Oh little children, O!
Oh little children, O!
Cross over all of you,
For on return of this
Sunday will be here,
And I shall rise up then.
After a little pause they all speak, saying: "Granny pressed me (or appeared to me) that she'll be alive" (again). Waiting a little longer still, they say, "The time's come." Then granny gets up, and they pat her with their hands, saying:
Pétapétaka Inénibé,
Pétapétaka Inénibé.
Then they all rejoice very much, dancing and beating their breasts, and singing and making a loud humming noise, with these words:
Kodònga Rambìta,[1]
Kodongo-dàhy;
Kodonga Rambita,
Kodongo-dahy!
The annual festival of the Fandròana or Bathing, at the new year, is a time of great rejoicing among the Malagasy, or, more strictly speaking, among the Hova in the central provinces. On the day when bullocks are killed, the children in Antanànarìvo assemble in great numbers in Imàhamàsina, a large plain below the city to the west, and at Isòanieràna, to the south-west. They all put on clean lambas and dresses, wearing earrings and necklaces, and some being carried in palanquins. They carry with them fruit of different kinds, and small plates, bottles, glasses, and baskets, and go along singing until they come to the places just mentioned. Arrived at Imàhamàsina each party places the fruit on the plates, and fills the glasses with water; one division then calls out:
May we enter, ladies?
The others reply:
Pray walk in, ladies.
Certainly, ladies.
We bring you a little feast.
May you live long, ladies, in good health;
Yes, may God bless us all, ladies;
and so on, imitating the formal and polite speeches of their elders when paying visits. Then having eaten the fruit they sing and dance, during the afternoon singing a number of songs, whose titles only are
- ↑ Many of the words in these games are really untranslatable, as they have no equivalent in English.
