In war the Malagasy are capable of the greatest exertion. Trained to arms and frequently summoned to the field, the love of country, for which they are greatly distinguished, animates them with a valour in the defence of its freedom and rights that neither fatigue nor danger can exhaust, which expires only with life; but in times of peace their apathy and indolence are inexpressibly great, and these, as is generally the case, are attended with other vices.

The moral proprieties of life are little regarded, in all ranks of society from the highest to the lowest sensuality is universally prevalent. Criminal intercourse before marriage, though practised in secret, is believed to be frequent, and after matrimony continence is not expected; and so perverting is the influence which their licentiousness has exerted on their opinions, that the absence of chastity is not considered a crime.

Polygamy, which is the fruitful source of unnumbered evils, the constant disturber of domestic peace, inimical to the growth of those refined sentiments and feelings indispensible to the happiness of married life, and that sends children into the world with minds perverted and sensibilities blunted by the scenes of turmoil and strife which they have witnessed at home, has been allowed under most religions that have prevailed in Asia and Africa: it exists in Madagascar attended with all its abominations. It is a curse to the land, and its speedy and final extinction is a consummation most ardently to be desired by all who have the least regard for the happiness of mankind.

The Malagasy enter the married state about the same period of life as natives of India, and the contract being made by the parents the young people come together with little knowledge of each other's moral character and natural dispositions; hence the consequence in many cases is the wife ceasing to please the husband, his affections are alienated and transferred to an object thought to be more worthy of his attachment. The only law enacted for the regulation of polygamy is, that no individual be allowed to take twelve wives, except the king; but few persons have more than three or four, and many only one. Should a husband be disposed to take an additional wife, Mr. E. thinks, the following course of proceeding, though not always, is usually adopted:

"He selects his favourite, and obtains her consent privately without the knowledge of his wife. He then communicates his intention to the latter, probably at first in apparent jest; he afterwards tells her plainly, calling her Rafotsy, (a title of respect,) you are to have a younger sister. I shall still make you happy, adds the husband; here is a present for you-five dollars, 'tis a large sum.'

"

"When the money is mentioned, the woman finds the affair is earnest, and then objects: No, I shall not be one of two wives, let me be divorced. The husband employs pacific expressions, endeavours to abate her anger, and to obtain her consent; he assures her of his affection, and that he can by no means part with her, and expresses his astonishment that she should talk of a divorce. Still withholding her consent, he reminds her that it is the man's prerogative to have many wives, and a fine large house built on a hill, to remain there as a monument of his respectability. Those who are inferior, he tells her, wish to become equal, and those who are equal to become superior, that he who has one wishes for two, and he who has two wishes for three."

The poor wife now finding it best to be pacified, says that she is so, and replies, Well, that is sufficient, since you are determined on the measure. It is like the old proverb where the hill is long, there is room for thinking. Since I am tired of refusing, I have consented; yet I wish you to consider, that I prefer speaking to you face to face rather than complaining of you to others."

He then agrees in the presence of her relations who are called together as witnesses to give her what he may have promised.

"On the day fixed (a lucky one always being chosen) for introducing one wife to the other, the head people of the village are requested to act as the inter-messengers. They proceed to the house of the intended bride, who is called the vady Rehy, the little wife, (a name given to every wife a man has except the first.) We have come, say they, for the young lass-open the door. The lineage and ancestry of both parties are then related, and the donation of clothes sent being presented, the parties eat together as a token of friendship. The husband's brother brings the new wife, part of a sheep having been previously presented to her, and another part to the father of the first wife, with an apology that it is a mere trifle, but all that can be afforded. The new wife is then taken to the house of her intended husband, and is met in the court, west of the house*, by the husband and wife. This public situation is chosen that all may witness the engagement, and that the husband may address the spectators concerning the terms of this new marriage covenant."

The laws and customs of the country empower the husband to put away his wives for causes, some of which are exceedingly trivial; hence should he desire, but be unable to support an additional wife, he resorts to the baseness of divorcing one, whose real fault, whatever may be wickedly assigned, is that she has lost the charms of youth and consequently ceased to be of value in the estimation of her brutalized master. 'most cases of divorce the woman is left at liberty to marry again after the expiration of twelve days, but the husband has authority to divorce her in such a manner as to prevent her from ever marrying again, and when this power is used, and it is occasionally, she is then treated with extreme cruelty.

The front of the house as the door faces the west.

In

When she is put away in this manner,

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During the formal process of being divorced she receives first a black fowl, expressive, it is supposed, of the wish of her husband that she may ever be to all others a repulsive object; second, a walking-stick, indicating that for the future she is to have no home, but is to be an outcast on the roads; third, a small piece of money, signifying that she is to be dependent on what is given her by others; and fourth, a piece of white gun-wadding, to signify that she is to continue in that state till her hair is white with age.'

Leaving the subject of polygamy, an evil of no less magnitude remains to be noticed; infanticide has prevailed in Madagascar from the earliest period of its history. Indeed it appears to have been practised among almost all heathens both of ancient and modern times. Though they have lived as far asunder from each other as the poles without the least possible intercourse, or been neighbouring nations confederated for the maintenance of their mutual freedom and rights, or placed at variance by political interests and differences of religious faith, distinguished for refinement and intelligence or sunk into the depths of barbarism, this species of murder has been known and committed among them. Though they may have agreed in nothing else, it is a melancholy truth, that they have united as with the heart of one man, in the perpetration of the most awful atrocity, imbruing their hands in the blood of their own children.

