.

It is difficult to ascertain the numbers that actually perish by this fearful ordeal. It is sometimes administered in a very wholesale manner, as may be illustrated in the following circumstance: About eighty men came to the capital, about six years ago, to take the oath of allegiance from a distant part of the island. They were detained, by order of the queen's government, at a village in the neighbourhood. The lightning that season having

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proved most terrific and fatal, it was charged on these strangers, that they had employed some sorcery to bring down the "varatra," thunderbolt, to destroy the queen's people. Soldiers were sent to the village, and the eighty men were compelled to take the tangena. About half the number were convicted of the charge, and ordered for death. The under-ground rice granaries or pits were taken for the purpose, the victims thrown in, boiling water poured on them, and they perished by the scalding and suffocation. The rest were afterwards, on further suspicions being entertained against them, subjected to the same wretched fate, and the whole number thus unjustly perished. It was, however, gravely believed, that they had some powerful charms about them, which would resist death by any means that could be used, unless it were first neutralized; and that was effected by cutting off the head of a black dog, and tossing it, reeking with blood, into the hole among the agonized victims, before the stone was finally covered on the mouth of the pit to which they were consigned.

Hope in death is a privilege with which heathenism is little acquainted. A Malagasy has none. To him death terminates all his enjoyments. His shadowy notions about Ambondrombé, and his property and happiness there, which might amuse him while in health, have no consoling or cheering influence on his mind in death. True, he has not the dread of future judgment, nor any vivid, strong, practical impression of his responsibility to fill him with alarm; but the whole scene is dark, cheerless, and dreary. He is never to see the sun again, nor the light, nor the green earth, nor his friends; he closes

his eyes in anguish, and dies without hope; yet lest he should fall into utter extinction, he has prepared a tomb before he dies, that may serve as a memorial that he had been, and that thus he may continue to survive, at any rate, in the memory of his family and society.

The sacrifices which the Malagasy offer have no reference to guilt. They are not accompanied by any confessions of sin, nor are they employed as means of obtaining pardon. They are usually votive offerings, or the fulfilment of vows. They are presented to obtain blessings, such as health, safety, property, offspring, or success in trade; or they are presented on a return from a journey, or as an acknowledgment of a vow made to offer them in the event of recovery from sickness. There are two kinds of offerings, one called a Sorona," and the other a "Faditra;" the former is always related to good, and the latter to evil; the former is for obtaining favours, and the latter for averting suffering. The sacrifices are usually animal; blood is shed, but not sprinkled ; a piece of fat is burnt at the door of the tomb, or in front of the holy stone, (Vato masina,) where the offering is made. The rest of the animal (sheep or fowl) is eaten by the party making the sacrifice. Great importance is attached by the Malagasy to the religious ceremonies of the circumcision, though the rite itself has no religious idea attached to it in the native mind.

The moral character of the Malagasy, taken as a whole, is, perhaps, not inferior to that of any nation not having the light and influence of Divine Revelation. They are not a people naturally savage and inhuman. The existing practices which have been already described,

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and which seem at variance with this assertion, have been generated by the importance attached to some fell superstitions among them, and still more by the demoralizing and brutalizing influence of the wars in which they have recently engaged. They have become dreadfully familiar with blood, and shed it with less scruple than they ever did. Falsehood, chicanery, avarice, and deceit extensively prevail. The common vices of sensuality, excepting intoxication, are also extremely prevalent; but various crimes not always reprobated among some of the refined nations of antiquity are utterly unknown in Madagascar, or are followed with immediate death on discovery. They possess also not a few redeeming qualities. Parents generally are devotedly fond of their offspring, and children are respectful to their parents to old age. There is much genuine hospitality in the country, and warm and steady friendships exist. They are a people prepared for improvement, and whose rapid advancement, under favourable circumstances, would amply repay the anxieties, toil and sacrifices that might be expended in their service.

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MADAGASCAR THOUGHT OF.

CHAPTER IV.

Outline of the Operations of the London Missionary Society in Madagascar, from their commencement in 1818, to their suspension in 1835.

A MEMORIAL in favour of an attempt to commence a Christian Mission in Madagascar was presented at one of the earliest meetings of the "Fathers and Founders" of the London Missionary Society, and it is believed was read and considered at the same meeting as that in which the scheme was adopted for making the South Sea Islands the scene of the society's first operations. The late eminent Dr. Vanderkemp, of South Africa, was extremely desirous of attempting a mission in Madagascar, and hoped to commence it on the western side of the island. He died, however, before his plans could be carried into execution. The late Rev. J. Campbell, of Kingsland, obtained information as to the island, while at the Cape of Good Hope in 1812-13, and which was published in the first volume of his "Travels in South Africa."

The late Dr. Milne, one of the society's missionaries to China, obtained, as justly stated in Philip's heart-stirring "Memoirs" of that missionary model,* considerable information respecting Madagascar, while at Mauritius on his way to China, and transmitted it to the directors for their guidance in some future measures. Had Mauritius been

* Just published, by Snow, 1 vol. 12mo.