a ship, and am going to inquire about its coming by means of the sikìdy, the column Harèna (or property) will of course represent it. If in this column I find, for instance, the figure Jamà ((
symbol characters)), and on further examination find the same figure in the column Tràno (house), this gives me no answer, as there is no natural connection between the two conceptions. If, on the contrary, I find the same figure in the column called Làlana (road), then of course I know that the ship is at any rate on the way. I have then got an answer to the chief question; but there may still be good reasons for a sharp look-out, for there may be difficulties in its way. Suppose that I also find the same figure in the column named Fàhavàlo (enemy), my mind will immediately be filled with gloomy apprehensions of pirates! Not a bit more cheerful will be my prospects if I find the same figure under Ra bé mandriaka (much bloodshed). But what a consolation, on the other hand, if the same figure reappears in the column Nìa (food); for then I must certainly be a blockhead if I do not understand that, although the ship may have a long voyage, there is no scarcity of food on board; and so on. It is easy enough to see that a man with much practice and a good deal of imagination could produce much 'information' in this manner; and I suppose that in a good many cases the mpisikìdy were able to find an answer already in this first act of their proceedings, even if the means of finding it might seem scanty enough to ordinary mortals."
But there is much more still that may be done; for, besides the answers available from the fact of the identity of the figure representing the question with one or more of those in the other columns, it is of great importance to find out whether any two or more of the other figures are alike, and in how many columns the same figure occurs in a sikìdy. The detailed particulars given by Mr. Dahle on this point may be put for the sake of brevity into a tabular form:
