to procure a prophylactic against them. In other forms of this miscellaneous sikìdy the object aimed at was to find times and directions when and where something was to be found, or was to take place.
A.—Ody bàsy (charms against guns).—These must be of comparatively recent origin, as guns have not been known in Madagascar for more than three centuries, but it is probable, from certain formulæ still made use of, that they were anciently spear-charms. The following were the rules for obtaining such charms:—
1. Such a sikìdy must invariably be worked on the last one of the two days of each month which took their names from the month Adàlo, because the object of the charm was to make the musket ball (or spear) mandàlo (i.e., pass by, without hitting) the person for whom the sikìdy was made. (Here was an instance of a kind of homoeopathic principle, of which Malagasy folk-lore and plant-lore and charms present innumerable examples.)
2. The rules for erecting this sikìdy were very elaborate, as the great object was to get one in which the figure Aditsima ((
symbol characters)) occurred in the column Andrìamànitra (God), and in no other column. If this did not happen, the diviner had to erect the sikìdy anew over and over again until it did occur. And as he must have seven such sikìdy, it must have taken a very long time before the business was finished, if the arrangement was left to haphazard. But a good diviner was of course supposed to be inspired, and then he may have hit upon it at once.
3. The seven beans were put into the object (in many parts of the island, a piece of bullock's horn) to be used as a charm, and this was worn on some part of the person, often bound round the temples. Mr. Dahle believes the word Aditsimà to be a corruption of the Arabic al-himà, "the protected one"; and so possibly means "protection from God", reminding him of the Arabic saying: "Nobody is infallibly protected except God and His prophet" (i.e., Mohammed).
