It likewise frequently happens that men who have no children by their own wives marry girls who expect to become mothers, so that they may be able to call the child that is about to be born their own. This craving for progeny is caused by an existing law, which declares the property of any man who dies childless forfeit to the state.
To speak of domestic ties in such a state of society would sound like mockery; and if I had not noticed in my host, on several occasions, a rare amount of real feeling, I should have attached little credence to his words.
I had a good deal of conversation with him, and asked him farther if he did not feel any craving for intellectual companionship--for the agreeable domestic relations found in Europe; if it did not seem hard to him to live continually among coarse, uncultivated men? He acknowledged that the total want of cultivation among his countrymen rendered their society any thing but agreeable to him, but that he sought relaxation in books and study. He mentioned to me several very good works which he had brought with him from France.
I felt truly sorry for this young man. I will not assert that he showed any extraordinary amount of quickness or depth of intellect, but he has an adequate amount of talent, and so much real sensibility and feeling that he could not fail to gain friends in any country in the world. I pity him; for, amid this complete dearth of congenial society, it will be wonderful indeed if he does not become a true Malagasey at last.
I remained with Mr. Ferdinand Diche--for so my host was called--for a whole day. The weather continued so bad that I could neither walk out nor occupy myself in hunting for insects. On the following day I returned to Tamatavé.
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.--Ambatoarana.
At 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.