Our introduction at court took place on the 2d of June.
Toward four o’clock in the afternoon our bearers carried us to the palace. Over the door is fixed a great gilt eagle with extended wings. According to the rule laid down here by etiquette, we stepped over the threshold first with the right foot, and observed the same ceremony on coming to a second gate leading to a great court-yard in front of the palace. Here we saw the queen sitting on a balcony on the first story, and were directed to stand in a row in the court-yard opposite to her. Under the balcony stood some soldiers, who went through sundry evolutions, concluding with a very comic point of drill, which consisted in suddenly poking up the right foot as if it had been stung by a tarantula.
The queen was wrapped, according to the custom of the country, in a wide silk simbu, and wore on her head a big golden crown. Though she sat in the shade, a very large umbrella of crimson silk was held up over her head; this being, it appears, a point of regal state.
The queen is of rather dark complexion, strong and sturdily built, and, though already seventy-five years of age, she is, to the misfortune of her poor country, still hale and of active mind. At one time she is said to have been a great drunkard, but she has given up that fatal propensity some years ago.
To the right of the queen stood her son, Prince Rakoto, and on the left her adopted son, Prince Ramboasalama; behind her sat and stood sundry nephews and nieces, and other relatives, male and female, and several grandees of the empire.
The minister who had conducted us to the palace made a short speech to the queen, after which we had to bow three times, and to repeat the words “Esaratsara tombokoe,” equivalent to “We salute you cordially;” to which she replied, “Esaratsara,” which means “Well—good!” Then we turned to the left to salute the tomb of King Radama, lying a few paces on one side, with three similar bows, whereupon we returned to our former place in front of the balcony and made three more. Mr. Lambert, on this occasion, held up a gold piece of fifty francs’ value, and put it in the hands of the minister who accompanied us. This gift, which every stranger has to offer when he is presented for the first time at court, is called “Monosina.” It is not necessary that it should consist of a fifty-franc piece; the queen contents herself with a Spanish dollar or a five-franc piece. Mr. Lambert had, however, already given fifty francs on the occasion of the “sambas-sambas.”
After the delivery of the gold piece, the queen asked Mr. Lambert if he wished to put any question to her, or if he stood in need of any thing; to which he answered “No.” She was also condescending enough to turn to me, and ask if I was well, and if I had escaped the fever.[B] After I had answered this question, we staid a few minutes longer looking at each other, when the bowings and greetings began anew. We had to take leave of Radama’s monument, and on retiring were again reminded not on any account to put the left foot first over the threshold.
Such is the way in which the proud Queen of Madagascar grants audiences to strangers. She considers herself far too high and exalted to let them come near her at the first interview. Those who have the great good fortune to win her especial favor may afterward be introduced into the palace itself; but this is never achieved at a first audience.
The royal palace is a very large wooden building, consisting of a ground floor and two stories, surmounted by a peculiarly high roof. The stories are surrounded by broad galleries. Around the building are pillars also of wood, eighty feet high, supporting the roof, which rises to a height of forty feet above them, resting in the centre on a pillar no less than a hundred and twenty feet high. All these columns, the one in the centre not excepted, consist of a single trunk; and when it is considered that the woods which contain trees of a sufficient size to furnish these columns are fifty or sixty English miles from the capital, that the roads are nowhere paved, and in some places quite impassable, and that all the pillars are dragged hither without the help of a single beast of burden, or any kind of machine, and are afterward prepared and set up by means of the simplest tools, the building of this palace may with truth be called a gigantic undertaking, and the place itself be ranked among the wonders of the world. In bringing home the chief pillar alone, five thousand persons were employed, and twelve days were occupied in its erection.
All these labors were performed by the people as compulsory service, for which they received neither wages nor food. I was told that during the progress of the work fifteen thousand people fell victims to the hard toil and the want of proper nourishment. But the queen is very little disturbed by such a circumstance; half the population might perish, if only her high behests are fulfilled.