oe oM its 5~ - ae oe eee, Serer yes ewe ee 5 ‘ fae ard, ; Rte Ss ‘ erat morta Mira ‘ Tey - - 7 8 LASS 72 nm aves, ae * H. A. Junod, 7he Life of a South 4E. W. Smith and (Ay Mi abales African Tribe, ii, 296; td., Les Ba- The lla-speaking Peoples of Northern Ronga, p. 418, Khodesia (London, 1920), ii. 197 Seg. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA _ 157 Another name. given to Leza is “ The’ Faller ’, ‘with reference to the fall of rain. For of all the functions dis- charged by Leza, that of bestowing rain on the earth is apparently the most important. Hence in popular speech Leza is identified with the rain and with its common accompaniments, thunder and lightning. Instead of saying, “It rains”, they say, “ Leza. falls”; instead of sayitig, “ It lightens”, they say, ‘‘Leza is fierce”; instead of saying, “Tt thunders ”, they say, “ Leza is making the reverberating sound, d@t-ndt-ndi”, or “Leza is beating his rugs”. -che men) said,“ Alas |) “The. dog was before you.” They beat the dog and drove it away.* On this story Father Hamberger remarks that it is universally known among the natives and is often told by 1A. Hamberger, of. ct. p. 304. 2 A. Hamberger, of, cz. p. 304. I have reported this story elsewhere 3 For examples see above, pp. 173, (Folk-lore in the Old Testament, i. 174, and below, p. 201. 332). 4 A, Hamberger, of. czt. p. 300. Mgr. Lechaptois on Ngulwi (Nguluwi), the Supreme Being of the Wakulwe. 196 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. them in a shorter form. Further he tells us that, in accord- ance with the native habit of leaving unsaid much that they regard as too obvious to require mention, we must under- Stand it to have been the will of Nguluwi, that is of God, that men should give the meat to the sheep, as indeed they did in the first instance, instead of to the dog. If only they had done so, it is plain that the sheep would have swallowed the meat before the dog could have masticated the bone, and that, having bolted it, the sheep would have delivered the glad tidings of resurrection before the dog could have announced his doom of death. Hence we should all have been immortal, or, what comes to much the same thing, we should all have risen from the dead down to this day. Thus the benevolent intention of the deity towards his creatures is again triumphantly vindicated. It was not his fault that men gave the meat to the dog instead of to the sheep. Understood in this way, the story is clearly nothing but a variation on the story of the Two Messengers, which so many African tribes tell to explain the origin of human mortality. In that widespread tradition the purpose of the Creator to bestow immortality on mankind is always frustrated by the mistake or misconduct of the messenger who is charged with the good news of life eternal. In the Konde and Calabar versions of the tale cited above the two messengers are, as in the Wakulwe version, a dog and a sheep; but in them, the parts of the messengers are inverted, the dog being the herald of resurrection, while the sheep announces the sentence of death irretrievable.’ Father Hamberger’s account of Nguluwi, the Supreme Being of the Wakulwe, is confirmed by the testimony of a French Catholic Missionary, Monseigneur Lechaptois, who lived and worked among the tribes of the south-western corner of Tanganyika Territory (German East Africa). He tells us that in Mkulwe, that is, the country of the Wakulwe, the Creator and Supreme Being is known as Negulwi (Vgoulouz) He is sovereignly good and has for his ministers Katavi and Mwawa, two incorporeal spirits who fly in the air. The first of them (Katavi) appears to preside over the rewards, and the second (Mwawa) 1 See above, pp. 192 sg. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 197 over the punishments respectively bestowed or inflicted on souls in the other world.’ In this account Mwawa is clearly identical with the spirit of the same name whom Father Hamberger equates with Satan; and with regard to Katavi, we must conclude that he is no other than Katai, who, according to Father Hamberger, is merely Mwawa himself under another name.” Further, Monseigneur Lechaptois informs us that in Various Nyasaland, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, and inj" fe Urungu, which is the country at the south-western corner of Supreme Lake Tanganyika, the name for the Supreme Being is Leza. re a He it is who has made all things, and who gives life to the Katema child in its mother’s womb. It is to him that men go ae when they die. In Ugala he receives the same name as the and Ilanzi. sun, namely Katema. The Wagala say that he pays little heed to men, but that he kills those at whom he is angry.” In Rukwa and Ufipa (the land of the Wafipa) the usual name of the Supreme God is Leza; but according to the tradition of the natives this name was introduced among them by the Warungu. The true name of the Sovereign Creator in the native language is said to be Ilanzi, which means the sun. In the morning when they woke, people used to say, “Ilanzi has kept me during the night”; and when some one died, they said, “Ilanzi has taken him away ”. But among all these tribes, situated at or near the The southern end of Lake Tanganyika, whether he be called Leza, erry. or Ilanzi, or Nguluwi, or Katema, this Supreme God is said in the sky to enter very little into the everyday life of the people. He se taper) inhabits the sky, where he is supremely happy ; and it seems himself that he cannot stoop so low as to interest himself in the pees a mriltifarious needs of his. creatures. “Hence they in their The lower turn deem it useless to pay him any particular homage eee or to address any prayers to him. But below this great uate deity they admit the existence of a multitude of inferior including the souls 1 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux Rives du mission of Mkulwe (St. Boniface). of thedead, Tanganika (Algiers, 1913), p. 165. 2 A. Hamberger, of. czt. p. 305. one a Both Monseigneur Lechaptois and 3 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux rives du i a Father Hamberger belong to the Order Tanganika, p. 165. eral of the White Fathers. Father Ham- 4 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux rives du berger is, or was, head of the Catholic Zanganzka, pp. 165 sq. Rich mythology of these tribes, 198 WORSHTIP\OL, DAE ISIN APARLCA CHAP. divinities, who rule the world, some of them dispensing all the comforts and blessings, others inflicting all the calamities and woes that affect for good or evil the life of man. It is to these lower divinities, the dread of whom is deeply implanted in the native mind, that all the offerings and prayers of the people are addressed. The name for these lesser deities varies with the dialect of the tribe; in one they are called mzz¢mu, in another mzyao or mtgabo, in another amalesa. This last name, which is current especially among the Warungu and Wafipa, would literally mean “Sons of Leza”; but the natives use the terms father and son in too wide and loose a sense to allow us to draw any precise conclusions from the name amaleza.2 Whatever be the exact essence of these minor deities, they seem to be all subject to the infirmities of human nature. Like men they are apt to be weary and to suffer from hunger and thirst. Hence people erect little huts where the spirits may rest from the fatigue of scouring the air, and where they may refresh themselves with the victuals which are deposited in the tiny huts for their consumption. The spirits of the human dead also roam about the villages where they dwelt in life, and they still take a kindly interest in the affairs of their living kinsfolk. Hence for them, too, little shelters are put up near their old homes, and there the survivors scatter flour, pour beer, or slaughter an animal in sacrifice, while they pray to the souls of their fathers, their mothers, or their brothers to behold their sufferings and heal their diseases. Indeed, we are told that these people possess a mythology as rich as that of Greece in antiquity. The popular imagination has given itself full play in peopling the forests, the rocks, the cascades, the glens, the rivers, and above all the shores of the lake with innumerable spirits. There is hardly a reef, hardly a cape in Lake Tanganyika which has not its god dreaded by 1 Mer. Lechaptois, Aux r7ves du ingly regards as spirits of nature. But Tanganika, p. 166. : no doubt the mzzzzmz are identical with 2 Mer. Lechaptois, Aux rives du the waztmu, which Father Hamberger Tanganika, p. 167. expressly identifies with the souls of 8 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux rives du the dead (Anthrofos, iv. 305); and Tanganika, p. 168. Thus the author | the same word, with dialectical differ- appears to distinguish the souls of the ences, occurs in the sense of ‘* souls dead from the zz?mu, which he seem- of the dead” in many Bantu languages. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 199 the mariner. Such a cape, for example, is Kaboga, where the hollow rocks at its base receive the breaking waves and give out their muffled roar, like a peal of thunder, heard far off for miles. To the ear of the native this mysterious sound is the voice of the spirit calling for a sacrifice or threatening with vengearfce the bold mortal who should dare to refuse his demand." Above all the hubbub and bustle of life on earth, the Supreme Being, by whatever name he is called, is supposed to sit in majestic calm, hardly deigning to disturb the bliss of heaven by a moment’s thought bestowed on the petty affairs of his puny creature man. Two of these tribes, the Wafipa and the Wabende, who Story of the inhabit the country on the south-eastern shore of Lake ses. Tanganyika, tell a story which, like many other African of the im- tales, associates the Supreme Being with the origin Of a onsue human mortality. They say that Leza, the high God, came _down to earth, and, addressing all living creatures, he said, “Who among you wishes not to die?” Unfortunately, men and animals were asleep. The serpent alone was awake and answered “I” to the question of the deity. That ts why man dies like all the animals. The serpent alone does not die of itself. To die, it must be killed. Every year, in order to renew its youth and vigour, it has only to change its skin.” Almost identical stories to explain human mortality are told by the Dusuns of British North Borneo and the Todjo-Toradjas of Central Celebes.® To the east of these tribes, but still in the southern The portion of Tanganyika Territory (German East Africa), the (anche angan- Wahehe inhabit a mountainons and barren region intersected yika ; Territor by valleys down which rush torrents of clear cold water. paieve in a Despite its situation within the tropics the country, swept Supreme re : ° : Being by keen biting winds, enjoys a cool or even cold climate. catied The rich grass which carpets the banks of the rivers affords Nsuruhi, but they do excellent pasture for cattle; and accordingly the Wahehe not pray or sacrifice to 1 Mgr. Lechaptois, Aux rives du 1. 66. For the Dusun version of the him, re- Tangantka, pp. 170, 172. story, add to the references Ivor H. N. S¢F¥!ng all cs SUA ah heir ‘ é Evans, Stedzes 212 Religion, Folk-lore ; ; 2 - 4 *997) ’ « , ? - : qT an ee ENG Reh and Custom tn LBrittsh North Borneo aes a Bet es vig)” and the Malay Peninsula (Cambridge, of thedead. 3 See Folk-lore in the Old Testament, 1923), pp. 47, 49. 200 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. are mainly a pastoral people, who put all their pride and ambition in the maintenance and multiplication of their herds.'. Like the other tribes whom we have surveyed, the Wahehe believe in a Supreme Being, a Creator whom they call Nguruhi. The name appears to be only another form of Nguluwi, by which the Wakulwe designate the same mighty being.” The Wahehe believe that he sends rain and sunshine, wind and storm, thunder and lightning, in short, that he is the author of all the great atmospheric phenomena of nature. In his hand, too, are the destinies of mankind ; he causes them to be born and to die, to be well or to be sick, to be rich or to be poor; at his good pleasure he blesses them with abundant harvests or smites them with dearth and famine. He is a spirit, invisible, and incapable of being represented in art; accordingly, no image of him exists or has ever existed. He created the world, but as to when or how he did so, the people have no definite idea. They conceive of him as all-powerful, but yet as maintain- ing only a general control over the world and human destiny, while the spirits of the dead (masoka) exert a permanent and very considerable influence on the course of all particular events. It is true that Nguruhi is lord also over the spirits of the dead, but his relation to them is a subject on which the natives have but little reflected. To this Supreme Being they neither pray nor sacrifice ; they do not strive to enter into any form of communion with him ; substantially he stands quite aloof from their religious life, and in practice he serves only as the standing explanation of every thing and every event which is otherwise inexplic- able. All the devotion, all the worship of the people is directed to the spirits of the dead, who are the real objects of the popular religion.® The The Pare mountains form a range running southward Wapare or from Mount Kilimanjaro, near the eastern boundary of Wasu believe ina Tanganyika Territory (German East Africa). The greater pan part of the mountains is inhabited by a tribe called the ais - 1 E. Nigmann, Die Wahehe (Berlin, somewhere between the valleys of the Seat OOS), p- 3. The writer omits to Ruaha and the Rufiji or Alanga Rivers. describe the situation of Uhehe, the 2 See above, p. 193. country of the Wahehe, but from the 3 E. Nigmann, Die Wahehe, pp. sketch map we gather that it lies 22 sg. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 201 | Wapare or Wasu. Among them have been recorded some ancient and half-forgotten legends of a good God, the Creator of the world, whom they call Kyumbi. “They say that he gave their forefathers cattle, in order that they might clothe themselves in the hides, for he pitied their nakedness. He gave them also maize and the fruits of the field, and taught them to till the ground, for they suffered from hunger. God was near, men lived in communion with him. But Kiriamagi, the Eater of Eggs, the Deceiver, the Serpent, tempted men to eat eggs, which Kyumbi had forbidden them to do. And God punished them with a great famine, so that they began to eat beetles in order to save their lives. All mankind died, except two, a young man and a young woman. From them all the generations of the earth are descended. Now God was still near to men. But when men Story like multiplied they grew froward, and they spake among them- eae oS selves, saying, “ Come, let us build a tower, whose top shal] Babel. reach to the upper land, in order that we may creep up it -and wage war on’Him that is above in His own country ”. But Kyumbi looked down on them, as a man looks down on a heap of ants, and he said, “What are these little pigmies down below there?” Then the earth quaked, and the tower broke in two, and buried the builders under the ruins. But Kyumbi moved the upper land far away, and ever since he has not been near men, but far, far away. And since that day men have sought God, and wished to draw him down to them, Bus they site not; for Kyumbe hearkened to them no more.’ And men beheld the fiery orb which rises in the east Kyumbi is from the underworld and passes by to vanish again in the tenes west, and: to go down into the realm of shadows; and they that is, the made the fiery orb their god, and from that time they ea named their god Ithuwa, that is to say, the Sun. Thought- ful people among the Wapare still speak of a God who is separate from the sun, and who lives on or in the sun and created it, as he created everything else. But for most folk ‘the three names Kyumbi, Ithuwa, and Mrungu are all one; all three signify God. If you ask them where Kyumbi, or 1 J. J. Dannholz, Jm Banne des Heidentums bet.den Wasu in Deutsch- Geisterglaube, Ztige des animistischen Ostafrika (Leipzig, 1916), p. 12. Morning prayer to the Sun. The Sky- god Kyumbi identified or confused with the Sun. 202 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. Ithuwa, or Mrungu is, they point to the sun. Ithuwa, the Sun, is the male god, and he begat mankind ; Mweji, the Moon, is the female deity, and she bore mankind. The stars are the divining pebbles which the Moon handles when she consults the oracle about the birth of children. Men pray to Ithuwa for children and increase of cattle; and apart from these blessings they pray to him chiefly to guard them against the foe who walks in darkness and dabbles in magic. Early in the morning the father of the family takes a mouthful of beer and spits it out twice towards the rising sun, and twice he prays, saying, “O Ithuwa, thou chief, thou Mrungu, thou who didst create men, and cattle, and trees, and grass, thou who passest by overhead, look upon him who curses me! When thou breakest forth in the morning, may he see thee; but when thou goest down at evening, may he see thee no more! But if I have sinned against him, may I die before thou dost decline!” And when a man is dying, he takes the hand of his son, spits into it and says: “My son, I die. But do thou dwell below the water-brook that thou mayest ever be able to water thy field. May Ithuwa give thee the stréngth and fatness of the field. May He give thee cattle and children, a son and a daughter!” * Thus it would appear that the Wapare have some traditions or reminiscences of an ancient Sky-god named Kyumbi, who at a later time has been identified or confused by them with the sun. The foregoing account of this religious evolution or degeneration is drawn from the work of a German missionary who has lived among the Wapare. It is confirmed by the testimony of another German missionary, who, on questioning a very old man as to what the Wapare knew about God, received the following answer: ‘“ Kiumbe is the Creator who created everything. We know nothing more about him. He does not trouble himself about us, and we do not trouble ourselves about him. But the Sun is great, and the Moon is great; the Moon gives birth to the children of men.” Another native said, “ As Creator, Kiumbe is known to us all”. But when one of the 1 J. J. Dannholz, Jw Banne der but says that thes is to be pronounced Getsterglaube, pp. 13 sg. The author like the English 72. spells the name of the Sun-god Izuwa, Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 203 Wapare is asked to give fuller information on the deity, he has nothing more to say, and falls back on the Sun and Moon as more familiar and, above ail, visible beings.’ The Prayers to Same missionary describes more fully the prayer offered by a5 ve those people to the Sun for the destruction of an enemy. destruction He tells us that when a chief is threatened with an unjust ae ae war by an enemy, he prepares some honey beer in a small for the pot, and mounts with it to the roof of his hut, where he sets Aaeae down the pot and offers a libation to the Creator (K7zumde), to the Firmament (£2/unge), and to the Sun and Moon, spitting twice towards the sunrise and twice towards the sunset. He prays at the same time that his foe may see the rising, but not the setting of the orb of day. This prayer or incanta- tion he repeats on four successive days, and on the day of battle he gives his enemy notice of it by proclamation. And a native doctor, after he has treated his patient, will go out of the house with his medicine bottle, spit towards the east and the west, and cry to the Sun, “ Take our sick- nesses to thyself, and go with them whither thou goest!”? On the extreme northern edge of Tanganyika Territory Mount (German East Africa), close to the boundary of Kenya a Colony, stands Mount Kilimanjaro, a huge extinct volcano the African more than nineteen thousand feet high. For a perpendicular O¥™?"* height of some five thousand feet its summit is sheathed in a mantle of eternal ice and snow. Rising in isolated majesty from the plain, the great mountain offers a most impressive spectacle, whether, viewed from a distance of over a hundred miles, its snowy dome appears like a dazzling white cloud against the blue African sky, or whether the traveller gazes up at its soaring mass from the hot tropical lowlands at its foot. The sides of the mountain are riven into ridges by deep ravines carved by torrents, their precipitous banks draped with tree ferns and wild bananas; waterfalls plunge with a thundrous roar down sheer cliffs or trickle over rocky inclines into clear crystal pools set in a riot of jungle growth ; on the lower slopes the 1 E. Kotz, 7m Banne der Furcht, dated 1922), p. 192. Sitten und Gebrauche der Wapare 2 E. Kotz, /m Banne der Furcht, (Hamburg, etc.: N.D. Introduction p. 193. 204 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN-AFRICA CHAP. ridges are clad in the verdurous mantle of unbroken banana groves, among which nestle the huts of the mountain dwellers ; higher up the luxuriant groves give place to virgin forest, the haunt of elephants and leopards, where the gnarled tree-trunks are interwoven by trailing vines and decked with ferns, orchids, and moss, where the dense foliage overhead is wet with the morning mist, and under foot the ground is carpeted with delicate wild flowers, and honey- combed with springs that well forth at every step. Here monkeys gambol among the trees, squirrels leap from bough to bough, the air is full of the ceaseless hum of insects, and butterflies of gorgeous hues flit through the dappled sunshine and shade of the forest. Higher up the woods are replaced by open grass lands, and higher still succeed moors of heather, strewn with boulders. Here the trees have disappeared, and with them have gone most of the signs and sounds of abounding animal life which relieved the gloom of the forest. Silence and solitude now reign, broken occasionally by the croak of a raven on a rock, or by the sight of a duiker scampering through the heather, or of a hawk poised on level pinions overhead. Higher still a desert of sand, shingle, and rock stretches up to the eternal snows and glaciers of the summit. The very few Europeans who have scaled Mount Kibo, the loftier of the two peaks of Kilimanjaro, have looked down with wonder on an immense crater, over a mile wide and many hundreds of feet deep, its floor covered with vast sheets and battle- ments of ice. For though lava has flowed over the rim of the crater and run down the flanks of the mountain, leaving great petrified ridges which look like giant girders support- ing the dome of ice, yet at the present day the volcano dis- plays no sign of outward activity; only the ominous tremors that often shake the ground give warning of the tremendous fires that slumber beneath the seemingly calm and peaceful surface. In its combination of loftiness with grandeur and beauty of scenery, if not in the solemn religious impression which it has made on the minds of its people, Kilimanjaro deserves to rank as the Olympus of Africa.’ 1 Hon. Charles Dundas, At@imanjaro 27, 32 sg., 38. For another account and its People (London, 1924), pp. 11- of two partial ascents of Kilimanjaro, V WORSHIP OF THE SRY IN EASTERN: APRICA: 205 The native inhabitants of Kilimanjaro occupy the slopes The from a height of about four to six or seven thousand feet. Wachss They belong to the Bantu family, but they are by no means Kili- homogeneous in blood, being the descendants of different °°” tribes who have been driven up the mountain from the plains by the pressure of enemies. They have no common name for themselves, but by Europeans they are called Wachagga or Chagga, and this name has now been practi- cally adopted by the people themselves. They have evolved a more or less common language, with dialects which are very distinct from each other. Similarly their customs are for the most part uniform, though they vary in detail. The differences of dialect, and to a certain extent of custom are favoured by the configuration of their country; for the various communities inhabit separate ridges which are sharply divided from each other by the deep river valleys of the mountain. Each community styles itself the people of this or that ridge, as for instance the Wamashe, the ~“Wamoshi, and so forth. They are all devoted exclusively to agriculture, except in one district where pasture land favours the breeding of cattle.’ Before the arrival of the Wachagga the mountain is said to have been inhabited by a dwarf people called the Wakonyingo or Wadarimba.” The Wachagga recognize the existence of a great Sky- god whom they call Ruwa.? In its absolute form the word Ruwa denotes the sun only, but in its locative form it designates the sky.’ see Charles New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), pp. 400 sgg.,419s5¢g. Mr. New’s description of the scenery on the ascent tallies closely with that of Mr. Dundas. On his second ascent, with niuch diffi- culty, he just reached the level of the snow. Of the landscape on the lower slope he says (p. 402): ‘‘ Here are fairy woods and bowers, sunny hills and shady dells, murmuring brooks, bridges, viaducts, and, in fact, the whole collection of sylvan beauties and delights ; enough to elicit poetry from the most prosaic of mortals ”. 1 Ch. Dundas, Av/¢manjaro and its People, pp. 32, 41. ? Ch. Dundas, Av/émanjaro and its Some confusion seems to reign in the People, pp. 37, 41, 50 5g. 3 Bruno Gutmann, Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger (Leipzig, TOOON,, Post 2 7s0Gers ea) au ec 1 e Religion der Landschaft Moschi am Kilimandjaro”, Archiv fiir Religions- wessenschaft, xiv. (1911) pp. 192 sgq¢.; Ch. Dundas, Avlimanjaro and its People, pp. 107 sgg. The name is given as Ruzwa by Messrs. Raum and Dundas, as /rwva by Mr. Gutmann. But in a later essay Mr. Gutmann adopted the form Azzwa. See his essay, ‘‘Teldbausitten und Wachstumsbrauche der Wadschagga,” Zettschrift fur Eth- nologie, liv. (1913) p. 509. Hence I have adopted the form Awwa throughout. 4 J. Raum, of. ctt. p. 193. The great Sky-god of the Wachagga is named Ruwa, a word which may denote either the sky or the sun. But the primary root of the deity seems to be the sky rather than the sun, Native account of the celestial nature of Ruwa. 206 WORSATP OF LHE SK Y¥ IN-AERICA CHAP. language, if not in the minds, of the Wachagga as to the distinction between RKuwa as a god, as the sun, and as the sky. In the same breath they will speak of him asa divine being, the Creator of men, and as the physical sun which rises, sets, and shines. But this confusion, though it may puzzle the European, presents no difficulty to the African. The conception of the external world as purely physical is foreign to him; the boundary of the supernatural and mysterious, if he admits a boundary of it at all, is close at hand for him, and he passes it readily and without mis- giving; to him it is perfectly natural to invest with per- sonality and to treat as powerful spiritual beings those objects of the external world which affect him deeply. His. worship of Ruwa is founded on a simple personification either of the orb of the sun or of the dome of heaven.’ Which of the two, the sun or the sky, furnished the starting-point of the conception of the great god seems doubtful. One of our best authorities on the Wachagga, the German missionary, Bruno Gutmann, appears to hold that the primary root of the deity is the sky rather than the sun. He tells us that the Wachagga energetically deny that Ruwa dwells in the sun or above the blue vault of heaven; his place is between the sky and the earth; they name the whole sky Ruwa, and say that it is a god who embraces, as it were, the whole world of man. But the actual vault or firmament, which they believe to be of stone, they call by a different name (nxgima). Again, the god Ruwa cannot be identical with the physical sun, because at night the sun sets in the west and passes under the earth to his place of rising in the east; whereas Ruwa is conceived of as brooding by night as well as by day over our human world. From all this Mr. Gutmann infers that in deifying Ruwa the Wachagga thought originally, not of the glowing orb of day, but of the whole broad heaven. “ The worship of the sky”, he says, “was the starting-point of their idea of God”. This conclusion as to the celestial rather than the solar origin of the god Ruwa is confirmed by the opinion of an 1 J. Raum, of. ctt. p. 193. 2 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger, pp. 178 sq. Vv WORST OLeL HE Sih LIN EB ASLERINVAL RIGA ~207 intelligent native, who reported the views of his people as follows: “Tt appears that in speaking of Ruwa they think, it is true, of the sun, but, on the whole, more of the sky. If they believed that Ruwa was the sun, then a man who prayed to Ruwa at night would look downward, because at night the sun is believed to be below the earth. At evening also he would turn towards the west where the sun goes down. But people do not so, not by any means. The reason why they think of the sun is this: they know that the sun is some- thing very big and wonderfully shiny. It can also walk day and night without stopping for rest and refreshment. But nobody can say why it keeps walking about, whether it be to keep awake or for any other reason. They believe also that in form it is like a man, and that it talks like a man and eats grass. It, or rather he, has also made a farm- steading for himself; and when he is in the zenith he has reached his steading. The moon is the wife of Ruwa, and the stars are his cattle. But whether he slaughters them is more than anybody knows.”? With this description of the Sun as a being of the graminivorous order, we may compare the vision which an old Chagga woman professed to have had of Ruwa himself. Asked to describe the deity, she said that he was as large as a cow, and that his tail was speckled red and white.” How little the Wachagega identify the physical sun with Ruwa appears from their belief that, when the sun rises in the morning, it is so tiny that it would be pecked to pieces by the birds, if certain sleepless guardians were not stationed far in the east, at the end of the world, to scare away the flocks of fowls that would otherwise swallow the sun and leave the world in darkness.? Ruwa is not conceived of as the Creator of the universe. If a Chagga man be asked who made the sun and the earth, he will answer that they have always existed, but of the stars he will sometimes say that they are Ruwa’s children.* On the other hand Ruwa is said to have created the first human 1 J. Raum, of. cit. pp. 197, 200. 3B. Gutmann, Zc, 2 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken 4 Ch. Dundas, A7/imanjaro and its der Dschagganeger, p. 178. People, p. 107. Comipari- son of Ruwa toa cow. The birds that peck atthe rising sun. Ruwa the Creator of man but not of the universe, 208 WORSHIP’-OF THE SKY IN -AFPRICA CHAP, pair; among the various verbs used to express this creation one (zgumba) is otherwise only used to express the moulding of clay by a potter. To this day men come into being by the will of Ruwa. He it is who fashions the child in its mother’s womb. A childless man will say sadly, “ Ruwa has overlooked me”. A cripple is under the special pro- tection of Ruwa, and none may mock or illtreat him, because they say that it was Ruwa who made him so.’ Moral As a personal deity, Ruwa is believed to be kind and ear ee merciful, and these amiable features of his character are illustrated by many stories told about him. For example, we hear of a poor man who set out to seek Ruwa. He wandered on and on eastward, till he came to a meadow - where a great herd of cattle was browsing. Some of the kine took a path that led downward, but others went upward, and the poor man followed them and came to Ruwa. And Ruwa received him kindly, inquired into his distress, and granted his request, saying, “ That which thou wishest for thou shalt find at home”.? Ruwa the More than that, Ruwa is regarded in some sense as the guardian of : ; the moral guardian of the moral law. On the omnipotence and law. goodness of Ruwa a Chagga man expressed himself as follows : “Ruwa has power to do all things. Ruwa does not change: as Ruwa was of old, so he is now. Nor does he lie ; as he says so will he do. Ifa man does evil, though it be at night, Ruwa sees him. If the chief and his warriors surround a man, they cannot kill him if Ruwa does not permit it. When a man sickens and goes to the diviner and slaughters many goats and oxen for sacrifice, he will not be cured if Ruwa does not wish it. But Ruwa assists such and such a spirit to cure him. The spirit is the deputy of Ruwa who sends it to do his work, to cast sickness on 1 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken dtr Dschagganeger, p. 1823; compare J.° Raum; ‘op. sczt. p. 195. Another verb (¢¢taza) applied to the creation of man also expresses the work of a smith (B. Gutmann, /.c.). On the other hand Mr. Dundas tells us that ‘* Ruwa was not really the Creator of Mankind, he merely liberated the first human beings from some mysterious vessel by burst- ing it. On this account he is known as Ruwa mopara wandu, God who burst (out) men” (Azd:manjaro and tts People, p. 108). 