woman said: "Look here, I will show you who has stolen it. Let each of you bring me a little piece of wood." This being done, she cut all the pieces exactly the same length, gave them back to the people, and said: "After a little while, you must all bring me your pieces, and you will see that the one belonging to the thief will have become a little longer than the rest." But when they brought their pieces, lo! one of them had become a little shorter than the rest; for the man who was conscious of being guilty had thought it best to secure himself by cutting off a little of his piece, which was exactly what the sly old woman had calculated would take place. So the thief was found out. This was smartly done, but it can hardly be a common practice, for, if so, it would become known, and consequently be useless.[1] For ordinary cases of this kind the Ati-pàko, so much in use here, would work better.
The Ati-pàko, here mentioned by Mr. Dahle, is thus described in the Malagasy-English Dictionary: "A mode of recovering stolen property without detecting the thief; all the servants or employees are required to bring something, as a small bundle of grass, etc., and to put it into a general heap. This affords an opportunity to the thief of secretly returning the thing stolen."
VII.—We now come to the last division of our subject, viz., that of Vintana and San-andro, or, as Mr. Dahle thinks this section might be termed, (1) Zodiacal and Lunary Vìntana, and (2) Planetary Vìntana.
A.—What, then, is vìntana? If a man was ill, people often said, "Perhaps the vìntana of his son is too strong for him, or he has become subject to some misfortune," so they said, "Vìntany izàny angàha" ("Perhaps that is his víntana"). Or perhaps he was perpetually unsuccessful in business, and they said, "Olona ràtsy vìntana izcàny" ("That
- ↑ A similar practice is found among Oriental peoples; see an exactly parallel account to the above in Rev. Dr. Thomson's The Land and the Book, 1883 ed., p. 153.
