Excerpt from The Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, 1893, Vol. 5: A Record of Information on the Topography and Natural Productions of Madagascar, and the Customs, Traditions, Language, and Religious Beliefs of Its People; No. XVII-Christmas (Part I)

Perhaps my experience has been exceptional and unfortunate average village life may not be so faulty as it has seemed to me, and something may be due to morbid perceptions in the Observer. I Sincerely hope it may be so.

In order to secure as clear an arrangement of the subject as possible, the matter will be thrown under two main divisions, namely, Domestic Relations, and Social Conditions.

I. - domestic relations. The romance of Malagasy courtship in an almost invisible quantity. Many unnatural mothers, for reasons known to themselves, encourage their children in immorality from a early age; thus the bloom of innocence is destroyed, and many are doomed to disease and childlessness. Also, it is common for young couples to cohabit previous to marriage, in order, it is said, to test compatibility of temper and constitution. At the end of six months or a year, the man sometimes comes to the unreasonable conclusion that there is not sufficient ground of agreement, and seeks some one more to his fancy. Many Malagasy daughters are subject ed to this treatment: they go on trial with the prospect of marriage, but with the understood possibility of rejection. Others again, to preserve more semblance of respectability, conform to the old marriage custom, which is, however, no longer binding, and thus evade the element of permanence in their union. One damsel, by this provisional and contingent arrangement, has been led to seven successive homes.

The parties most closely concerned are generally allowed no option in the matter. Their partners for life are arbitrarily Chosen by the parents and kinsfolk, and the contract is often made While they are mere children. The main consideration is to keep family property intact, for which reason near relations most frequently intermarry. Should there be no one in any wise eligible, the daughter is made over to the most wealthy suitor, irrespective of age, character or appearance. Hence there are found some most incongruous matches. Personal predilections or previous attachments are overruled and ignored. A woman on her deathbed directed her husband, who was overfifty years of age, to wed his granddaughter (by marriage), A girl of fifteen, the motive being to prevent the property becom ing separated.

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