The Island of Madagascar was discovered in 1506 by Lawrence Almeyda, a
Portuguese; but the Persians and Arabs are said to have known it from
time immemorial. The island is divided into 28 provinces and is said to
contain two hundred millions acres of excellent land, watered on all
sides by streams and large rivers. Its two highest mountains are
Vigagora in the north and Batistmene in the south, said to contain in
their bowels abundance of fossils and valuable minerals. This island,
situated near the eastern coast of Africa, with 300 miles of the
Mozambique Channel intervening, is 1,000 miles in length and varying
from 200 to 400 miles in width, and is supposed to have been in remote
ages a portion of the continent of Africa and that the progenitors of
its people were to that "manor born;" others that the channel was
crossed in canoes and Madagascar populated.
Rev. W. E. Cousins, an English missionary, in a late edition of
"Madagascar of Today," says that "its people are not on the whole an
African people, and much of its flora and fauna indicate a very long
separation from the neighboring continent. Particularly notable is the
fact that Madagascar has no lions, deer, elephants or antelopes, which
are abundant in Africa; the people generally are not Africans, but
belong to the same family as Malays and Malayo Polynesians." How the
Malayon came to be the predominant language has exercised the thoughts
of many, Africa being not more than 300 miles from the west coast of
Madagascar, whereas the nearest point, Malayon Peninsula, is 3,000 miles
away. That the distinct type of African presents itself in large numbers
of native population is beyond question.
For much of the following as to the religion, morals and customs of the
Madagascar people, I am indebted to Rev. Cousins, the missionary above
referred to, and a work entitled "Madagascar, or Drury's Journal,"
edited by Pasfield Oliver and published in 1729. Robert Drury was an
English lad that ran away from home, was shipwrecked, and held in
captivity by the natives for 15 years, and redeemed by Captain Mackett,
commanding the "Prince of Wales" in the East India Company's service.
Also to the "Island of Madagascar," by Abbe Alexis Rochon, a learned
Frenchman, who visited the island in 1767 and made an extensive report.
Mr. Oliver mentions that there are authors who say that the religion of
these people is Mahometanism, but he is at a loss to know from what
they drew their conclusions, since their sacrifices and their antipathy
to revelation; and, besides, at the only place where a Moorish ship
(Mahometan) came, swines' flesh is eaten. These obviously show that
there can be nothing in more direct opposition to it. There is no one
circumstance like it, except circumcision, and that is well known to
those learned in ancient history to have been common to some Eastern
nations, even before the Jews had it, and where there is no reason to
think the name of the Jews was ever heard, and we have more reason to
think that the Jews derived a great deal from them instead of they from
the Jews; that their religion is more ancient is evident for several
obvious reasons.
First, by their regarding dreams and divining by them, which so early as
the Mosaic law the Children of Israel were warned against.
Secondly, these people shave their hair all off in mourning for the
dead. This Moses expressly commands the Israelites not to do, and the
Jews do superstitiously observe this last and suffer their hair to grow
in their mourning.
Thirdly, Moses commanded none but males to be sacrificed. On the
contrary, these sacrifice cows for the most part. They have no burnt
offerings but near their sepulchers, which with gum, burnt likewise, may
only arise from a defense of cadaverous scents.
[Illustration: BISHOP ABRAHAM GRANT.
Joined Church at an Early Age--Advanced Until he Was Elected Bishop of
the A. M. E. Church--An Able Pulpit Orator, and Among the Bishops He is
Known as the Politician of his Church--Having a Competency, He is
Devoting His Closing Years to Benevolence and the Promotion of His
Race.]
