During the time the corpse is lying under the canopy, envoys come from every caste of the nobility and from every district of the country, accompanied by long trains of servants and slaves, to present tokens of condolence for themselves, and in the names of those by whom they are sent. Each of the envoys brings an offering of money, varying according to his own fortune, and the amount of popularity enjoyed by the deceased, from half a dollar to fifty or more. These presents are received by the nearest relation of the dead man, and are devoted to defraying the expenses of the burial, which often come to a great sum; for, besides the large number of simbus to be purchased, a great many oxen must be killed. All visitors and envoys stay until the day of the funeral, and are entertained, as well as their servants and slaves, at the expense of the heirs. When the funeral ceremonies extend over several weeks, and the number of the guests is large, it may be easily imagined that a goodly stock of provisions is consumed, especially as the people of Madagascar, masters and servants, are valiant trenchermen when they feed at the cost of another. Thus, at the death of the last commander of the army, the father of Prince Raharo, no fewer than 1500 oxen were slaughtered and eaten. But then this man had stood very high in the queen’s favor, and his funeral is recorded as the most splendid in the memory of man: he lay in state for three weeks, and young and old streamed in from the farthest corners of the kingdom to pay him the last honors.
With regard to the performances of the people of Madagascar as trenchermen, I have been told that four natives can eat up an ox in a space of twenty-four hours, and that after such a meal they go away as comfortable and light as if they had barely satisfied their hunger. I should be sorry, however, to vouch for the authenticity of this report to my readers. I have never witnessed such a feat; and, looking at the size of the oxen that are sacrificed upon such occasions, I should say that the estimate was undoubtedly exaggerated.
Voracious as the natives are (I can use no milder epithet) when an opportunity for gluttony occurs, they have, on the other hand, like the wild Indians, the power of enduring great privation with consummate patience, and will support themselves for weeks together on a little rice and a few thin slices of dried meat.
When the corpse is carried out of the house, a few slaughtered oxen must be laid at the door, and the bearers have to step over their bodies.
The period of lying in state, and of mourning generally, is fixed by the queen herself; for this marshal the former ceremony was fixed for four days, the latter for ten. If he had been a near relation of the queen—a brother or uncle—or one of her particular favorites, he could not have been buried under from ten to fourteen days, and the period of mourning would have extended to twenty or thirty days at least.
The body is prevented from becoming offensive by the number of simbus in which it is wrapped.
We did not follow the funeral procession, but saw it pass from Mr. Laborde’s house; its extent was very great, and it consisted of nobles, officers, women, mourning women, and slaves, in large numbers. From the highest to the lowest, all wore their hair loose as a token of mourning; and with this loosened hair they looked so particularly hideous—so horribly ugly—that I had never seen any thing like them among the ugliest races of India and America. The women especially, who let their hair grow longer than the men wear it, might indeed have passed for scarecrows or furies.
In the midst of the procession came the catafalque, borne by more than thirty men. Like the costumes at the court balls, so this catafalque had evidently been copied from some engraving, for its ornamentation was quite European in character, with this one difference, that the machine was hung with red and variegated silk stuffs instead of the customary black cloth. The marshal’s hat, with other insignia of rank and honor, were placed upon it, and on both sides marched slaves, with clappers to scare away the flies from the catafalque.
The corpse was conveyed thirty miles away to an estate of the deceased, to be burned there; the greater number of nobles and officers only escorted it for the first few miles, but many carried their politeness so far as to go the whole distance.
In all Madagascar there is no place exclusively set apart for the burial of the dead. Those who possess land are buried on their own estates; the poor are carried to some place that belongs to nobody, and are there frequently thrown under a bush, or put into any hollow, no one taking the trouble even to throw a little earth upon them.