“On this auspicious day nothing is seen throughout the whole country but feasting, dancing, singing, and rejoicing, which is continued till late at night. The celebration is kept up for eight days dating from the day of the bath. It is the custom of the people to kill as many oxen on that day as they contemplate consuming during the other seven; whoever possesses any oxen at all kills at least one at this feast. The poor people get pieces of meat in exchange for rice, sweet potatoes, tobacco, etc. The meat is still tolerably fresh on the eighth day. It is cut into long thin strips, which are salted and laid one on the other. The preliminary celebration of the feast occurs a week earlier and consists of military processions. The votaries of pleasure then begin their feast and thus have a fortnight’s jollity--a week before the feast and a week after. “The soldiers whom I saw in the procession pleased me well enough. They went through their manœuvres with tolerable accuracy, and, contrary to my expectation, I found the music not only endurable but positively harmonious. It appears that some years ago the queen sent for an European band-master and a complete set of instruments; and her worthy subjects were inducted into a knowledge of music probably by means of a stick. The soldiers were dressed in a simple, neat, and perfectly uniform manner. They wore a tight-fitting jerkin reaching to the chest and covering part of their loins. The chest was bare and covered by the gleaming white belts supporting the cartridge-box, which had a good effect in contrast to the black skins of the soldiers. Their heads are uncovered. Their arms consisted of a musket and the national lance called _sagaya_.” According to the same authority, however, satisfactory as is the appearance of the Malagasey soldier, his lot is a very hard one. He receives no pay, and even his regimentals must be provided out of his own scanty means. To meet these expenses he is obliged, if he is a craftsman, to beg so much leave each day of his superior; or, if farm work be his avocation, he on certain days of the week abandons the barrack for the plough. The soldier, however, says Mrs. Pfieffer, who would obtain enough leave of absence to enable him to maintain himself in anything like comfort, must propitiate his captain by giving him part of his earnings. The officers are generally very little richer than the soldiers. They certainly receive, like the civil officials, a remuneration for their services from the customs’ revenues; but the pay is so small that they cannot live upon it, and are compelled to have recourse to other means, not always of the most honest description. According to the law a very small portion of the customs’ revenue should come to the common soldier; but so insignificant is the amount that neither common soldiers nor officers think it worth while to make any fuss about it.