Fourthly, but the most remarkable instance of all is, that the "owley,"
which these Madagascar people divine by and procure most extraordinary
dreams, is evidently the Ephod and Teraphin which the Levites used who
lived in Micah's house (see Judges 17) and which the Israelites could
never be wholly brought off from, though contrary to their law. Some
have taken these Teraphin for images like a man, and there seems a show
of reason in it from Micah, Saul's daughter putting one in David's bed
to deceive her father's messenger, while he escaped. This, it is
possible, alludes to some divination by the Teraphin which she used in
his behalf, for Teraphin is the plural number; therefore, could not
signify only one image; neither could the gods which Rachel stole from
her father, Labon, be one god as big as a man, for she sat on them and
hid them. The word is here in the original "Teraphin," although
translated gods. Then, in Hosea, chapter 3, verse 4, "an image, an Ephod
and Teraphin," are all mentioned in one verse, plainly showing that they
are distinct things. It is further to be remarked that by this Teraphin
they invoked the dead, which is exactly the same as these people do by
the "Owley" always invoking the spirits of their forefathers, which is
expressly forbidden to Israelites, and often sharply inveighed against
by the prophets.
That these people had not their religion from any polite or learned
nation is by their retaining no notion or meaning of letters, nor their
having a horse among them, either for carriage or other use, which could
never have been forgotten had they ever had it.
Mr. Oliver positively asserts that these Madagascar people came from
Africa, and is certain on account of their color, while other writers
think most of them to be descendants of Malays.
Captain Mackett, previously mentioned as the redeemer of Robert Drury
from his 15 years' captivity, states that Devon (King) Toak, often told
him they had a tradition of their coming to the island many years ago in
large canoes; "but," says Captain Oliver, "let them come from where they
will, it is evident that their religion is the most ancient in the known
world and not much removed from natural religion, and whether the
Egyptians and Canaanites had their religion from them, or that they are
Egyptians originally, it had its rise long before the Children of Israel
were in bondage, for Egypt was then a very polite country, and although
idolators, they were not any more so than their neighbors before
Abraham's time.
"The respect due from children to parents is taught them early by those
parents and grows with them, besides the gratitude naturally arising to
those who have fed and protected them when they were helpless infants.
So it is no wonder to find a law there against cursing parents. The
notion of the Being of one Supreme Author of nature arises from natural
reflection on the visible harmony and uniformity of the universe and
seeing that men and things did not produce themselves. The reverence due
to this stupendous Being is only of a pious and rightly amazement, dread
and respect. The testimony was everywhere uniform that where Europeans
or Mahometans had not corrupted them they were innocent, moral and
humane.
"Physically the island has lost none of its picturesque character, so
vividly portrayed by Abbe Rochon more than a century ago, who wrote 'The
Traveler,' who in pursuit of knowledge traverses for the first time wild
and mountainous countries, intersected by ridges and valleys, where
nature, abandoned to its own fertility, presents the most singular and
varied productions, cannot help being struck with terror and surprise on
viewing those awful precipices, the summits of which are covered with
trees as ancient perhaps as the world. His astonishment is increased
when he hears the noise of immense cascades which are so inaccessible
that it is impossible for him to approach them. But these scenes, truly
picturesque, are always succeeded by rural views, delightful hills and
plains, where vegetation is never interrupted by the severity and
vicissitudes of the seasons. The eye with pleasure beholds those
extensive savannas which afford nourishment to numerous herds of cattle
and flocks of sheep. Fields of rice and potatoes present also a new and
highly interesting spectacle. One sees agriculture flourishing, while
nature alone defrays almost all the expense. The fortunate inhabitants
of Madagascar need not moisten the earth with their sweat; they turn it
up slightly with a pick-axe, and this labor alone is sufficient. They
make holes in the ground at a little distance from each other and throw
into them a few grains of rice, over which they spread the mold with
their feet. And what proves the great fertility of the soil is that a
field thus sown produces an hundred-fold. The forests contain a
prodigious variety of the most beautiful trees, such as palms of every
kind, ebony, wood for dyeing, bamboos of an enormous size, and orange
and lemon trees." The Abbe's picture is quite enchanting, for it seems
that "every prospect pleases."
A view of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, in the word-painting
of Cameron, a war correspondent of the London Standard, is interesting.
