During the time that the epidemic was at its worst, 12 ounces of quinine were disposed of in six months, and we lost only one patient by death in our village. Thus a victory was gained for our medicines and mode of treatment of the sick, while a heavy blow was dealt at the native nostrums and absurd methods of treatment. Many of these poor sufferers were in a state of delirium. This the Malagasy know as _miàrahàba ny akòho_, i. e. saluting the fowls. The Malagasy are very polite. If they meet a superior, or if he enters their hut, he is saluted with: _Tsàra và tòmpokò è?_ i. e. ‘Is it well with you, my lord?’ While lying ill with fever, the fowls would find their way into their huts, and hearing the pattering of their feet on the mats, the sick would imagine, in their delirium, that these fowls were their superiors come to visit them, and would salute in the usual way: ‘Is it well with you, my lord?’ Hence one in bad fever delirium was said to be saluting the fowls. The state of emaciation in which some were brought to us was terrible. Their faces wore a hue between green and grey; the white of the eyes was a greenish yellow, and imparted a hideous aspect to them. The spleen was generally very much enlarged. They were brought in all states and conditions, and sorely taxed my limited medical knowledge, as they taxed my sympathies. Poor miserable slaves--more like skeletons encased in leather than human beings--came begging for quinine. They had no money to buy it, nor would their masters give them any; but I could not refuse them medicine. My wife and I both suffered severely from the fever, which left us very limp and shattered in health; but we felt thankful that our children escaped as they did. As soon as we were able to travel, we went to the hills for a month, which braced us up again. During my absence the ritualists made another attempt to get a footing in the district; but they failed. By throwing the burden of keeping the teachers they wished to send out of the district upon the natives themselves, I so put them on their mettle that they were more anxious than even I was to keep them at a distance.