 Upon arrival they encountered several other Malagasy ethnic groups including the Zafiraminia, who also traced their origins back to Mecca by way of East Africa, although some scholars suggest that the origins of the Zafiraminia was in Sumatra and who had developed a high status among Malagasy communities for the knowledge and technology they had carried with them from overseas, and who had the prerogative of practicing ritual animal sacrifice for the ancestors ("sombili"), a highly powerful and important rite among Malagasy communities.Oral and written historical traditions of the Antemoro describe their desire to secure marriages between the two communities, but these efforts were rejected by the Zafiraminia.A conflict developed between the two groups for supremacy, which the oral histories of other Malagasy groups describe as a battle between two giants.