'O! distressed and sad are the many!'
'O! the plantation is overgrown with weeds!'
'O! scattered are the calves!'
'O! silent are the fields!'
'O! weeping are the children!'
Then those in the house answer again 'Haié!'
"Then the one outside the house again sings:—
'O gone away, gone away, is the gentle one!
Farewell, oh! farewell,'" &c. &c.[1]
The longest piece in Mr. Dahle's collection of songs is a kind of ballad in forty-four stanzas of three lines each. It relates the fortunes of an only son called Benandro, who would go off to the wars, notwithstanding the entreaties of his father and mother. Of course he at last overcomes their opposition, and goes away with a confidential slave, but soon comes to grief, for he is taken ill, dies on the road, and the slave has, according to native custom, to bring back his bones to his disconsolate parents, who are ready to die with sorrow at their loss. Although full of repetitions it has a swinging, almost rhythmical, flow, very like some of the old English ballads, as will be seen by a few specimen verses:—
1.Benandro a darling son,
Benandro a darling son,
Benandro a dearly loved one.
2.Then rose, say I, Benandro O!
Besought his mother!
Besought his father O!
3.O pray do let me go,
O pray do let me go;
For gone are all the young men, O!
12.Then answered back his father, O!
Then spake to him his mother,
"Stay here, O piece of my life.
13.The road you go is difficult.
Diseases dire will cut you off,
Stay here, do thou stay here.
14.The insects too are numerous,
The fever too is dangerous,
Stay here, O piece of my life."
- ↑ Antanànarìvo Annual, vol. i. p. 64.
