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CHAPTER X.

The "Queen's Bath."-Soldiers and Officers.-Banquet and Ball.-Departure from Tamatavé. —Second Visit to Antandroroko. — Vovong.— The Fever.-Andororanto. -Land and Cultivation.-Condition of the People.-Manambotre.-The bad Roads and the Bearers.-Ambatoa

rana.

Ar length, on the 13th of May, Mr. Lambert arrived. On the 15th I witnessed the preliminary celebration of the great bath-feast of the queen. This is the only national feast in Madagascar, and it is kept with great solemnity in all the dominions subject to the sceptre of Ranavola.

I did not see the great feast itself, and can therefore only repeat to my readers the description I received from several eye-witnesses. It is celebrated on the first day of every year, and may thus be called the New-year's feast of Madagascar. But the Malagaseys do not follow our method of reckoning time, though they divide the year into twelve months as we do. Each of their months is lunar, and when the moon has renewed itself twelve times their year is past.

On the eve of the feast, all the high officers, nobles, and chiefs appear at court, invited by the queen. They assemble in a great hall, and presently a dish of rice is carried round, each guest taking a pinch in his fingers and eating it. That is the whole extent of the ceremony on this first

evening.

Next morning the same company assemble in the same hall. As soon as they have all met, the queen steps behind a curtain which hangs in a corner of the room, undresses, and has water thrown over her. As soon as she has been dressed again, she steps forward, holding in her hand an ox-horn filled with the water that has been poured

over her. Part of this water she sprinkles over the assembled company. Then she betakes herself to a gallery overlooking the court-yard of the palace, and pours the rest over the military drawn up there on parade.

On this auspicious day nothing is seen throughout the whole country but feasting, dancing, singing, and rejoicing, continued till late at night. The celebration is kept up for eight days, dating from the day of the bath. It is the custom for people to kill as many oxen on the first day as they contemplate consuming during the other seven: whoever possesses any oxen at all, kills at least one at this feast. The poor people get pieces of meat in exchange for rice, sweet potatoes, tobacco, etc. The meat is still tolerably fresh on the eighth day. It is cut into long thin strips, which are salted and laid one upon the other. The preliminary celebration of the feast occurs a week earlier, and consists of military processions. The votaries of pleasure then begin their feast, and thus have a fortnight's jollity— a week before the feast, and a week after.

The soldiers whom I saw in the processions at Tamatavé pleased me well enough. They went through their drill and manœuvres with tolerable accuracy, and, contrary to my expectation, I found the music not only endurable, but positively harmonious. It appears that, some years ago, the queen sent for a European band-master and a complete set of instruments, and her worthy subjects were inducted into a knowledge of music, probably by means of the stick. She succeeded in her attempt, and many of the pupils are already become masters, and spread the science among their fellow-countrymen.

The soldiers were dressed in a simple, neat, and perfectly uniform manner. They wore a tight-fitting jerkin, reaching to the chest and covering part of the loins. The chest was bare, and covered by the gleaming white belts supporting the cartridge-box, which had a good effect in contrast

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to the black skins of the soldiers. Their heads were uncovered. Their arms consisted of a musket and the national lance, called sagaya.

The officers looked comical enough. They went about in threadbare civilian suits, that forcibly reminded me of the fashions which prevailed when I was a child.

To these quizzical costumes, the ugly black faces and woolly hair gave such an effect that the whole was overwhelmingly funny, and I lamented that I had no skill in drawing, for I might have produced some wonderful caricatures from the models before me.

Except on parade and at exercise, the officers, like the soldiers, wear a costume that suits them. The soldiers live in a kind of barracks, in the court-yard of which the exercise is performed and the courts-martial are held. Europeans are strictly prohibited from entering these barracks.

The Queen of Madagascar can easily put herself at the head of a powerful army. Nothing but her potent word is needed to bring it together; for the soldiers receive no pay, and are obliged, moreover, to clothe and feed themselves. They procure provisions by going out to work, with the permission of their superiors; or they go home to cultivate their fields. But the soldier who wants his officer's permission for frequent absence must propitiate the latter by giving him a part of his earnings—at least a dollar annually. The officers are generally very little richer than the soldiers. They certainly receive, like the civil officials, a remuneration for their services from the customs revenue; but the pay is so small that they can not live upon it, and are compelled to have recourse to other means, not always of the most honest description. According to the law, a very small portion of the customs revenue ought to come to the private soldier; but I am told the officers find the amount so trifling that they do not take the trouble to give any account of it, and prefer keeping it entirely for themselves, so

that the poor soldier who can not find work, and is too far from his home to be able to visit it from time to time, is literally in danger of being starved to death. He is obliged to endeavor to support life with herbs and roots, and all kinds of makeshifts (sometimes very nauseous ones), and may think himself lucky if he gets a little rice now and then. This rice the poor fellow throws into a large vessel filled with water, drinks the thin rice-water in the daytime, and only at evening allows himself a handful of the grain. But in war-time, as soon as he is on an enemy's territory, he makes amends to himself for the hardships he has endured; then he plunders and steals right and left; villages are burned to the ground, and the inhabitants killed or dragged away to be sold as slaves.

After parade was over, the officers drew up, accompanied by the band, before our (or, more properly speaking, Mademoiselle Julie's) house, to salute Mr. Lambert, and invite him to a feast in the queen's name. This is the only expense the queen is in the habit of incurring for people whom she wishes to treat with distinction.

Mr. Lambert treated the officers to some good wine, whereupon they marched off to the strains of the national hymn, which really sounded melodious enough.

On the 17th of May, the solemn banquet was held in the house of the first judge of the kingdom. The hour was fixed for three o'clock, but they did not come to fetch us until five. We betook ourselves to the house, which stood in the midst of a large square or court-yard, with palings around it. The soldiers stood in a double line from the entrance of the court to the house, and the national hymn was played as we passed. We were conducted at once to the dining-hall. Two sentries, with crossed muskets, stood before the door, but this did not prevent any one who listed from going quietly in and out.

The company, consisting of about thirty people, had al

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ready assembled to receive the guest of the day, Mr. Lambert, with due honor.

The first governor, who is at the same time commandant at Tamatavé, wore black European clothes, and across his chest a broad red satin ribbon, like that of an order; but, wonderful to relate, there are no orders yet in Madagascar. The second governor had donned an old European suit of faded sky-blue silk velvet, richly embroidered with gold; and the other gentlemen were likewise dressed in European fashion.

The table was covered with dishes of meat of all kinds, tame and wild fowl, fish, and other marine productions. I do not think I exaggerate when I say there were above forty dishes, great and small. The principal show-dish was the head of a calf of rather large size, so stripped of flesh that it looked like a skull, and produced any thing but an agreeable effect. There were likewise many different kinds of beverages, French wines and port, English beer, etc. After the meat, little badly-made tarts of various kinds were served, and the banquet ended with fruit and Champagne. Of the last-mentioned wine there was plenty, and it was drunk out of tumblers.

As far as I could see, all the guests seemed blessed with extraordinary powers as trenchermen, nor did they forget to do honor to the wines, and great was the number of toasts proposed.

Whenever the health of the commandant, of the second governor, or of an absent prince was proposed, one of the officers went to the door and shouted out to the soldiers in the yard the name of the person thus honored; thereupon the music struck up, and all the gentlemen drank the toast, standing.

The dinner lasted full four hours. It was nine o'clock at night when we quitted the table and betook ourselves to an adjoining room, where English beer was again offered