2 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger, p. 180; compare Ch. Dundas, of, czt. p. 107. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 209 people, to give them children, to bring famine, to mock bad men, to demand cattle, goats, and sheep, and to take them to Ruwa, and to bring small-pox and war into the country, to kill such and such a one by sickness and to kill all those whom Ruwa wants. “And the Wachagga teach their children thus: If a what child is sent by its parents, and if that child refuses, or if a Pach child quarrels with the parents and strikes them, or if it children does evil, stealing so that people seize the property of the 3°" parents, such a child is rejected by Ruwa and will die before he marries. And a robber who steals much and kills people, such a man cannot hide himself; there will come a day when Ruwa will place him in the hands of the judge who will punish him. A man who commits treason, who invites enemies to attack his country, such a man is rejected by Ruwa and will die with all his clan ; Ruwa will cut them down in their land. Ruwa cares for the poor, he cares for the orphans. If a man does good, if he does not intrigue against any one, if he does not steal but eats of his own hand, if he honours and cares for his elders, Ruwa will rejoice and give the blessing of cattle and goats and children. Now if you see a hut which has many sorrows, there evil has been done by the owner and his forebears, and now Ruwa has sent a spirit of this family to bring distress among them. S06, my child, fear evil, do well, and Ruwa_ will rejoice and he will send you great blessing. “ And the elders thus teach their children at the hour of noon, and those who are taught point to the sky with one finger and spit thrice.” * Yet withal the worship of Ruwa plays a very small part The wor- in the religion of the Wachagga; as in so many other Bantu aaa! tribes, the worship of the Supreme Being is cast into the castinto the background and almost completely overshadowed by the eee worship of the dead: the cult of ancestral spirits is the rea] ancestral religion of the Wachagga. Indeed the figure of Ruwa seems pun at times almost to fade away into a dim, a shadowy ab- straction, destitute of all significance for the practical life of the people. It is not only that he is thought of as so far away, so foreign, so aloof from mere humanity, while the 1 Ch. Dundas, Azdzmanjaro and its People, pp. 121-123. VOL. I i Why the Wachagga honour the dead more than Ruwa., Sacrifices and prayers offered to Ruwa only in the second place. 210 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. spirits of the dead are so near and so familiar; it is also that he is so good and so kind that he never sends trouble or distress, and therefore men have no need to fear and propitiate him; whereas among the spirits of the dead there are many that persecute and torment poor mortals; hence the Wachagga are compelled to sacrifice continually to these powerful and dangerous beings, to court their favour or appease their wrath.’ The same Chagga man who testified to the goodness and overruling providence of Kuwa went on further to explain why it is that nevertheless the Wachagga fear and honour the spirits of the dead more than him. He said: “Tf you ask them why they fear and obey the spirits more than they do Ruwa, they will answer thus: ‘ When the Chief sends to demand something that is his due, and on that day you have naught to give, whom will you try to appease, the Chief or his messenger that he may speak well of you to the Chief and the Chief may have mercy on you? And if you give bad words to the spirit who is sent to you, or refuse him that which the diviner has counselled you to give (that is, to sacrifice), that spirit will go to Ruwa and accuse you, and Ruwa will be angered and will send another spirit, a foreign spirit who is not of your ancestry, to afflict you greatly and to kill you. For this reason we honour the spirits more. Thus the old men speak concerning God and the spirits.” > As a general rule, sacrifices are only offered to Ruwa when the prayers and sacrifices offered to the spirits have proved in vain. For example, if a man Is sick, and offerings have been made to the spirits for many days to ensure his recovery, but without result, the people may say, “ All this is useless. We will go no more to the diviner. The next goat that we slaughter shall be offered to Ruwa.” So they fetch a goat when the sun is in the zenith. They bring it into the courtyard, and hold it with their hands, and spit on its head and say, “Here is the goat, Ruwa, my Chief. Thou alone knowest, how thou wilt deal with this man, as if 1 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken 2 Ch. Dundas, A7/imanjaro and tts der Dschagganeger, p. 185; J. Raum, eople, p. 123. op. cit, p. 193. ; Vv WORSHIPLOF THE SK YAN EASTERN AFRICA © 211 thou wouldst beget him anew.” The goat is taken away, brought behind the house, and slaughtered. The flesh they eat themselves. Ruwa gets only the soul. Again, when rain is wanted, and the rainmaker has Goats uttered his incantations and sacrificed to the ancestral C"s<'° spirits, but all in vain, he will advise the chief to offer rain. Sacrifice to: Ruwa or the Sun. He: will say, “The rain would have come by now, O chief, but it is hindered by a Man of the Sun. A goat must be sacrificed over the door of the hut, and beer and milk must be spat upward”. Accordingly the sacrifice is offered by the rainmaker, assisted by an old man. The goat is hoisted on the thatched roof of the chief’s hut and stretched out at full length on its back over the doorway, with its horns fastened in the thatch. Kneeling on the goat, the wizard receives a calabash full of beer, takes some of the beer in his mouth, spits it four times towards the sky, and prays, “Sun, my Chief, let the rain fall onus!” Then he does the same with the milk. Lastly, he stabs the goat to the heart with a knife, thus accomplish- ing the sacrifice. The goat is then taken down from the roof and cut up. The rainmaker carries home one half of the animal, and his assistant gets the other.’ Again, when a married pair are childless or all their Sacrifices children have died, they seek to procure offspring by offering eg a sacrifice to Ruwa or the Sun. The sacrifice is offered at noon, when the sun is in the zenith, for that is the right time to sacrifice to Ruwa. The victim, a goat, is laid on its back at the entrance of the hut so that half of its body projects into the house. Men and women strip themselves naked and stand beside the victim. The old people say, “ We have given heed to that which here cuts off the thread of life, and we find that the cause is not any human being here on earth, but that it is He on High, who turns his eyes down on us below. It is He in his wrath. But if we sacrifice to him, the trouble will cease, he will give you the child.” Before the goat is stabbed to the heart, the childless couple spit four times between its horns, and sel mohAum, -0f, cele pp. 198: s7. ; 2 Bruno Gutmann, ‘ Feldbausitten compare B. Gutmann, Déchten und und Wachstumsbrauche der Wads- Denken der Dschagganeger, p 185. chagga,” Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, live (1913) p. 487. Sacrifices and prayers to Ruwa in war. Sacrifices and prayers to Ruwa at the boundary of the country. 212 WORSHIP: OF LL1IsS "SKY LIVALRICA CHAP. each of them leaps four times over its body, the husband first and after him the wife. Then the victim is slaughtered and cut up, and omens are taken from the state of the entrails,’ Again, when the Wachagga go to war, they sacheee to the spirits and Ruwa, and they say, “Ruwa, my Chief, mayest thou take me by the hand and lead me safe! Keep for me a head of cattle, O Chief, that with it I may sacrifice to thee.” And if the army returns with a booty of cattle, they sacrifice and give thanks, once to the spirits, and once to Ruwa, say- ing, “ Hail, Ruwa, my Chief! Thou hast brought me back > safe and sound, so that Iam come to my house. Here is a goat, thou wealthy one, mayest thou hereafter lend me another !”” There is another sacrifice in which Ruwa is brought into immediate connexion with the ancestral spirits. The Wachagga formerly fortified their country on the side of the steppes by deep trenches. By day, to facilitate peaceful intercourse, these trenches were bridged by tree-trunks, which the wardens of the bridges removed at night. The guardian spirit of the bridge was believed to be the ancestor who first kept watch and ward at the trench. At the end of the rainy season, when the intercourse between the different communities, and also with the population of the steppes, begins afresh, sacrifices are still offered at all these entrances into the country in order to prevent sickness and plague from passing the boundary. The sacrifices are addressed to God (Ruwa), because the ancestral spirits have no power over sickness that comes from far; it is sent not by them but by God. The prayer which accompanies the sacrifice runs thus: “Thou Man of Heaven, O Chief, take this head of cattle. We pray thee that thou wouldest lead far past and away the sickness that comes on earth! And Thou, O Owner of the Bridge, help us to entreat the Man of Heaven that he send us no sickness!” Thus the prayer is addressed to God (Ruwa) and to the Owner of the Bridge, that is, to the spirit of the dead first Warden of the Marches ; 1 Bruno Gutmann, ‘* Feldbausitten 2 J. Raum, “Die Religion der und Wachstumsbrauche der Wads- Landschaft Moschi am Kilimandjaro, 7 chagga,” Zettschrift fiir Ethnologte, Archiv fiir Religionswissenschaft, xiv. liv. (1913) p. 509. (1911) p. 199. Vv WORsMTI PMOL TAGE SRY ANCEASTERN APRICA : 0213 but the Warden is only besought to act as intercessor with the Man of Heaven, the great god Ruwa.' Simple prayers, unaccompanied by sacrifices, are also Morning offered to Ruwa by pious people both at morning and at @nd¢vening prayers to evening. Thus at night a man will take his stand in the Ruwa. courtyard of his hut and looking up at the sky will say, “ Ruwa, O Chief, hail to thee! Thou hast made me to pass this day in peace, grant that I pass this night in peace also!” And in the morning likewise many people look up at the sky, the mid sky, not at the point where the sun rises, and as they look they say, “ Thanks be to thee, Ruwa O Lord, thou hast guarded me this night. Be pleased to guard me also the livelong day and let me not want some food to eat!” With these words they spit towards the sky... The regular Chagga mode of saluting Ruwa is to name the god and to spit thrice towards the sky, his home.® The Wachagga tell many stories about Ruwa. Among stories these stories is one which professes to account for human 2Pout the ; ce i Origin of ‘mortality. It is so remarkable that it deserves to be related Death told : by the in full. Wachagga. The story runs thus. When Ruwa had either created story of the mankind or at all events liberated them from confinement,' oe he kindly provided for their subsistence. He gave them a banana grove, and in the grove of their principal elder he planted a great number of sweet potatoes and yams. And in the centre he planted a species of yam called U/a, or Ukaho, which is planted beneath large trees and trained up creeper vines. What follows is related in the words of the natives, only rendered-into English. “Ruwa instructed the elder of the village in this wise, ‘I give you leave to eat all the fruit of the bananas, also all the potatoes in the banana grove. Eat all the bananas and 1 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger, pp. 187 sg. As to the trenches, compare Charles New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), pp. 403 sg.: ‘‘Issuing from the stockade, we came to a deep and spacious fosse, over which we had to make our way upon a narrow and very shaky plank. The whole of Chaga is surrounded by . these trenches. They are well dug, and are wide, deep, and steep enough to make the passage a difficult opera- tion to foes, particularly if defended by a few brave men. They are the work of former generations, and are being neglected in these days.” 2 J. Raun, of. cit. pp. 196 sg. 3 Ch. Dundas, A¢/émanjaro and tts F20ple, PP. 123, 311, 319, 321; 323, 325, 326, 331. 4 See above, p. 208 note!, How the man was tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit. Death the conse- quence of eating of the for- bidden fruit. Another story of the Origin of Death, the cast skin and the naughty grand- daughter. 214 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. potatoes, you and your people. But the yam which is called Ula or Ukaho, truly you shall not eat it. Neither you nor your people may eat it, and if any man eats it, his bones shall break and at last he shall die.’ “Then Ruwa left the people and went his ways. And every morning and evening he came to greet the elder and his people. Now one day a stranger came and greeted the elder and begged for food. The elder said to the stranger : ‘Go into the banana grove to eat bananas and _ potatoes there, but the potato Ula do not eat at all. For Ruwa directed me and my people that we should not eat it, there- fore do you not eat it. The stranger said: ‘It is now noon, this morning early Ruwa bade me tell you to give me a cooking-pot that I might cook this Ula, to eat it with you and your people that we may rejoice’. The elder hearing that Ruwa ,had sent this stranger, gave him a cooking-pot. And the stranger took a digging-stick and dug up the Ula and put it in the pot. The elder and the stranger cooked the Ula yams, and they started to eat. “As they were eating Ruwa’s Minister smelt the odour of cooking like to the odour of Ula. At once he came running up and askéd them: ‘What do you? What are you eating?’ So the elder and the stranger were astonished: and greatly afraid, they could find nothing to reply. Then the Minister of Ruawa took the pot with the yams and carried it to Ruwa. When Ruwa saw them he was. very angry and sent his Minister a second time. And he went and spoke to the elder and his people: ‘Because you were deceived by a stranger and ate my Ula, I shall break your bones and burst your eyes, and at last you shall die’. So the Minister returned to Ruwa. Since that day they have not seen him again, and Ruwa has not sent word to them again, and people commenced to be broken, and their eyes to be closed, and afterwards they died. Thus the old men of the Wachagega tell and know. 7 “When the Minister had gone to Ruwa, at once the people and their elders commenced to sicken in their bones and eyes. So the elder prayed to Ruwa for honey and milk. And Ruwa hearkened to him, and he sent his minister again to tell the elder, ‘Now I will have mercy Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 215 on you and your people. Know henceforth that you shall grow to a great age, and when you die you shall cast your skin as a snake does, and afterwards you shall become as a youth again. But not one of your people may see you when you cast your skin, you must be alone at such time. And if your child or grandchild see you, in that hour you shall die altogether and not be saved again.’ “So they lived until the elder became very aged. His children seeing this gave him his granddaughter to care for him, that he might not fall into the hearth and be burnt. Now the old man knew that the day was come for him to cast his skin as Ruwa had sent word to him by his Minister. And he considered how to be rid of his granddaughter to give him opportunity to change his skin. And he said to the granddaughter: ‘Bring a gourd and fetch me water here’. And the granddaughter brought a gourd. The old man took a large needle and made small holes in the bottom of the gourd and gave it to the girl and instructed her to bring water. The old man knew she would not return quickly for the gourd was pierced with many holes. The granddaughter went quickly to draw water. But when the bowl was filled she saw that all the water leaked out because the gourd was pierced with many holes. And she made efforts to plug the holes. When she had _ finished plugging the holes she filled the gourd. And she placed the gourd on hér head and hastened home to her grand- father. As she entered the house she was startled, for the old man had cast half his skin. The old man stared at her in great amazement, and cried out aloud: ‘So be it, I have died, all of you will die; I have died, all of you shall die. For you, granddaughter, entered while I cast my skin. Woe is me, woe is you!’ “So the old man slowly wrapped himself up in his skin and died. And his children came with his grandchildren and they buried him. And that bad grandchild they drove away, and she went into the forest. And she became a wife and bore children, but not human children; she gave birth only to children with four legs and a tail. And these indeed are the baboons, and monkeys, and apes, and colobus monkeys. Thus the baboons and these others are the The origin of baboons, monkeys, and apes. The two stories give two different ex- planations of the Origin of Death. Bothstories reported inde- pendently by.a German missionary. The story of the Cast Skin. 216 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. children of her who offended against her grandfather. For this reason the baboons and their like are called ‘ People of the Forest’ or ‘Children of the Curse .”? This curious legend has been reported by the Hon. Charles Dundas, Senior Commissioner of Tanganyika Terri- tory (German East Africa). It obviously comprises two apparently distinct explanations of the origin of human mortality. According to the one explanation, men die because one of the first men ate of a certain kind of yam which God had forbidden him to eat under pain of death. According to the second explanation, men die because one of the first men was seen by his granddaughter in the act of casting his skin like a serpent and hence was prevented from renewing his youth. For, like many other primitive peoples, the Wachagga believe that serpents renew their youth by casting their skin: “to grow young like a serpent” appears to be a proverb with them.’ Both stories—that of the forbidden fruit and that of the cast skin-——are reported independently by the German missionary, Mr. Bruno Gutmann, one of our best authorities on the religion and customs of the Wachagga. His version of the story of the cast skin runs as follows: : A man and his wife reached a great age. They had two children, a boy and a girl. One day the man said to his wife, “We must do something to renew our youth”. He commanded her saying, “ Plait two market-bags out of tree-bark. In them the children shall fetch water, for such bags leak, so the children will not soon return.” When the wife had woven the bags, she called the two children, gave them the two bags, and said to them, “ With these bags fetch water to-day, and come not again until the bags are full”. The children went away, and the old man said to his wife, “Now will we cast our skins like the serpents and be young again”. So they began to strip off their skin. But hardly had they begun to do so when they heard the children talking in the courtyard. The old man sent them away again, and cried, “Go to the water until it remains in the bag”. The children did as he had bidden 1 Ch. Dundas, Az/imanjaro and its 2 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken . People, pp. 108-111. der Dschagganeger, p. 190, V WOKSHIPZ OR TIE SKY IN LASTERN AFRICA 217 them. Ten times they turned back with the bags drained empty. Then they said, “ We will go to the house”. This time they went softly and came unperceived into the house. There they found their father and mother half stripped ‘rhe story of their skin. Their father called out to them, “ Now you aN ae see me as I am. Shall I now burst like an earthen pot, or shall I burst like a calabash that one pieces together again?” The son said, “ Burst like an earthen pot, which one does not piece together again”. Then his father burst and died.’ In this story the conclusion concerning the burst pot introduces us to a third and independent explanation of the origin of death which has been clumsily tacked on to the story of the cast skin. In its independent form the story of the burst pot runs as follows : Of old when a man died he burst with a crack like that of a gourd-bottle. Then his friends came and sewed him up, and he got up as fresh and well as before. Now when an old woman drew near to death, she called her children and said to them, “I shall now die. Choose ye now what kind of death ye wish, my sons. Will ye die and break in bits like a gourd-bottle which is patched up again? or will ye break in bits like an earthen pot?” They answered, “We should like to break in bits like an earthen pot”. Then the old woman cried out, “Alas! If ye had said, I will break in bits like a gourd bottle, ye should have been patched up again. But how shall ye patch up an earthen pot when once it is in bits?” Hence men have now in- curred the doom of death, which cannot be cured. When they die, it is all up with them. They are buried and rot.” The thoughts of the Wachagga would seem to be much Another occupied with the problem of human mortality, for they tell hee yet, another and quite different story to explain it. The Death: the story is this: Haas A certain man had two wives. The child of one of the verted message, wives died, and the mother asked the other ‘wife, saying, “Go and cast my child into the forest,.and as thou dost so say these words, ‘Go and come back like the moon’”. But the other wife envied her the ‘child ; and when she laid it 1 B, Gutmann, Volksbuch der Wads- 2 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken chagga (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 119 sg. der Dschageaneger, p. 124. In one version of the Chagga story it is a serpent who tempts man to eat the forbidden fruit. Re- semblances of Chagga myths to Biblical stories. 218 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. down in the forest, she said, “Go and lose thyself and come not back; but let the moon go and come back”. Since that day the moon comes back after it has vanished, but when man dies he comes back no more.’ The same story is told by the Masai,” from whom the Wachagga may have borrowed it, for the two peoples have long been in contact with each other. It contains the elements of the perverted message and of the moon, both of which are typical of whole classes of myths told by simple peoples to account for the origin of death.? But to return to the story of the forbidden fruit. In Mr. Dundas’s version it is a stranger who tempts the man to eat of it, but in Mr. Gutmann’s version it is a serpent. As reported by Mr. Gutmann, the story runs thus: In the beginning God created a man and a woman. Then he created the cattle, bull and cow, then the goats, he-goat and she-goat. So he did with all living things, two and two he created them. Im the beginning there were only two human beings, until they multiplied. God commanded them that they should not eat all the fruits which he had made. But the serpent ‘deceived the woman, and she ate with her husband. The serpent said, “It is a lie, God has deceived you. Only eat.” But God said, “I will scatter your sons, so that none knows the speech of the other ”.* The reader will observe that this version of the story contains no allusion to the origin of death. It has the appearance of being made up of elements drawn from the Biblical stories of the Fall of Man and the Tower of Babel. The suspicion that this is so derives support from other Chagga legends, which bear some resemblance to the Biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Great Flood. These stories have been reported by Mr. Charles Dundas in the words of his native informants.° To report and discuss them here would be out of place. I will content myself with quoting Mr. Dundas’s judicious remarks on 1 B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken Folk-lore in the Old Testament, i. der Dschagganeger, p. 1243 td., Volks- 52 sqq. buch der Wadschagga, p. 156. 4 = =) 2 Al Civilian ine uasat (Oxtardt B. Gutmann, Dichten und Denken 1905), pp. 271 sg. der Dschagganeger, p. 182. 3 See Zhe Belief in Immortality ® Ch, Dundas, Av/imanjaro and its and the Worship of the Dead, i. 60sgq.; People, pp. 111-120. Vv WORSATP-OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA. 219 these African parallels to the narratives in Genesis. He says : | “The first of these myths bears a striking resemblance mr. to the Biblical accounts of the fall of man and the origin ate of death. The second part recalls very vividly the story African of Cain. So also the destruction of mankind by Ruwa pe net recalls the story of the flood. ‘The first destruction was by in Genesis. a devouring colossus who came from the water, the second destruction was caused by an actual flood. “These ancient myths sound a little strange in African form and applied to conditions which survive to this day, but they retain the essential substance and characteristics of the ancient Semitic accounts. I have satisfied myself that they are familiar to the Chagga people; and that they could not have been gleaned from Mission teachings, follows in the first place from the circumstance that Mission activities have been too recently introduced on Kilimanjaro, in the second place these myths are best known to the old people. Furthermore, if such legends were imitations of Christian teaching there is no reason why they should have been restricted to the Old Testament. “Merker in his book on the Masai has recounted a number of myths which bear an astonishing resemblance to the Biblical myths and include the substance of those here related. This portion of Merker’s book has been much criticized and its authenticity doubted, but it seems to me to receive strong support from the fact that similar myths are known to the Chagga people. The latter not only have lived for generations surrounded by the Masai, and have been in close contact with that tribe, but many of them are direct offshoots of the Masai, It is therefore very possible that they have incorporated in their mythology a part of ‘ the Masai legends, adapting them to their own conditions of life. “ There seems no absolute reason for an assumption that the Biblical myths could not have been known to the Masai, and if they were, it is not surprising that the Wachagga should have acquired the same myths. But it is curious to observe how the one myth may be cloaked in many different forms, while its essential elements are carefully preserved. 220 WORSHIP OF THE SK Y INSAPRICA CHAP. Between Noah’s flood and Rimu’s devastation there is con- siderable difference, but it is typical of changes in legendary that the flood in one place should in another be converted into a devouring monster proceeding from the water. Such variation seems to me too authentic to be the mere invention or repetition of something heard, and suggests rather an ancient origin of the myth.” ? The While I agree with Mr. Dundas in thinking that the Sitch tne Chagga stories which resemble the early narratives in Genesis cast skin may have been borrowed from the Masai, and that the aunt Masai stories in turn may not improbably be traced back to re toit a Semitic source, I would point out that among the Chagga wi the Biblical @Xplanations of the origin of human mortality there is peau re one which at first sight differs entirely from the Biblical Death. legend of the Fall of Man. That explanation is given in the story of the cast skin, which relates that formerly men were able to renew their youth perpetually by casting their skins like serpents, which are supposed in like manner to slough off old age with their skins and so to live for ever ; but of this serpentine immortality, as we may call it, men were unfortunately deprived by the ill-timed intervention of some- body at the critical moment. As J have had occasion to point out elsewhere,” a story of this type is widely diffused over the world. At the first blush, it appears to have no connexion with the Biblical narrative and the corresponding Chagga myth of the Fall of Man, which traces human mortality to the eating of a forbidden fruit. Yet a connecting link may be detected between them in the part which the serpent plays in the Biblical version and in one of the Chagga ' Ch. Dundas, Avlimanjaro and its People, pp. 120 sg. According to the legend reported by Mr. Dundas (pp. 114-117) the monster Rimu was com- manded by Ruwa ‘to destroy all living human beings and animals, because the people have abandoned the ancient customs and adopted evil! ways; and they have oppressed the poor, and have followed indolence and pride themselves daily”. Accordingly Rimu passed over the earth devouring all mankind and all the cattle, goats, and sheep, until after seven days nobody and nothing was left alive but one ‘poor woman, her infant son, and her cattle ; for Ruwa guarded her, and prophesied that she and her son should rule the earth. And when her son grew up, he shot and killed Rimu with poisoned arrows, But in Chagga folk-lore Rimu seems to be the general name of a whole class of cannibal monsters, about whom many tales are told. See B. Gutmann, Volksbuch der Wadschagga, pp. 73 59@9. The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, i. 69 sqqg.; Folk- lore in the Old Testament, i. 66 sgq. Vv WORSHIP OF THE'SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA | 221 versions of the myth. If in the story the serpent deprives suggested man of the boon of immortality, we may surmise that in the [nk be original form of the tale the wily creature always did this two myths. for the purpose of appropriating to himself the blessing of which he robbed mankind; so that the story regularly aimed at explaining the cause both of the real mortality of men and of the supposed immortality of serpents. In the Biblical version the story has apparently been mutilated, and thereby rendered unintelligible, by the omission of one half of the tale, namely, that which explained the supposed immortality of serpents. The story which contrasts the mortality of man with the African supposed immortality of serpents is found among other sfories of Bantu tribes beside the Wachagga. Thus we have found it ity of man among the Wafipa and Wabende of Tanganyika Territory,’ contrasted It occurs also in a somewhat different form among the Kavi- immortal- rondo in Kenya Colony (British East Africa), on the eastern plied ed shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza. They say that after the first human pair had begotten children, and men multiplied on earth, they were subject to all kinds of misery, but death had not yet carried away any of them. One day a chameleon Thechame- said to a man, “ Bring mea pot of beer”. The man brought ne ae the pot of beer, and the chameleon crept up the pot, and the serpent. plunged into the beer. Having bathed in it, he ordered the man to drink the beer. But the man refused, for he abhorred the chameleon, thinking that the mere touch of his skin was poisonous. On his refusal, the chameleon said to him, “ From henceforth all you men will die”. While he was speaking, a snake came along, and the chameleon ordered him to sip of the beer. The snake obeyed the order and sipped of the,beer. Hence men die and snakes do not, because a snake is reborn every time that he sloughs his skin.” On this story it may be remarked, that since lizards. cast their skin, and the chameleon is a species of lizard, the story-teller seems to derive the snake’s power of slough- ing his skin from the like power possessed by the chameleon, since the snake is said to have acquired this property by drinking the beer in which the chameleon had bathed. 1 Above, p. 199. Mumias district (near Lake Victoria) ” 2 N. Stam, ‘‘ Bantu Kavirondo of ” ] heavens are overcast ’. Kavirondo is a vast territory stretching round the north- eastern shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza. It is a rolling grass country at an altitude of from 3800 feet to about 5000 feet above the level of the sea. The climate is fairly warm and sunny, yet the rainfall is abundant; the soil is well adapted to the agriculture practised by the people.’ The country is peopled by two entirely different races, one of them belonging to the Bantu and the other to the Nilotic family. The Bantu Kavirondo are physically much finer, though socially much less developed, than the Baganda.® The Nilotic Kavirondo, whose proper name is Jaluo, belong to the same family as‘the great Dinka tribe of the Sudan, and are near relations of the Aluri and Acholi tribes, which live on khoth sides of the Nile near Wadilai, the differences being less marked than those which usually distinguish two adjoining Bantu tribes. Probably, therefore, the Jaluo originally formed one tribe with the Acholi. In appearance they are a fine race, not so much remarkable for beauty of face as for stature and development.* Though the mornings and evenings are comparatively cold in their hills, the Jaluo go stark naked ; indeed they object to clothes as indecent, and members of the tribe who have been abroad and have adopted clothing are requested to put it off during their residence in their old homes.” 