ake held over a chief is as nothing compared to the
wake held over a hyaena; one tribe only mourns the death of its chief,
but all the tribes unite to celebrate the obsequies of a hyaena.
(Charles New, "Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa" (London,
1873) page 122.) Some Malagasy families claim to be descended from the
babacoote (Lichanotus brevicaudatus), a large lemur of grave appearance
and staid demeanour, which lives in the depth of the forest. When
they find one of these creatures dead, his human descendants bury it
solemnly, digging a grave for it, wrapping it in a shroud, and weeping
and lamenting over its carcase. A doctor who had shot a babacoote was
accused by the inhabitants of a Betsimisaraka village of having
killed "one of their grandfathers in the forest," and to appease their
indignation he had to promise not to skin the animal in the village
but in a solitary place where nobody could see him. (Father Abinal,
"Croyances fabuleuses des Malgaches", "Les Missions Catholiques", XII.
(1880), page 526; G.H. Smith, "Some Betsimisaraka superstitions", "The
Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine", No. 10 (Antananarivo,
1886), page 239; H.W. Little, "Madagascar, its History and People"
(London, 1884), pages 321 sq; A. van Gennep, "Tabou et Totemisme a
Madagascar" (Paris, 1904), pages 214 sqq.) Many of the Betsimisaraka
believe that the curious nocturnal animal called the aye-aye (Cheiromys
madagascariensis) "is the embodiment of their forefathers, and hence
will not touch it, much less do it an injury. It is said that when one
is discovered dead in the forest, these people make a tomb for it and
bury it with all the forms of a funeral. They think that if they attempt
to entrap it, they will surely die in consequence." (G.A. Shaw, "The
Aye-aye", "Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine", Vol. II.
(Antananarivo, 1896), pages 201, 203 (Reprint of the Second four
Numbers). Compare A. van Gennep, "Tabou et Totemisme a Madagascar",
pages 223 sq.) Some Malagasy tribes believe themselves descended from
crocodiles and accordingly they deem the formidable reptiles their
brothers. If one of these scaly brothers so far forgets the ties of
kinship as to devour a man, the chief of the tribe, or in his absence
an old man familiar with the tribal customs, repairs at the head of the
people to the edge of the water, and summons the family of the culprit
to deliver him up to the arm of justice. A hook is then bait