Itrìmobé saw it he was startled, and said, "O dear, Rafara! Is this Indésoka, or some other child?" Then Rafara replied, "You have eaten Indésoka, for this is my sister's child."
And after some time Itrìmobé said, "O Rafara! come here and dress my hair."[1] So Rafara replied, "Come here, then, if you want it done." Then she dressed his hair, doing it near the middle roof post of the house.[2] So Rafara worked away diligently, for Itrìmobé had very long hair. And when his hair was completely plaited, Rafara took each large lock and tied it firmly to the roof-post. Then Itrìmobé spoke, for it hurt his head, and said, "Don't plait it too tightly." Rafara replied, "Bear it a little longer, for your hair is just finished." (But at the same time she fastened it more tightly still.) And when the whole had been firmly tied, Rafara spoke and said, "You fellow, Itrìmobé, you have killed my daughter, so I will not let you go until your life is gone." Then Itrìmobé struggled hard to escape, but was unable, so Rafara took the knife with which Itrìmobé had cut up Indésoka and plunged it into Itrìmobé, so that he died. Then Rafara also cleared his bones of the flesh, and pounded it, and added salt, and sent some to all Itrìmobé's relatives, and, as they knew nothing about it, they ate it. Then Rafara said, "You have eaten the bones of Itrìmobé, who was your relative, for they were flavoured with salt, and became savoury, and therefore you swallowed them." And when his relatives heard that, they mourned and wept; but some of them would not believe that of Itrìmobé, for they said, "Itrìmobé cannot be killed by man;" but they knew not that Rafara had fastened him to the roof-post, and had thus killed him.
And after Itrìmobé was dead Rafara and Indésoka inherited all his possessions, both in the land and in the town; for is not that the custom? (And thus, so goes the story, Itrìmobé met his death. We children who live did not know him, so that if there is any fiction in the story it was the people of old time who told lies.)
- ↑ Except the military class among the Hova Malagasy, all the different peoples of the island, men as well as women, have their hair arranged in a great number of little plaits, so that hair dressing is an operation requiring a considerable expenditure of time.
- ↑ Malagasy houses in the central provinces have their roofs supported chiefly by three tall posts reaching to the ridge, one at each end of the house, and the third in the centre.