"Antananarivo was in sight and we could plainly see the glass windows of
the palace glistening in the morning sun, on the top of the long hill
upon which the city is built. It was Sunday, and the people were
clustering along the foot-paths on their way to church or sitting in the
grass outside waiting for the services to begin, as they do in villages
at home. The women, who appeared to be in the majority, wore white
cotton gowns, often neatly embroidered, and white or black and white
striped lambas, thrown gracefully over their shoulders. The men were
clad also in cotton, white cotton pantaloons, cotton lambas, and straw
hats, with large black silk band. In the morning sun the play of colors
over the landscape was lovely. The dark green hills, studded with the
brilliant red brick houses of the inhabitants, whose white garments
dotted the lanes and foot-paths, contrasted with the brighter emerald of
the rice fields in the hollows. The soil everywhere is deep red, almost
magenta, in color, and where the roads or pathways cross the hills they
shine out as if so many paint-brushes had streaked the country in broad
red stripes. Above all, the spires of the strange city, set on top of
its mountain with a deep blue sky for a background, added to the beauty
of the scene.
"It was difficult to imagine that this peaceful country, with its pretty
cottages, its innumerable chapels, whose bells were then calling its
people to worship, and its troops of white-robed men and women answering
the summons, was the barbarous Madagascar of twenty years ago."
Mention of the form of government had by the Madagascar people and which
is now being superseded by occupancy of the French and the introduction
of laws of a civilized nation, may not be out of place. As far back as
tradition will carry, there existed in Madagascar a kind of feudalism.
Villages were usually built on the hilltops, and each hilltop had its
own chieftain, and these petty feudal chiefs were constantly waging war
with each other. The people living on these feudal estates paid taxes
and rendered certain services to their feudal lords. Each chief enjoyed
a semi-independence, for no strong over-lord existed. Attempts were made
from time to time to unite these petty chieftains into one Kingdom, but
no one tribe succeeded in making itself supreme till the days of Radam
I, who succeeded in bringing the whole of Imerina under his government,
and to his son, Radama, he left the task of subduing the rest of the
island. By allying himself closely with England, Radama obtained
military instruction and carried war into distant provinces. He
ultimately succeeded in conquering many of the tribes and his reign
marked the beginning of a new era in Madagascar. Indeed, only from his
days could Madagascar in any sense be regarded as a political unit.
In one direction, however, the results of Radama's policy must be
regarded as retrogressive. Before his reign no chief or king was
powerful enough to impose his rule upon the people without their
consent.
Opposition to rule, without the consent of the governed, has been the
shibboleth with which liberty has rallied the votaries of constitutional
government in all its reforms. It was the magna charter extorted from
King John at Runnymead--the trumpet call echoing and re-echoing by hill
and through valley in our Declaration of Independence. Before Radama,
although rude and primitive in form, it was the basic principle
cherished by the people of Madagascar. The principal men of each
district had to be constantly consulted and Kabary, or public assemblies
like the Greek or the Swiss Communal assemblies, were called for the
discussion of all important affairs, and public opinion had a fair
opportunity of making itself effective.
"A single tree does not make a forest, but the thoughts of many
constitute a government," is handed down by tradition as one of the
farewell sayings of their early kings, and is often quoted by the
people. This was the spirit that existed in "ye olden time," but after
Radama I. formed a large army and a military caste was created there was
a strong tendency to repress and minimize the influence of civilians in
public affairs, and men holding military rank have wielded the chief
authority.
It was ever thus; for while the chiefs of victorious legions are
received with strains of "conquering hero," have roses for a pathway
canopied with waving flag and triumphant banner, there is not wanting a
latent, reserved concern for the legitimate use of the franchise granted
and whether vaulting ambition may not destroy the sacred inheritance
they were commissioned to preserve. Military rank in Madagascar was
strangely reckoned by numbers. The highest officers being called men of
"sixteen honors," the men of twelve honors would be equal in rank to a
field marshal, the men of nine honors to a colonel, and the man of three
honors to a sergeant, and so on, through the whole series.
When any important government business had to be made known the men from
12 honors upward were summoned to the palace. Above all these officers
stood the Prime Minister. His Excellency Ramiloiarivony. The supreme
head of the state was the Mpanjaka, or sovereign, and every proclamation
was issued in her name and was generally countersigned and confirmed as
a genuine royal message by the Prime Minister. For three reigns, namely,
from the accession of Rasaherina in 1863, Mpanjaka had been a woman and
the wife of the Prime Minister. A general impression exists in England
that this is an old Madagascar custom, but such is not the case. The
arrangement is of quite recent date. The last Prime Minister (not being
of royal blood) was content to be Mpanjaka, or ruler, and while all
public honor was shown to the Queen, and her authority fully
acknowledged, those behind the scenes would have us believe that the
Queen was supreme only in name.
