Thirdly, the pieces of the enemy may be captured by a retreat as well as by an advance. A piece that has been standing in a station adjoining to some piece or pieces of the enemy may capture it or them by retreating one point along that line, if such point happen to be vacant. The limitation defined immediately above applies in this case also.
Fourthly, at the beginning of a game one move only is permitted to the first side. After that side has moved once, any piece that is moved is permitted to run amuck in the enemy’s lines, and go on as long as he finds foes to capture, provided (_a_) that he does not return immediately to any point he has just left, and (_b_) he cannot take a foe behind him immediately after taking one in front of him, nor one on his right hand immediately after taking on his left hand, and _vice versâ_. ‘Don’t eat at both ends, like a leech,’ says the Malagasy proverb.
Let us suppose that White is going to move first at the commencement of a game. There is only one vacant point on the board into which he can move a piece, namely, the _foibeny_ or central point, which we may term C5, as it is the fifth point of the third line. There are four white pieces, any one of which may be moved into the vacant post, those on C4, D4, D5, D6. If he advances D5 to C5, then he immediately captures Black’s pieces on B5 and A5. Black may now retaliate by withdrawing his piece on B6 to A5, thereby capturing White’s pieces on C7, D8, E9. White may now, in any one of several ways, inflict a series of severe strokes on the unfortunate Black. Thus, for example:
D6, to C7, taking B8, A9; then „ B6, „ A5; „ B5, „ B4, B3, B2, B1.
Now the White piece must stop awhile, for although the Black piece at B7 is under his range, yet in taking it he would be transgressing the two laws mentioned above. He would have to return to B6, which he has just quitted, and he would be ‘eating at both ends like a leech,’ which is improper. But the Black piece on B7 may now very properly provide for his own safety and circumvent his assailant by advancing thus:
B7, to C7, taking D7, E7; then „ D6, „ E5; then „ D5, „ D4, D3, D2, D1; then „ E5, „ C5, B5.
These moves are not given as examples of what the Malagasy would consider good play, but simply to show the _modus operandi_ of the game.