1A. C. Hollis, ‘*The Religion 3-C, W. Hobley, Zastern Uganda, of the Nandi”, Zyransactions of the p.8 Third International Congress for the 4G. A. S. Northcote, ‘‘ The Nilotic History of Religions (Oxford, 1908), Kavirondo”, Journal of the R, i. 90 sg. Anthropological Institute, xxxvii.(1907) ° p- 58. 7 2-C. W. Hobley, Zastern Uganda 5 J. Roscoe, Zhe Northern Bantu, (London, 1902), p. 13. Dp: 27-53 Vv WORDHIPAORGATTEASRYALN LASTIRN AFRICA 279 Both the Bantu and the Nilotic Kavirondo are reported Belief ofthe ; , 2 ; Kavirondo to believe in a Supreme Being or Creator, to whom, how- ;,, ever, they pay no formal worship. On this subject I will Supreme y Mates ; Being or quote the evidence of a missionary who has lived among the Creator people. He says: . called : : ; shh Nyasaye, “Though entirely different in origin and language the whom they religious beliefs of the two races are very similar, differing oh 2 only in minor points of ritual. Both the Nilotic and the Bantu Kavirondo have a distinct idea of God, the Supreme Being. The first call him Mysaye (from sayo, to adore), and the latter Masaye (from gusaya, to beseech). He is con- sidered to be the Creator or originator of all things. It is true, the Supreme Being is not adored, but, when a child is born, it is ascribed to Nyasaye ; when any one dies, it is Nyasaye that has taken him away; and when a warrior returns safe from battle, it is Nyasaye that has given him a safe return to his home. “As, however, no external worship is given to the The Creator, it would seem to the ordinary observer, that the pera Sun is their principal deity and the Moon their second, Sun and whilst the spirits of their forefathers rank as minor spirits. feet ae In the early morning the Kavirondo may be seen facing the Saori sun. His mode of worship is, to say the least, peculiar. He commences by spitting towards the East, in honour of the rising orb, then he turns successively to the North, West, and South, and salutes each quarter solemnly in the same manner, whilst he earnestly beseeches the Sun-god to give him good luck. A similar ceremony, if ceremony it can be called, is gone through when the new moon appears, in order to obtain good speed for that month. But we must not lose sight of the fact that though health and good luck are asked from the Sun and the New Moon, life itself is ascribed to the Creator MVyasaye. In fact it would seem that the higher the particular object of reverence is in the estimation of the Kavirondo, the less ceremonious is his mode of showing his reverence. The Supreme Being, the Creator of all things and giver of life and death, has to be content with the mere acknowledgement of His existence ; the Sun and New Moon receive a_ periodical expectoration ; but the spirits of the departed, who are J. Roscoe on the religion of the Nilotic Kavirondo., The Nandi, a Hamitic or Nilotic tribe. 280 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. really the lowest in rank, are worshipped with an elaborate fitival eve To much the same effect Mr. John Roscoe has described the religion of the Nilotic Kavirondo. He tells us that “apart from worship of the dead and belief in ghosts, the people have little religion. They call the supreme being Nyasi, who, they say, is to be found in large trees. In times of trouble or sickness they make offerings to him of an animal which is killed under a large tree, and the flesh is cooked and eaten near by, though sometimes the meat is taken a little distance away and is not eaten under the shadow of the tree.” ” In these accounts of the Supreme Being of the Kavirondo nothing is said to connect him definitely with the sky; indeed the statement that he is to be found in great trees, where sacrifices are offered to him, would point to an arboreal rather than a celestial deity. However, we have seen that among the Akamba and Akikuyu the worship of Engai or Mulungu, who has some claim to rank as a Sky-god, is closely associated with sacred trees,° and the same may be true of the Supreme Being of the Kavirondo. To the north of Kavirondo stretches what is known as the Nandi plateau, a highland country which is one of the most fertile and beautiful regions of Kenya Colony (British East Africa). The tribe, who give their name to it, the Nandi, are akin to the Masai, and form one of a group of Hamitic or Nilotic tribes to which the Suk and Turkana also belong. All these tribes appear to be hybrids, perhaps 1 N. Stam, ‘‘The Religious Con- the moon. They regard the sun as a ceptions of the Kavirondo”, Axthropos, v. (1910) p. 360. In one place (the first) the writer spells the god’s name iWysaye, but elsewhere consistently Nyasaye. The latter is probably the correct form. With the writer’s ac- count of Sun-worship among the Kavirondo compare G, A. S. North- cote, ‘*The Nilotic Kavirondo”, Journal of the R, Anthropological In- stztuté, XXxvil, (1907), p..63 >) °C The Jaluo religion is extremely slight. They worship the sun, and to a less extent deity seldom beneficent, more often malignant, and usually apathetic; as one of them said to the writer, ‘ It does not matter how much you pray, you fall sick and die just the same’. The offerings made at all important occasions in their daily life they make more with the idea of appeasing him than of obtaining positive benefits,” 2 J. Roscoe, Zhe Northern Bantu, pp. 291 sg. 3 See above, pp. 248, 259 sg. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 281 formed by a mixture of Galla or Somali with negro blood ; the Galla or Somali element is judged to be stronger in the Masai and Nandi than in the Suk and Turkana.’ Together The the four tribes make up what we may call the East African yutao section of the Nilotic family. The features which distinguish tribes. them from their brethren who inhabit the valley of the Nile, such as the Bari, Acholi, and Aluru, are that they are more or less nomadic herdsmen, and that their young men are organized as a special class of warriors. As. a result apparently of these institutions, which are perhaps due to an infusion of Galla-Somali blood, these tribes of warlike herdsmen have spread widely over East Africa. Their kins- folk on the Nile, on the other hand, are settled cultivators of the soil; and though they fight on occasion and esteem bravery, they do not devote the prime of life exclusively to raiding their neighbours, nor do they despise peaceful labour. The nomadic and military mode of life is most fully developed in the Masai, who disdain agriculture and all - occupations except fighting and herding cattle. One section of the Suk are tillers of the soil; the other section and the Turkana do little in the way of cultivation, but tend cattle and hunt. The various sections of the Nandi have taken to agriculture, seemingly within the last few generations, and they practise it in a somewhat desultory fashion.” The religious beliefs of the Nandi are somewhat vague Belief of and unformulated, but they recognize the existence of aire Supreme God whom they call Asis or Asista. His name Supreme means the sun. He dwells in the sky: he created man [°° es and beast, and the world belongs to him. Prayers are Asista, addressed to him. He is acknowledged to be a benefactor “05° and the giver of all good things, and offerings are at times means ‘‘the made to him in return for his benefits? Besides the high ah god’ Asis or Asista the Nandi believe in the existence of Two two thunder-gods, the one kindly, the other malevolent, 2%?" ? gods. who closely resemble the Black God and the Red God of” 1 Sir Charles Eliot, in A. C. Hollis, Zhe Mandi, p. xvii. The Masai, pp. xi sgqg.; zd@., in A. C. 3 A.C. Hollis, 7ze Nandi, pp. xix, Hollis, Zhe Nandi (Oxford, 1909), 40 sg.; ¢a@., ‘*The Religion of the pp. xv sgg.; zd.,in M. W. H. Beech, Nandi”, Zvransactions of the Third The Suk (Oxford, 191 I), p Xi. International Congress for the History 2 Sir Charles Eliot, in A. C. Hollis, of Religions (Oxford, 1908), i. 87. 282 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. the Masai. The crashing peal of thunder near at hand is said to be the bad thunder-god trying to come. to earth to kill people, whilst the distant muttering or rumbling of thunder is supposed to be the good thunder-god protecting mankind and driving away his evil-disposed colleague. Forked lightning is said to be the sword of the bad thunder- god, while sheet lightning is thought to be the sword of the good thunder-god, who does not kill people. Whenever forked lightning—the flashing sword of the bad thunder- god—is seen, all Nandi women look on the ground, as it is deemed wrong that they should witness the havoc which the sun or God (Asista) is allowing to take place. During a thunderstorm it is usual to throw some tobacco on the fire, and the youngest child of a family has to take a certain stick, used for cleaning gourds, thrust it into the ashes of ' the fire, and then throw it out of doors. But the two Prayers of the Nandi to Asista thunder-gods are not worshipped, nor are offerings made to them." The commonest form of prayer is addressed both to the great god Asista and to the spirits of deceased ancestors. and to dead It is supposed to be recited by all adult Nandi twice a day, ancestors. Prayers in war. but it is more particularly used by old men when they rise in the morning, especially if they have had a bad dream. It runs thus: “God, I have prayed to thee, guard my children and cattle, I have approached thee morning and evening. God, I have prayed to thee whilst thou didst sleep and whilst thou wentest. God, I have prayed to thee. Do not now say: ‘lam tired’. O our spirits, guard us who live on the earth, and do not say: ‘We were killed by human beings’ ,”* When warriors have gone to the wars, the men’s mothers tie four knots in their belts,and going out of their huts every morning spit towards the sun and say “ God, give us health ”. And the fathers of the absent warriors meet together regularly, and before they drink their beer they sing, ‘God guard our children, That we may greet them”, 1 A.C, Hollis, Zhe Nandi, pp. ? A. C. Hollis, “The Religion of 41, 99. the Nandi”, of. ct. i. 87 sg.; compare td,, The Nandi, pp. 41 sg. ee ae : WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 283 Then they sprinkle some of the beer on the ground and on the walls of the hut, and say, **O our spirits, we pray to you. Regard this beer, and give us health,” If an expedition has been unsuccessful and a number of warriors have been killed, the survivors must all go to a river on their return and bathe. Then they hold a dance at which the women wail and cry at intervals. Afterwards an old man stands up amidst the seated warriors and says: ‘““ God, we admit ourselves beaten, We pray thee, give us peace”. When cattle have been carried off by an enemy or Prayers for killed by lightning, a procession is formed, and the cattle ean that have been left are driven to the nearest river, and there every animal is sprinkled with water. One old man recites these lines, all present repeating them after him: “God, guard these that are left, We pray thee, guard these that are left”. When disease breaks out in a herd, a great bonfire is kindled and the sick herd is driven to the fire. A pregnant sheep is killed and eaten, and the herd is driven round the fire, each beast being sprinkled with milk, whilst the following prayer is offered up: “God, we pray thee, Guard these that are here’ While the eleusine grain is ripening, and after the grain Prayers at has been reaped, the harvest ceremonies are held. Porridge “Y°* is made from the first basketful of grain cut, and all the members of the family take some of the food and dab it on walls and roofs of the huts. They also put a little in their mouths and spit it out towards the east. The head of the family then holds some of the eleusine grain in his hand, and offers up the following prayer, everybody present repeating the words after him: 1 A. C. Hollis, ‘*The Religion of the Nandi”, of. ct, i. 88; compare ad., The Nandi, pp. 42-46. Prayers for rain, Prayers after child- birth. 284 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHis ‘‘ God, give us health, And may we be given strength, And may we be given milk. Lf any man eats of this corn, may he like it, And if a pregnant woman eats tt, may she like tt.” } After the harvest has been gathered in, each geographical division (fororzet) of the tribe holds its own feast on the top of a hill or in a large open plain, and all the warriors gather and dance the war-dance. A great bonfire is kindled with the wood of certain trees and shrubs, and when the flames blaze high, a sort of doorway, like that of a cattle-kraal, is built near the fire, and as the warriors file past, the old men, standing by the door-posts, take a little milk and beer and spit it on them. The old men then sing as follows : “* God, give us health. God, give us ratded cattle, God, give us the offspring Of men and cattle.” Before the assembly separates, the old men kill and eat a pregnant goat, and the women, who have oiled their bodies, proceed to the nearest river, where they take two pebbles from the water: one of the pebbles they place in their water-jars and keep it there till the next harvest festival ; the other pebble they place in their granaries.” When there is a long drought, the old men assemble, and take a black sheep, and go with it toariver. There they tie a fur cloak on the sheep’s back and push the animal into the water. Next they take beer and milk into their mouths and spit them out in the direction of the rising sun. When the sheep scrambles out of the water and shakes itself, they recite the following prayer : ““ God, we pray thee give us rain, Regard this milk and beer. We are suffering like women labouring with child, Guard our pregnant women and cows.” Four months after the birth of a child a feast is held. An ox or goat is slaughtered, and after the mother, child, 1 A. C. Hollis, Zhe Mandi, pp. 46 op. cit. i. 80. sqge3 td. **The Religion of the Nandi”’, op. cit, i. 89. 3 A, C. Hollis, ‘*The Religion of 2 A.C. Hollis, Tre Nandi, p.47; the Nandi”, of. c#t. i. 893; ia., The zd,, **The Religion of the Nandi”, MNandz, p. 48. eT a el re Vv WORSTHIPOOP THE SKY IN FASTERN AFRICA 285 and animal have been anointed with milk by one of the elders of the clan, the child’s face is washed with the un- digested food from the animal’s stomach. prays as follows: The elder then “ God, give us health. God, protect us. O our spirits, guard thts child, O belly, guard this child.” } When they begin to build a house, they perform a short Prayer at inaugural ceremony. The elders of the family pour milk and beer and put some salt into the hole that has been pre- pared for the reception of the central pole, and they say : ‘God, give us health, God, give us milk. God, give us power. God, give us corn, God, give us everything that ts good. God, guard our children and our cattle,” * house- building. Among the Nandi, as among many savage tribes, the Prayer at potters are women. When the pots have been baked, the potters recite the following prayer : “God, give us strength, So that, when we cook in the pots, men may like them”.® When smiths search for iron ore they pray, saying: —“ God, give us health. God, give us iron.” 4 pot- making. Prayer at seeking iron. As a rule, children do not pray, but when the two Prayer of middle incisor teeth of the lower jaw are extracted, accord- ing to the tribal custom, the child must throw the teeth eatraction away towards the rising sun, saying: ““ God, take these brown teeth and give me white ones, So that I may drink calf’s milk” ® .1 A. C, Hollis, ‘‘The Religion of the Nandi”, of. cit. 1. 89 59.5 ta., The Nandi, p. 65. 2 A. C. Hollis, ‘‘ The Religion of the Nandi”, of. cit. i. 89; zd., The Nandi, p. 15. 8 A, C. Hollis, ‘‘The Religion of the Nandi”, of. czt. i. 90; 7a, The Nandi, p. 35. 4 A. C. Hollis, ‘‘ The Religion of the Nandi”, of. cz. i. 90; za., The Nandi, p. 37. 6 A. C. Hollis, ‘*The Religion of the “Nandi”, of. c#t, 1.°903 7¢d@., The Nandi, p. 30. children at the of teeth. 