The causes which have been assigned for the practice of infanticide are numerous and various.

Some governments have sanctioned and encouraged it to prevent a superabundant population, which in the event of a partial failure of the crops produces the miseries of famine, or impelling the valuable and wealthy members of the community to emigrate to more favoured lands, impoverishes the state. The pressure of distress and poverty has contributed to give effect to such legislation. It is well known that when the mind is under no divinely-constraining influence that extreme misery urges people to the most dreadful excesses, to the commission of crimes, at the very thought of which, in more happy circumstances they would recoil and shudder.

In China, where thousands of children are brought to an untimely end, infanticide is stated to be exceedingly agonizing to the feelings of parents, but having scarcely sufficient food to support themselves, and apprehending all the horrors of starvation with an increasing family, they are driven to despair, and the resolution of disposing of their child, though reluctantly, is eventually taken. Sometimes these children are thrown into the current of rivers in which they meet with a sudden and violent death, but in general they are left to perish in the fields, in the streets and on the public roads. It was the

praise-worthy practice of the Roman Catholic Missionaries to collect these helpless babes and to take them under their own protection-a practice which is highly creditable to their humanity, and must ensure the commendation of all who delight in alleviating the sorrows of our race. The Jesuit, Premare, speaking of the number of infants condemned to death, owing to the extreme poverty of their parents, says: "There is seldom a year, in which the churches at Pekin do not reckon five or six thousand of these children purified by the waters of baptism. This harvest is more or less abundant according to the number of catechists which we can maintain. If we had a sufficient number, their cases need not be confined alone to the dying infants that are exposed. There would be other occasions for them to exercise their zeal, particularly at certain times of the year, when the small-pox or epidemic disorders carry off an incredible number of children.”

Infanticide was practised in Greece, apparently with the design of securing to the republic a progeny likely to be serviceable in husbandry and war. It was confined to children of illegitimate birth, to those born with bodily imperfections, and those whose parents were crippled or otherwise enfeebled by disease or age.

"In the parts of America where it was found to exist, it appears to have originated from the extreme difficulty of rearing many children in a savage and wandering life, exposed to frequent famines and perpetual wars." In the South Sea Islands during the reign of paganism child-murder prevailed to a most awful extent. It has been said by those who dwelt among the people prior to the reception of Christianity, and who had consequently opportunities of forming a correct estimate, that not less than two-thirds of the children perished by the hands of their own parents; and this statement of the Missionaries has been confirmed by the sad confessions of the now Christianized, but once barbarous mothers. The causes of its perpetration in these islands seem to be the following.

The extreme indolence of the people which rendered them even averse to the labour necessary for obtaining the means of subsistence where the productions of the soil are spontaneous and abundant, led them to murder their offspring to spare themselves the little additional care and exertion which their maintenance might require. As the marriage bond was liable to be broken when either of the parties desired it, and its dissolution was frequent, owing to incontinence which prevailed in all ranks of society, licentiousness joined idleness in the commission of the same atrocious crime. "When the rank of the parents was unequal, the children were

almost invariably destroyed; if not by the parents themselves, by the relations of those superior in rank, lest the dignity of the family, or their standing in society should be injured by being blended with those of an inferior class. More infant murders were probably committed under these circumstances from barbarous notions of family pride, than from any other cause." Other children were disposed of in obedience to the dictates of superstition.

In Madagascar this species of murder is rarely perpetrated to hide the shame of those who have violated the moral proprieties of life, or from the fear of having too large a family; in general a numerous offspring is a source of much satisfaction. Whatever may be the faults of the Malagasy they cannot be justly charged with hardness of heart towards their children. The infant is welcomed with the fondest emotions and cherished with the tenderest care; both father and mother feel that its welfare is interwoven with their own, and do all which solicitude and affection dictate to render the young stranger happy.

But a bloody superstition forbids them to rejoice over the smiling babe, till the Panandro, " astrologers," have declared its destiny. While these servants of Satan are working the sikidy to ascertain its fate, being ignorant of what may be the result, the minds of the parents are kept in a state of uninterrupted agony. Should the diviners pronounce the child to have been born in an unlucky hour, the evil may sometimes be averted by the present of a few dollars; but at other times exposure to death must take place: this is effected in the following manner :

"An infant, a new-born, perfectly helpless, unconscious infant, smiling perhaps in innocence, is laid on the ground in the narrow entrance to a village, or a fold, through which there is scarcely room enough for cattle to pass; several cattle are then driven violently in, and are made to pass over the spot in which the child is placed, while the parents with agonizing feelings stand by waiting the result.

"If the oxen pass over without injuring the infant, the omen is propi. tious, the powerful and evil destiny is removed, the parents may without apprehension embrace their offspring, and cherish it as one rescued from destruction. But should the delicate, frail, and tender body of the helpless victim be mangled and crushed to death by the rugged feet of the oxen, which is most frequently the case, the parents return to mourn in bitterness of grief their loss, with no other consolation than that which the monstrous absurdities of their delusions supply-that, had their beloved infant survived, it would have been exposed to the influence of that destiny which now required its exposure to destruction.

Distressing, however, as this is, it is in some respects less so than the practice which remains to be noticed. This refers to the instances in which it is declared that exposure will not be sufficient, that there is

Calculation of destiny.