THE ORATORY, SONGS, LEGENDS, AND FOLK-TALES OF THE MALAGASY.
By the Rev. James Sibree, Junior.
(Continued from page 11.)
CHAPTER IV.
Children's Games.
HE next division of our text-book treats of Children's Games, "Lalaon' ny Ankizy," and as these are not without interest as illustrations of national habits and ideas, a few extracts may be given. There is a short introduction, evidently from a native source, describing the way in which Malagasy children play:—Two or three joining together go to fetch their companions, the parents saying, "Go and play, for here are your friends calling you, for it is bright moonlight" (lit. "moonlight (is) the day"). And so they all go on to other houses until a number are assembled, and they choose some spacious piece of ground. All having come together, they find out who of their companions are absent, two or three, or more, who are lazy and won't come, and these they make fun of, singing out, "Those who won't play because all their thoughts are about eating, friends of the iron cooking-pot; take care you don't choke with a little bit of skin." Those indoors hearing this, answer, "That's all very fine; you see our fat fowls, and so say, 'Come and play.'" (These children who don't play are often still killing fowls or geese, or cooking their share, the gizzards and livers, and feet and heads.) So when they go out, either that evening or on the following day, they are saluted with shouts of "Stuffed with gravy, Ikalovy! Stuffed with gravy, Ikalovy!" and also, "Keep by yourselves like lepers, O!"
The first play on the list is called Rasarìndra, the meaning of which word is not very clear, but the game seems very like the common game of English children called "Fox and Geese."