As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister, and even his supposed wishes
and preferences, were the most potent forces in Madagascar. No one
seemed able to exercise any independent influence, and time after time
the men who showed any special ability or gained popularity have been
removed, swept away as it were, out of the path of the man who had
assumed and by his ability and astuteness maintained for thirty years
the highest position in the country. There was, no doubt, a large amount
of latent rebellion against this "one-man government," but those who
were the most ready to grumble in private were in public, perhaps, the
most servile of any. It is conceded that in many ways the Prime Minister
was an able ruler, and compared with those who went before him was
deserving of great praise.
He made many attempts to prevent the corruption of justice, and
strenuously endeavored to improve the administration, and for many years
had managed to hold in check the ambitious projects of French statesmen,
and had shown at many times his interest in the cause of education.
But his monopoly as a ruler, the idea of omnipotent control, refusal to
allow his subordinates to take their share of responsibility, like many
similar instances which history records, loosened the bond of patriotic
interest, love and integrity for country, and made easy the ingress of
the French in subduing and appropriating the Island of Madagascar.
It has been stated that no account of Madagascar government would be
complete that did not include a description of their system of
"fanompoana," or forced service, which answers very nearly to the old
feudal service, and to the system known in Egypt as "corvee." The
tax-gatherer is not the ubiquitous person in Madagascar he is generally
supposed to have been.
There were a few taxes paid by the people, such, for example, as a small
tax in kind on the rice crop, and occasionally a small poll-tax, and
money paid the sovereigns as a token of allegiance on many occasions.
Taxes of this kind were not burdensome. The one burden that galled and
irritated the people was the liability to be called upon at any moment
to render unrequited service to the government.
[Illustration: HON. JOHN E. BUSH,
Receiver of United States Lands at Little Rock, Arkansas.
Former Principal of Public Schools of Little Rock--Clerk in Railway Mail
Service--Grand Scribe of "Mosaic Templars of America"--An Able and
Leading Republican of Arkansas.]
Every man had something that was regarded as "fanompoana." The people of
one district might be required to make mats for the government, in
another pots, the article required. From one district certain men were
required to bring crayfish to the capital, charcoal from another, iron
from another, and so on through all the series of wants. The jeweler
must make such articles as the Queen would desire, the tailor use his
needle and the writer his pen, as the government might need. The system
had in it some show of rough-and-ready justice, and was based on the
idea that each must contribute to the needs of the state according to
his several abilities; but in the actual working it had a most injurious
influence on the wellbeing of the country. Each man tried to avoid the
demands made upon him, and the art "how not to do it" was cultivated to
a very high degree of perfection. Many of the head men made this
"fanompoana" system a means of enriching themselves, compelling the
subordinates to serve them as well as the government. History does but
repeat itself, as there are not wanting instances in our own country
where certain heads of department "fanomponed" subordinates for private
service.
In many ways are recorded the product of the fertile brain of these head
men. For instance, the centurion, or head man of a certain district,
gave out a notice in the church yard, on Sunday morning, or at a
week-day market, that a hundred men would be required next morning to
carry charcoal for the government. As a matter of fact, he required only
twenty, but he knew that many would come to him to beg off, and as none
would come empty-handed, his profit on the transaction was considerable.
Another illustration was given Mr. Cousins by the British Consul. It was
customary to send up mails from the coast by government runners, but
English ideas being adverse to demanding unrequited service, the Consul
had always sent the usual wages for the runners to the Governor, who
pocketed the dollars and "fanomponed" the mail. But enough of this, as
it has a flavor of our "Star Route Mail" disclosures, which startled the
country some years ago, and conclude with a tribute to Tammany, as:
We arise to remark, and our language is plain,
That the Tweeds and the Crokers are of Malagash fame.