286 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAD. Thus the Nandi, like their kinsfolk the Masai, may be fairly called a prayerful people. Is Asista a As Asis or Asista, the name of the Supreme God of the Pein Nandi, is also the name of the sun, it might be thought that Asis or Asista is a Sun-god rather than a Sky-god. It may be so, but in all that is recorded of him there seems to be very little except his name to connect him definitely with the sun,’ though the customs of spitting and throwing teeth in the direction of the sun certainly admit of, if they do not require, a solar interpretation. On the whole it is perhaps safer to class the great god of the Nandi among the kindly Sky-gods, whose range is so wide in Africa, than to rank him with the pure Sun-gods, who, apart from their occurrence in ancient Egypt, appear to be on the whole rare in Africa. Similarly we saw that among the Wachagga of Kilimanjaro the Supreme God is known by a name (Ruwa) which signifies the sun, though his attributes are rather those of a Sky-god.” A.C. Hollis On the Nandi religion and its relation to that of the HEAL o¢ Bantu tribes about them I will quote the remarks of Mr. the Nandi. A. C. Hollis, our highest authority on the tribe. He says: “Tt will be seen that the Nandi believe in a sky-god, whose name, as already stated, is synonymous with the sun. The Nandi also, like the surrounding Bantu peoples and unlike the Masai, worship and propitiate the spirits of deceased ancestors. Asa general rule it may, I think, be said that prayer and sacrifice to the sun or deities in the sky are un- known among the Bantu tribes of Eastern Africa, whilst this form of worship is followed by all the Nilotic or Hamitic tribes. The Bantu Kikuyu, it is true, acknowledge a sky-god whom they call Ngai, but both the name and the worship are obviously borrowed from the Masai. The Chaga, too, who sometimes pray to a sun-god called Iruwa, and spit towards the east when they leave their huts in the morning, have probably taken these customs from the Dorobo, who are nearly akin to the Nandi.” * 1 Compare Sir Charles Eliot, in the Wapare. See above, pp. 197, 201 A. C, Hollis, Zhe Manad?, p. xix. sgq. Compare pp. 122-124, 170 sg., 2 See above, pp. 205 sgg. Other 173 5g., 279. African Sky-gods whose names appear to mean ‘‘ the Sun” are Ilanzi, the god 3 A. C. Hollis, ‘‘The Religion of of the Wafipa, and Ithuwa, the god of — the Nandi”, of. cz?. 1. 90. V WORSHIP OF LHL SKYIN LASITERN APRICA 287 Like so many other African peoples, the Nandi tell a Story of the story to account for the origin of human mortality ; but cae i unlike some of their congeners they appear entirely to dog and exculpate the deity from all share in the unfortunate trans- inte action and to lay the whole blame of it on a dog. What happened, if we can trust their account, was as follows. When the first people lived on the earth a dog came to them one day and said, “ All people will die like the moon, but unlike the moon you will not return to life again unless you give me some milk to drink out of your gourd and beer to drink through your straw. -If you do this, I will arrange for you to go to the river when you die and to come to life again on the third day.” But the people laughed at the dog and gave him some milk and beer to drink off a stool. The dog was huffed at not being served in the same vessels as a human being, and although he put his pride in his pocket and swallowed the milk and the beer, he went away very sulky, saying, “All people will die, and the moon alone will return to life”. That is why, when people die, they remain away, whereas when the moon dies she re- appears after three days’ absence.’ If only people had treated that dog more civilly, we should all unquestionably have risen from the dead on the third day. The Suk belong, as we have seen, to the same group of The Suk Nilotic tribes as the Nandi and Masai, but they are much Brats less homogeneous and compact. The physical type varies greatly from the tall handsome Hamite, with almost perfect features, to the squab, dwarf-like pigmy with spread nose and protruding eyes. Their original home seems to have been on the Elgeyo escarpment, to the east of Mount Elgon, in Kenya Colony (British East Africa). Timber and grass are plentiful there, and the rocky descent into the Kerio offers many natural fortresses. In these mountain fastnesses, accordingly, the Suk appear to have been joined by many broken men, refugees from tribes that had been conquered or exterminated by more warlike invaders. Hence the diversity of physical type which now characterizes the Suk. Of all the tribes that have gone to compose the Suk nation, | 1 A. C. Hollis, The Mandi, p. 98. I have reported this story elsewhere (Folk-lore in the Old Testament, i. §4 59.). Belief of the Suk in a Supreme God called Tororut. A com- pendium of Suk theology. Asis, the Sun, and Ilat, the Rain. 288 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. none has so deeply influenced both the language and the customs as the Nandi.’ The religious notions of the Suk are extremely vague; it is difficult to find two men whose ideas on the subject coincide. All, however, agree as to the existence of a Supreme Being ; most of them call him Torérut, that is, the Sky; but a few call him Ilat, that is, the Rain. A man named Tiamolok, one of the oldest of the Suk then living, and renowned for his knowledge of folk-lore, gave Mr. Beech the following out- line of Suk theology. ) “ Torérut is the Supreme God. He made the earth and causes the birth of mankind and animals. No man living has seen him, though old men, long since dead, have. They say he is like a man in form, but has wings—huge wings— the flash of which causes the lightning (ferza/), and the whirring thereof is the thunder (fofz/). He lives above (yzm), and has much land, stock, ivory, and every good thing. He knows all secrets; he is the universal father; all cattle diseases and calamities are sent by him as punishment to men for their sins. : “ His wife is Seta (the Pleiades), and his first-born son is Arawa (the Moon). //at (the Rain) is another son, as are Kokel (the Stars) his other children. TZopogh (the Evening Star) is his first-born daughter. Aszs (the Sun) is his younger brother, who is angry in the dry season. All these are gods, and all are benevolently disposed towards mankind.” ” This is a clear and consistent account of a great Sky- god, husband of the Pleiades, father of the Moon, the Stars, and the Rain, and elder brother of the Sun. It will be observed that according to this account Asis, the Sun, who is the chief god of the Nandi, occupies only a subordinate place in Suk theology. Other Suk, however, say that the only god they know is Ilat, the Rain, who is supreme and lord of life and death. Others, again, maintain that Ilat is the servant of Tordrut, that it is his duty to carry water, and that when he spills the water, it rains.® 1M. W. H. Beech, Zhe Suh, their 2M. W. H. Beech, Zhe Suk, p. 19. Language and Folk-lore (Oxford, 1911), i PPL SIA e203 00. 3M. W. H. Beech, 7he Suk, p. 19. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 289 On the whole, Mr. Beech, our best authority on the language, customs, and beliefs of the Suk, concludes that “the general consensus of opinion inclines to the belief in the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient being or entity, to whom it is advisable to make frequent prayers, and who is responsible, not only for the creation of the world, but for all the good and evil occurrences that have happened in it ever since.” ? The Alur are a Nilotic people who inhabit a consider- The Alur, able area on the western shore of Lake Albert and along 7.70t% people of the western bank of the Nile from the point where it issues LakeAlbert from Lake Albert to a point a little north of Wadelai. sea Their language differs from that of all the tribes around them and is identical with that of the Shilluk, who inhabit the western bank of the Nile much farther to the north. Hence there is every reason to accept as probable the tradition of the Alur that their ancestors migrated to their present home from the north more than a century ago.” They are an agricultural people, cultivating maize, sorghum, eleusine grain, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Eleusine grain constitutes their staple food. Men and women share in the labour of agriculture. But they also rear cattle, though théy do not pay so much attention to the herds as do the Dinka and Bari, two other tribes of the Upper Nile.® The Alur believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, Belief of whom they call Rubanga. His home is generally supposed "<4!" . ; : a Supreme to be the sky or the air, but no bodily attributes are ascribed Being to him. He receives little or no regular worship ; but when Barats the harvest has been good, a number of communities will] who lives meet together and hold a festival under shady trees. Men + ae a and women share in the festivity, and all join in singing, eating, and above all drinking in honour of Rubanga. But in general Rubanga is only invoked to explain events of which the causes are mysterious or unknown, as, for example, when some one is suddenly cut off in the prime of life, when a fire breaks out in a village and the incendiary cannot be discovered, or when one man’s herds multiply 1M. W. H. Beech, 7he Suk, p. 20. 1894), pp. 492-494. 2 Franz Stuhlmann, At Emin 8 Franz Stuhlmann, of. cet. pp. 497- Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 499. VOL. I U Belief of the Alur in spirits of nature and spirits of the dead, The Lango . district. 290 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. while his neighbour’s cattle are dwindling away. In short, the Alur make of Rubanga a sort of stalking-horse to explain all inexplicable occurrences and to cloak their own ignorance. In ordinary life you may often hear such expressions as, “Rubanga has done that”; or, “Are you Rubanga, that you give yourself such airs?” ? Besides this mysterious being the Alur believe in the existence of spirits of nature, which dwell in the woods, the steppes, the river, and the wind. The river spirits are’ particularly feared, because the crocodiles do their bidding. Of a life beyond death the Alur are said to know nothing. Yet the spirits of the dead are believed to appear to them in dreams and to give them injunctions which it would be unlucky to disregard. But if a ghost persistently intrudes on somebody’s slumbers, the sufferer will lay a small gift on the grave of the deceased in order to get rid of his unquiet spirit. But apart from such petty offerings occasionally deposited on the graves and left there for a short time, there can hardly be said to be any regular worship of the spirits of the dead.’ The Lango district occupies a great region in the north of the Uganda Protectorate. Its area is between five and six thousand square miles, and it is inhabited by a variety of tribes, among which the Lango alone, who give their name to the district, number about a quarter of a million.® It is a flat, savannah-like country, for the most part treeless, but covered with coarse spear-grass some eight or ten feet high, and intersected by innumerable marshy rivers, whose sluggish current is almost blocked by thick vegetation. But the yellow - flowering mimosa is everywhere to be seen, yellow-flowering leguminosae break the monotony of the unending grass, and a profusely flowering lilac adds a touch of colour to the drab landscape. Papyrus lines the river banks, and water-lilies, blue, white, and yellow, drape the surface of Lake Kwania. In general, the prospect is limited by the tall grass, but in August and September, when the flowers are in full bloom and have been refreshed by the 1 Franz Stuhlmann, of, czt. p. 528. 3 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, a 2 Franz Stuhlmann, of. cet. pp. ilotic Tribe of Uganda (London, 528 59. 1923), Pp. 42, 50. Vv WORKSAIP-OF THESKY JN EASTERN AFRICA 201 passing of an occasional shower, the eye is pleased by frequent and unexpected patches of colour, where the Calotropis procera, with its balloon-like fruit, the gardenia, petunia and aster, jasmine and gladiolus, lupin and the heavy-scented clematis are all ablaze. Later in the year nothing is to be seen but the parched grass and here and there the sere and yellow leaves of withered and stunted trees. Only in the north-eastern portion of the district, where the rivers flow in deeper beds, the gullies are fringed with magnificent trees mantled with convolvulaceae and lianae in tropical exuberance.’ As might be expected from the nature:of the country, The game with its abundance of water and of cover, game is numerous 9..", and varied, including giraffe, rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo, eland, zebra, and many kinds of bucks. Wild boars are destructive of the crops; lions, leopards, and hyenas prey on the live-stock. Rats and voles are omnipresent. The hippopotamus is seen wallowing in some waters, and crocodiles abound in the rivers and lakes, except in Lake Kwania, where their numbers have been reduced by the Lango, who eat their flesh. Mosquitoes swarm everywhere, and at certain times and in certain regions sandflies are an unmitigated pest.’ Thus man has many foes to contend with in this exuberance of animal life. The Lango are a Nilotic people, and like other tribes of The the same stock they are a narrow-jawed, long-limbed, dark- ee skinned race, lean, but muscular. Their lips are much Physical thinner and their noses better formed, according to our ee European standard, than is usual among pure negroes, In eg De contrast with the practice of Bantu tribes, the men do all the hard work of cultivation, and this, together with the pursuits of hunting and fighting, has given them a fine appearance of, physical strength and activity, which is not belied by their powers of endurance and sustained exertion.® They raise good crops, but their success is due to the fertility of the soil rather than to their skill as farmers ; for they are agricultural from necessity and not from choice ; at heart, like other Nilotic tribes, they are a pastoral 'J. H. Driberg, 7he Lango, pp. 2 J.H1. Driberg, The Lango, pp. 4659. 43-46. 3 J. H. Driberg, 7he Lango, p. 50. 292 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN ARICA CHAP. people, who really love their herds. Not infrequently, when cattle have died or been carried off by raiders, the women raise the cry of mourning, as if for a dead man. The type of Lango cattle is the short-horned, humped zebu. The owner of a cow milks her himself, or, in his absence, his children do it for him; but in no case may a woman. perform the duty. The Lango also keep goats and sheep, but do not milk them.’ Religion of The religion of the Lango is said to be composed of two Haar ae elements, on the one hand, the worship of ancestral spirits, inahigh and on the other hand the worship of a high god whom are they call Jok. This name for a Supreme Being is said to be known, in varying forms, to all the Nilotic tribes except the Jaluo, among whom, as we saw, the high god is known by a different name.” The Lango conception of Jok is vague. They. liken him to moving air, and a village in which many deaths occur is said to be on the path of the air or of Jok. He has never been seen, but he can be heard and felt ; he manifests himself most sensibly in whirlwinds and circular eddies of air. Like the air or the wind, he is omni- present ; his dwelling is everywhere—in trees, in rocks, in hills, in springs and pools, and more vaguely in the air.* Apparently, too, he inhabits the sky, for on rare occasions he has taken up people to it from the earth. One such visitor to heaven is known to have returned to this sublunary world after a stay of four days in the celestial mansions. He could not remember much of what he had seen; but he did know that there were a great many black, but no white, people in heaven; that they were just like people here on earth, except that they all wore tails, and that they ate nothing but fried flies, though there were cattle, sheep, and goats in plenty. Asa diet of fried flies did not agree with him, and there was nothing else to eat, he begged Jok to send him back to earth, and with this request the kind- hearted deity apparently complied.‘ Jok as Jok created the sky and the earth, which the Lango Seb conceive as the two halves of a great sphere; and the births of life. 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 3 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 90 597., 93, 94, 96. 216 sq. 2 Above, p. 279. 