The villages of Anossi are uninclosed, in order, ac cording to the natives, to escape more easily from an assailing enemy : but it has with more probab;lity been ascribed to indolence. While the men are at war, the women and 'children dance day and night incessant1), and abstain from eating and sleeping in their huts. The women believe that their dancing inspires their absent husbands with courage, and brings them success ; they likewise believe that their own infidelity during that pe riod would occasion their injury or destruction. When one of two belligerent chiefs desires peace, an envoy is sent, and a meeting takes place, at which a bull is kill ed by each ; a portion of the liver, mutually interchang ed, is then ate, with many protestations of pacific in tentions.
Polygamy is general among the inhabitants of Anossi, who are not restricted in the number of their wives. It is common to procure abortions ; and many mothers are accessary to infanticide. Should a child be born on an unlucky day, or should one of their sorcerers predict evil, it is carried to a distance from the hut or village, and exposed to die of hunger, or be devoured by beasts. If an unmarried slave is apprehensive of being neglect ed by her master, she will, without remorse, throw her new-born babe into a river.
Among these people chastity is no virtue. The wo men, before marriage, prostitute themselves indiscri minately, and from early youth ; and it frequently hap pens that they refuse to marry men who are strange to them. Adultery among married persons is not uncom mon ; and though in some cases it may be severely punished, it is more generally overlooked, and kept secret.
Children are circumcised with many ceremonies, such as their parents carrying them in procession into a house by a door on the east, and departing by one on the west, sacrificing oxen, and great rejoicings.
When one of their chiefs dies, he is interred with much lamentation ; should it be at a distance from his own country, his head is cut off and carried home : if killed in war, he is buried in the same spot ; but at the arrival of peace, his body is dug up, and transported to the cemetery of his ancestors.
There is little indication of any regular system of re ligion among the natives of Anossi. They acknowledge a good and an evil spirit, to which they offer sacrifices, to avert danger, or when they have had any extraordi nary dream, inspiring them with apprehensions ; but such sacrifices are said to be rather a pretext for feast ing. They practise various superstitious rites ; and throw white rods at their enemies, or eggs laid on Fri day, which they conceive to be endowed with some ne cromantic property. There is one class called the Om BRASSES, who are venerated amongst them. These are
the mazabous of other uncivilized nations, who unite the character of priesthood, so far as it is recognised, with the practice of sorcery and physic ; and from the various impostures which the credulity of the ignorant enables them to support, they have gained a powerful ascen dancy over their minds. The sick consult them in hopes of cure ; great enterprises are never undertaken, with out their previous approbation ; and they are supposed to be infallible in predicting future events. They are the only persons who can read and write Arabic ; of which language they have several books. From all that is to be collected of the manners and customs of the in habitants of Anossi, it appears that they are still in a very imperfect degree of civilization, that much inter course with Europeans is required ; and that a long period must elapse before their superstitions can be era dicated, and the arts make any material progress among them.
Very little is known of the earlier history of the pro vince. The Zafferamini are supposed to have come to Madagascar in the latter end of the fifteenth century ; and they themselves suppose that they came from the sandy plains of Mecca. But it is disputed, whether any customs, peculiar to Mahometans only, arc now to be found among them. Before they were conquered by the French, they were ruled by a prince or chief, whom they reverenced almost as a divinity. During his father's life, he was carried off to Goa by the Por tuguese, and there baptized ; and he learned to read and write in the European character. But immediately on his return he abjured Christianity, and embraced the customs of his own country. He was at length killed by the French, in an attack on the village of Fanzerc.
In the year 1642, M. Ricault, a captain in the French marines, having obtained from Cardinal Riche lieu the exclusive privilege of colonising Madagascar, and trading with the adjacent islands ; a vessel was sent out with two superintendants, M. Prouis and M. Fouc quembourg, who established themselves at Manghafia, in the province of Anossi, 24' 30' S. Lat. Soon after wards, an experienced officer, Rezimont, brought out a reinforcement of Frenchmen ; but Manghafia proving an unhealthy place, most of them died in a month, and the settlement was removed to the bay of Fliolangazen. There Fort Dauphin was built, which is of a long square shape, surrounded by walls of sand and flint, and cover ed with strong cement. Its situation was chosen from the goodness of the anchorage in the neighbouring bay, and from its strong position, being 150 feet above the level of the road, which it commands in all direc tions.