4 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, p. 217. Vv MOnS GIF, OF SII PISK YIN EASTERN AFRIGA, 293 both of men and animals are still referred to his agency. For example, a goat which bears twins or triplets is garlanded or festooned with a particular sort of convolvulus in recogni- tion of the favour shown by Jok to the animal ;! and of a human mother of twins it is said, “Jok visited so-and-so ; _ she has borne twins”. In general, the character of Jok is benevolent. From Jok is kind him come rich harvests, and he ordered the seasons so that PutJealous: the rainy season should ensure abundant crops, and that the dry season should allow of the joys of hunting. Further he shows his kindly nature in being always accessible to the prayers and inquiries of the faithful, and through his seers he gives advice on all matters great and small, but specially on the important topics of war and hunting. Still he is a jealous god and punishes neglect with severity, demanding his meed of sacrifice and observance. Scoffers who openly profess that they do not believe in Jok, and that his oracles are worthless, are punished by him with leprosy or a painful death. Indeed, disease, accidents, failure in hunting, loss of cattle, and many other tribulations are commonly regarded by the Lango as punishments inflicted by Jok upon men for their neglect or their sin. So powerful is Jok that his The over- proximity is dangerous to men, not so much because he aaa bears them ill-will, as on account of the very nature of the of Jok. divine essence, contact with which is more than a mortal can endure ; some buffer must be interposed to screen humanity from the awful, the overpowering energy of the deity. Hence the Lango never build their villages on hills, because hills are vaguely associated with Jok.® : Nevertheless, curiously enough, there is no danger to be Jok takes feared from Jok if he takes up his abode in a tree near the “P." village, or even in the village itself, for he will not do so in sacred ° . . . . e,e . trees, without warning, which gives time to propitiate him by jie he is offerings, the erection of shrines, and compliance with his worshipped instructions concerning religious observances and the rules a a of life. The effect is to mollify the deity, or at all events to a 0» neutralize the danger inevitably attendant on his personality.* a: 1 J. H. Driberg, 7he Lango, p. 223. 218, 223 sg. 2 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 222. 4 J. H. ‘Driberg, Zhe Laugo, pp. 3 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 218 sg. Various titles of Jok, 294 WORSHIP OLS THC OR VELN AL RICA CHAP. Indeed, the worship of Jok is specially associated with sacred trees. In this connexion he bears a special title, Jok Adongo, that is, Jok the Large or Powerful. Sometimes Jok will call a village headman by name at dead of night, and when the man answers, the deity will say, “Do not you or any of your people cut such and such a tree, for I am present in it, and it is sacred to me; nor may any one venture to pass under its shadow from oftyeno (about 5 P.M.) till dawn”. The headman instructs his people accordingly, and that tree is for ever sacred. No particular sort of tree is thus dedicated to Jok, but fig trees and kigelias are the kinds he specially favours. Once the tree has been thus sanctified by the presence of Jok, the headman resorts to it for the purpose of getting advice on such subjects as war and hunting. He goes to the tree at dawn, alone and un- attended, and standing at a safe distance asks the tree’s advice and counsel, observing that he and his people have faithfully refrained from injuring the tree or passing under its shadow. The tree will answer, speaking with a human voice and saying that the people have no claim on its gratitude; “For where”, it asks, “is my shrine? and where are my offerings and sacrifices?” It then directs the head- man as to the building of a suitable shrine. The shrine is thereupon built under the tree. It is a diminutive hut, con- sisting only of a grass roof supported on four posts about a foot high, the whole hut being no more than eighteen inches in diameter. Contented with this humble shrine and with the offerings at it, the tree, or rather Jok in the tree, will give an oracular response on any question which the headman may put to it, without the intervention of a seer or any other intermediary.’ Though Jok is conceived of as an indivisible entity per- meating the whole universe,’ and there is no plural form of his name,” yet he is known under a variety of titles which correspond to his different manifestations and _ activities. Thus one of his manifestations, as we have seen, is in the form of a tree-god, in which character he bears the title of Jok Adongo. But his oldest manifestation, curiously enough, 1 J. H. Driberg, 7he Lango, p. 218. 2 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 223 note}. Vv WORSHIP UCP eL TE OR Yet RAS LERN'ARPRICA | 295 is in the form of a female called Atida, a name which may Atida, the not be spoken by the vulgar, who address her as Min Jok, Sa that is, “the Mother of God”. She is particularly associated and her with hunting, fighting, and rain, and her oracles are mainly, soaaes though not exclusively, delivered by prophetesses.’ For tree. example, to the north of the River Moroto there is said to be a large banyan tree which for very many years has been sacred to Atida, the Mother of God, and under the tree sits the prophetess, a woman of great stature. In recent years the popularity of the shrine. has declined, but formerly the Lango resorted to it from far and wide to receive prophecies of war and of the chase, and they took with them presents of beer, or chickens, or goats. On the day of their arrival they would sit there in meditation, and next night they would lean their spears against the tree, in order that virtue might pass from the tree into the spears and give them success. In the morning they would proffer their request, and the prophetess would convey it to the tree and interpret the answer of the tree to the inquirers ; for, though the tree spoke with ahuman voice, its words were understood only by the prophetess. In that respect the banyan tree of the Mother of God differed from the trees animated by Jok Adongo, for these latter speak in a language intelligible to anybody who knows the Lango tongue. After a successful foray or hunt the votaries would bring thankofferings of loot or game, which were hung upon the banyan tree.” At an elaborate ceremony, which is annually performed Annual for the purpose of ensuring a due fall of rain, prayers are“ y and prayers addressed to Min Jok, the Mother of God, and her help is to the besought at the festival. She is implored to send abundant rede rain and to give a good harvest, and further she is urged to rain. disclose any persons whose hearts are evil, and who purpose to conceal or withhold the rain by magic. The ceremony takes place at a sacred tree, either a fig tree or a sycamore, and the men sit in orderly rows under the tree while the prayers for rain are being put up. The old men lead the prayer, and the others respond in a monotone, concluding each prayer with a long-drawn, deep-throated moan. After 1 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, p. 218. 2 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, pp. 219 sg. Jok as the patron of souls. Shrines for ghosts, 296 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. the prayers. the men dance what is called the bell dance, in which all the performers imitate the actions of their totemic animals, whether the animal is a leopard, a monkey, a duiker, or what not. There is no instrumental music, but a singer stands in the middle of the circle of the dancers and sings while they dance. The ceremonies and the dances last several days. On the last day medicated water is thrown up into the air, and an old man climbs the tree and sprinkles the medi- cated water on its leaves, praying the while for good rains and harvest. The ceremony includes the sacrifice of a ram and a goat under the sacred tree. The members of one clan will use only a black goat for the sacrifice, because the black colour is symbolical of rain clouds. In no case may a red goat be employed as a victim. At the end of the festival the bones, heads, and skins of the ram and goat are taken away by an old man, who buries them secretly in a river or swamp.’ In one of his manifestations Jok is specially concerned with the souls (22f0) of human beings and animals, for some animals, such as giraffes, roan, elephants, rhinoceroses, and warthogs, possess souls, but others, such as lions and leopards, do not. In his capacity of patron of souls Jok is known as Jok Orongo.? Indeed, the spirits of the human dead are believed to merge into Jok. We are told that the idea which the word Jok now conveys to the Lango mind is apparently “the sum total of the long departed merged into one pre-existing deity called Jok, a plurality of spirits unified in the person of a single godhead, a Spiritual Force composed of innumerable spirits, any of which may be temporarily detached without diminishing the oneness of the Force”.® But in spite of this general absorption of souls in the deity after death, it seems to be beyond question that a certain number of them do retain their individuality, some- times indeed, a very marked and even obtrusive individuality, for a considerable time after their decease. For example,a 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. pp. 229 sg. The Lango word for soul 249-253; 7za@., ‘*Rain-making among (¢#f0) means ‘‘ shade” or ‘‘ shadow”. . the Lango”, Journal of the RF, It is applied equally to the souls of Anthropological Institute, xlix. (1919) — persons, animals, and inanimate ob- pp. 48-61. jects. See J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, 3 J.-H. Driberg, Te Lang, p. 220, + op. eer, | As to the souls of animals, see 7d, 3 J, H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 223. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA | 297 ghost may demand that a shrine be erected for him. This demand he may either communicate personally to a relative, or he may so harass him by a series of petty annoyances that the man is driven to consult a diviner, who thereupon reveals the ghost’s wishes to him. A shrine is accordingly built for him, and in this he takes up his abode, and if he .is decently treated by the family he may favour them with as valuable advice as Jok himself, though sometimes, it must be admitted, the oracle is dumb, the ghost preserving an impenetrable silence. But whether he is taciturn or loquacious, his shrine exactly resembles those that are built for Jok, and at it he receives from time to time offerings of food and beer.’ But some ghosts are so unreasonable and fractious The that not even the construction of a shrine in their geen honour can pacify them. They continue to haunt and someghost. plague their relatives, till it becomes necessary to lay them once for all. For that purpose a man of God (ajoka, literally a Jok man) is sent for. On his arrival he is pre- sented with a he-goat. He kills the animal ceremonially and smears some of the contents of its stomach on the chest of the man who is haunted by the troublesome ghost. Then he shakes a rattle to avert evil influences and places in readiness a new-made jar with a narrow mouth. In the jar he puts some of the goat’s meat and a little of the sort of food of which the deceased in his lifetime was known to be fond. At the side of the jar he places the lid ready to be clapped on at a moment’s notice. The trap is now set and baited; it only remains to lure the ghost into it. For this purpose the man of God shakes his rattle vigorously and calls loudly on the ghost by name. Suppose the dead man was named Okelo, the man of God will cry, “Okelo, come here and take your food”. The ghost accordingly arrives on the scene of action, but he is wary and suspicious. “ How do I know that I may trust your” says he. “There are none of my friends here. Where is Ngulu?” naming a former friend. But the man of God is prepared to meet this objection, for he has summoned the friends and relations of the deceased, and ' J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 231. The release of a repentant ghost. State of the souls of animals after death. 298 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN APRICA CHAP, they are now at hand, ready to answer to their names in case the ghost should. call for them. So Ngulu comes forward as a guarantee of good faith and sits down by the pot. The ghost then goes through the muster-roll of his old friends; they all answer to their names and come forward, or if any happen to be unavoidably detained, a satis- factory explanation of their absence is tendered to the ghost. The misgivings of the ghost are now dispelled, and firmly convinced that he is really being invited to a family feast, he, so to say, puts his head in the noose by entering the jar to partake of the savoury meat which his soul loves. But no sooner is he inside the jar than the man of God claps on the lid and fastens it down tightly. The ghost inside struggles manfully and raises a bitter cry, “Thou deceivest me, thou killest me”, but it is all in vain. The man of God turns a deaf ear to his remonstrances, seals the lid, carries away the pot, and buries it in the middle of a swamp. That is the end of the ghost as such. Henceforth his immortal spirit is absorbed in Jok, the deity." That may be taken as the regular method of giving a quietus to a troublesome ghost. But sometimes a ghost, on being safely caught and bottled up in a jar, is led to see the error of his ways and to promise amendment, if only they will let him out. On the other hand he threatens that, if they persist in sealing up the pot and burying it in the swamp, he will kill every soul in the village. Alarmed at these sanguinary threats, and knowing that, if the worst comes to the worst, they can always pot him again, his relations take off the lid and let him out, and even build a shrine for him in the village. But beside the shrine they always set the pot as a reminder to the ghost of what he may expect if he should relapse into his former career of crime. It is to the credit of ghosts in general that no such case of a backsliding ghost is on record.” Whether the souls of animals as well as of men are finally absorbed into the deity we are not informed ; but it seems clear that some of them at least lead an independent life for some time after the death of the body. For 1 J, H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 232 5g. 2 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, p. 233. Vv WORSHIP (OF THE SKY .IN EASTERN AFRICA 299 example, if a hunter kills a rhinoceros, the soul or ghost of How to the rhinoceros is very vengeful and dangerous, and the slayer Es must at once return to his village and consult a seer.as to rhinoceros, what steps he should take to appease or lay the ghost of the animal. The ceremonies prescribed by the seer naturally vary with the circumstances, but they always include the sacrifice of a black ram at the door of the slayer’s house. The carcase is dragged whole into the wilderness and left near a river, but the old men of the village may go and eat it there, provided that they burn the skin and bones and throw the ashes into the water. Having thus appeased the ghost of the rhinoceros, the slayer may return and cut up its body ; but he may not bring the horns into the village, because in the case of a rhinoceros it is not physically possible wholly to eradicate the viciousness of the ghost. The same holds true in an even higher degree of the roan antelope, the ghost of which is most particularly vengeful, vicious, and dangerous.’ These facts are of interest for their bearing on the much- debated question whether or not animals possess immortal souls like those of men. In the opinion of the Lango some animals, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and warthogs, certainly do possess souls which survive the death of their bodies, and their testimony on this Tisalar i topic may be accepted for what it is worth. A man who interprets Jok’s will for the benefit of his The fellow-creatures is called an ajoka, that is,a Jok-man or man SoU Maia of God. Both men and women may hold the sacred office ; of Jok’swill indeed the most famous of these divinely inspired ministers Spina have always been women. Women alone are competent Man of to serve in. the capacity of prophetesses at certain shrines, ae particularly at those of Atida or the Mother of God. While a man of God is engaged in ascertaining the will of Jok, he wears a serval skin slung down the front of his body, the forefeet being fastened round his neck, and he holds in his hand a rattle to avert inauspicious influences. An inquirer of the deity always prefaces his petition with a small present, generally some beer, flour, or cakes, part of which is offered at the shrine and the rest kept by the man or woman of 1 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, pp. 229 59. Among the inspired in- terpreters of the divine will are epilep- tic patients, both men and women. The treat- ment of epileptics. The House of Exorcism. 300 WORSHTPLOPALALGSANGIN BliiGs CHAP. God as his or her fee. If the petition is one of great importance a goat may be offered.’ Among these interpreters of the divine will a special class is occupied by epileptic patients, who may be either men or women, but are oftener women than men. _ For an epileptic fit is regarded as a sure and certain token of divine inspiration ; the deity is thought to have entered into the patient and taken possession of him or her; they say that “God has seized him” (/ok omake), The first step in such a case is to serve a notice of ejectment on God, in other words, to exoreize him. In former days the ejectment often took a very forcible form ; the patient was simply flogged to the accompaniment of drums and singing till God had left him, in other words till the fit was over. The present procedure is more elaborate. In every village, apparently, there is a small hut set specially apart for the use of inspired, that is, epileptic patients ; it is quite distinct from the shrine (adz/a) either of Jok or of a ghost, and it bears a different name, being called a House of Exorcism (o¢ abanz). It contains nothing but a sacred spear or spear of Jok (dong jok). - Accordingly, when a person falls down in a fit, an exorcizer, who must himself be an epileptic patient, comes to the hut of his fellow sufferer with a sacred spear in his hand and conducts him to the House of Exorcism, at the door of which a goat has been tied. At entering the house the patient. administers a kick to the goat, which is then removed and killed. A little of the meat is given to the sufferer, who eats it in the House of Exorcism. Meantime the whole village is engaged in drinking beer, dancing, singing, and making as much noise as is humanly possible in order to drive away evil influences. By this time the worst effects of inspiration are over; the convulsive stage is past, and though the patient is still possessed by Jok, he now lies passive, inert, and comparatively sane. The dance of exorcism is accompanied by the music of six large drums, and all the exorcizers who can be mustered for the occasion take part in it, carrying their sacred spears and shaking their rattles. On his recovery the patient has to pay the owner of the drums a goat and one hoe, and to supply him with new 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Zango, p. 234. v WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 301 skins for his drums, as the old skins are presumably worn out with the hard usage to which they have been subjected in the process of exorcism. At night he is led back to his own house, but the exorcizer who came to the rescue at the first instance remains for two days without food in the House of Exorcism, for it takes him that time to complete the exorcism. If the patient succumbs to the treatment, his friends submit to the will of heaven; for they know that the day fore-ordained for him has arrived, and that Jok has sent his spirit to take him away. But if he survives, as he generally does, he is now a fully qualified exorcizer (adanwa) and man of God (ajoka), competent at any time to reveal the will of God to his worshippers.’ Whenever Jok, in his special manifestation as Jok Nam, Oracles desires to communicate with a mortal, he always does so Ci Jok through one of these epileptics. When the chosen vessel by persons feels the old symptoms coming on, he takes his measures Sat i accordingly. He hurries to the House of Exorcism, and _ there, the full force of inspiration descending on him, he falls down in a fit and writhes in the usual convulsions which attest the presence of the deity. In this divine frenzy, Jok Nam, speaking through the mouth of the epileptic, summons the person with whom he desires to communicate. On his arrival he receives the divine message from the man or woman in the fit, who thereafter gradually recovers from the delirium of inspiration and remains in his right mind until the next time.” These exorcizers (abanwa) are invariably epileptic patients Exorcismof and can communicate the will of Jok just like ordinary men Uy 89s and women of God (aoka), who are not epileptics. In animals. certain cases, indeed, it is absolutely essential to consult them,.as when a man has killed an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a warthog, and goes about in bodily fear of the ghost of the warthog, the elephant, or the rhinoceros. In such an emergency the only person on earth who can relieve him of his terrors by laying the ghost of the animal is an epileptic.’ A qualified practitioner can voluntarily induce a fit of inspiration, that is, of epilepsy, by dancing and other 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 2 J. H. Driberg, The Lango, p. 239. 237-239. 3 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 239. How the great god Jok can be outwitted, ipdsl Driberg on the religion of the Lango. 302 WORSHIP OF THE SK YIN AFRICA CHAP. provocatives of violent excitement, and the words which in that state he utters are accepted by the inquirer as the words of God, a revelation of Jok Nam. But more usually he seats himself calmly in the House of Exorcism and falls into a trance, during which his soul leaves him and visits Jok, in his special manifestation as Jok Orongo, from whom the soul obtains the requisite information. On its return to his body the practitioner, still in a sort of trance, communicates the divine message to the inquirer, and then slowly returns to his normal condition.’ But while the great god Jok is thus regarded as the supreme fount of wisdom, which may flow down to mortals through epileptics and other suitable channels, his intelligence would seem to be, in certain directions, of a limited order ; for the Lango think that they can outwit and overreach him. For example, when the men are going out to hunt, they take the auspices, and it may be that the omens are unfavourable, prognosticating, for example, that one of the hunters will fall a prey to a leopard. To obviate this calamity, they mould clay figures of a man, a woman, and a leopard ; the leopard is represented in the act of biting the man, and the woman is supposed to be the man’s widow lamenting his death. The name of an enemy is given to the figure of the man, and that enemy, it is confidently anticipated, will be attacked and devoured by the leopard. This ingenious device is called “frustrating God” (keto /Jok), because the wrath of God is thereby diverted from its proper object to another.” Again, when the children of a family have died in succession, one after the other, the next born will be called by some such trivial or unseemly name as “frog”, “ordure”, and* so fortho= Dhusmduseess thrown in the eyes of the deity, who will not turn his atten- tion to a child so named, and thus the life of the infant will be saved.? From all this we may infer that in the opinion of the Lango their great god Jok is by no means infallible. To conclude this notice of Lango theology, I will quote the words of Mr. Driberg, our best and almost only authority 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 239. 3 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Zango, pp. 2 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, pp. 144, 225. 113 5g., 224 5g. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 393 on the people. He says: “It cannot be too often em- phasized that religion is a much more important factor in the secular life of primitive peoples than it is with civilized communities—indeed, it is the most important factor of all. It enters into all their family and social relations, into their most commonplace activities and their daily occupations— in short, there is no aspect of native life which has not its _ religious significance, and which is not more or less con- trolled by religious rites or prohibitions. Jok is so intensely all-pervading that in all important events prudence compels that his will be ascertained, lest he be offended by an unintentional slight, or in order to profit by his omniscience in obtaining the best results of a contemplated action.” ’ The Dinka are another Nilotic tribe, or rather congeries of independent tribes who occupy an immense territory in the valley of the White Nile, situated chiefly on the eastern bank of the river and stretching from the sixth to the twelfth degree of north latitude. Physically they are a typical Nilotic people, tall, long-legged, slender, and with a complexion of the deepest black. They are essentially a pastoral people, passionately devoted to the care of their numerous herds of cattle, though they also keep goats and sheep, and the women cultivate small quantities of millet and sesame. But besides the comparatively powerful tribes who own cattle there are some small and poor tribes who have no cattle and hardly till the ground, but live in the marshes near the river and depend largely for their support on fishing and hunting the hippopotamus. Their dirty evil- smelling villages are built on ground that scarcely rises above the vast reedy expanse of the marshes. The pastoral people naturally depend for their subsistence in great measure on the regular fall of rain, without which the pastures wither and the cattle die. Rain accordingly plays a great part in the religion and superstition of the Dinka.’ 1 J. H. Driberg, Zhe Lango, p. 233. 2 As to the Dinka and their country, see ‘*E, de Preussenaere’s Reisen und Forschungen im Gebiete des weissen und blauen Nil”, Petermann’s Geo- graphische Mittheilungen, Erginzungs- heft, No. 50 (Gotha, 1877), pp. 13 sgqg., 18 sgg.; G. Schweinfurth, Zhe Fleart of Africa, Third Edition (Lon- don, 1878), i. 48 sgg.; Zhe Golden Bough, Part III. The Dying God, pp. 28 sgq.; C.G. Seligmann, s.v, ‘‘ Dinka”, in J. Hastings, Amcyclopaedia of Re- ligion and Ethics, iv. 704 sqq. The Dinka, a Nilotic tribe of the White Nile. The Dinka worship ancestral spirits ( jok) anda high god Dengdit, whose name means ‘* Great Rain”’. How the path between earth and heaven was cut off. 304 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. The Dinka are a deeply religious people. They worship a host of ancestral spirits called zok and a high god called Dengdit, whose name means literally “Great Rain”. They also give him the name of Nyalich, which, literally translated, signifies “in the above”, being the locative form of a word — which means “above”. It is, however, only used as a synonym of Dengdit. A common beginning of Dinka prayers is Myalich ko kwar, that is, “ God and our ancestors ”. The phrase indicates the two main elements of which Dinka religion is composed, to wit, the worship of a high god and the worship of ancestors; and the order in which the two are mentioned in the prayer is significant of their relative importance, for there is no doubt that the great god Dengdit or Nyalich ranks above the ancestral spirits (jok). He is believed to have created the world and established the present order of things, and he it is who is supposed to send the rain from “the rain-place” above, which is especially his home. Nevertheless in the ordinary affairs of life the ancestral spirits (jok) are appealed to far oftener then Dengdit, and in some cases, in which the appeal is nominally made to Dengdit, its form seems to imply that he has been confused with the ancestral spirits.’ The Dinka have a legend that formerly earth and heaven were connected by a path, up and down which men used to pass at will, but that the path was unfortunately cut off under the following melancholy circumstances. Dengdit had a wife named Abuk. One day she was busy making men and women from a bowl of fat which her husband had given her for the purpose; for it appears that God had deputed to his wife the task of creating mankind. Softening the fat over the fire, she moulded the figures out of it with her hand, just as a Dinka potter moulds moist clay. As each person was completed in this fashion, he or she passed down the road to earth; for naturally the creation of human kind took place in heaven, the home of God and his wife. Well, while she was at work, God happened to pass by, and seeing what she was about he warned her against her father- in-law or brother-in-law Lwal Burrajok, with whom the 1 C, G. Seligmann, s.v, ‘‘ Dinka”, in J. Hastings, Axcyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iv. 707. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA — 305 deity was not on those amicable terms which might have been anticipated from their family relationship. But his wife forgot the warning and went to the forest to fetch wood, leaving the bowl simmering on the fire. Just then Lwal Burrajok strolled up, and seeing the bowl, drank some of the fat, spilt more of it on the ground, and out of pure mischief moulded what was left of the fat into preposterous figures, with eyes, mouths, and noses all bunged up and perfectly useless. He then went on his way, but fearing the wrath of his son-in-law or brother-in-law the deity, who could not be expected to take in good part this travesty of creation, he beat a retreat down to earth by the usual road. On her return, God’s wife was horrified to find the spilt fat and the misshapen figures, and she hastened to inform the deity of the trick which his father-in-law or brother-in-law had played her. God was naturally indignant and started in pursuit of his waggish relative by marriage. But when he came to the path leading down to earth, he found to his surprise that the communication had been cut and the road rendered impassable. For the culprit, anticipating pursuit, had persuaded a certain bird to bite through the path with its bill, That was the end of the path that used to join earth and heaven. The bird that did this great mischief is a little bird about the size of a wren, with red and brown plumage ; it builds its nests in the roofs of huts and is very common throughout the Sudan.} Shrines or temples of Dengdit appear to be scattered Shrines of all over the Dinka country. Most Dinka tribes have one P°7s"* shrine in their territory. At these shrines the people pre- sent offerings.” It is said that in former days a hut was built in every village to serve as God’s house, and that sacrifices were offered at it.® Of these shrines one of the holiest is at Luang Deng. The Dinkas visit it in great numbers. Its guardians are thought to be in a special sense the servants of Dengdit. Only they may enter the shrine. But a man desirous of offspring. may bring cattle Sacrifices of cattle to 1S. L. Cummins, ‘‘ Sub-tribes of 3S, L. Cummins, ‘“Sub-tribes of Dengdit at the Bahr-el-Ghazal Dinkas”, Journal the Bahr-el-Ghazal Dinkas”, /ourna/ his shrines. of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiv. of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiv. (1904) pp. 157 59. (1904) p. 157. 2 C. G. Seligmann, of. cz. p. 708. VOL. I X Worship of dead ancestors and sacrifices on their graves. 306 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP. to the shrine and offer them to Dengdit, praying that the desire of his heart may be granted. The door of the shrine is regularly kept shut, but it is opened when one of the animals offered to Dengdit is slaughtered ; and, peering in through the doorway, the worshipper discerns in the darkness the shifting shapes of men and animals, and even of abstractions like happiness, hunger, satisfaction, and cattle- disease. No sacrifice is made until Dengdit has sent a dream to the keeper of the shrine, authorizing him to accept the offering, so that worshippers are nearly always kept waiting for a few days till the keeper dreams his dream. But it rarely happens that a sacrifice is finally refused. It is thought that if a man be sent away without being allowed to sacrifice, he will soon die, or disease will attack his people. As the worshipper approaches, he is accom- panied by two servants of the shrine, one on either side. The animal is killed with a spear kept specially for the purpose, and the spirit of the victim goes to join the other Spirits in the shrine. Before the worshipper leaves the shrine, one of the servants of Dengdit takes dust from the holy precincts, mixes it with oil, and rubs the mixture over the body of the devotee. Sometimes a material object, as a spear, may be given to a man as a sign of favour and a guarantee that he will obtain his wish. In front of the shrine a low mound of ashes has arisen through the cooking of many sacrifices, and on it offerings, such as pieces of tobacco, may be thrown. The contents of the large intestine of the victim are scattered over and about this mound, and near it the worshippers thrust the branch of a tree called akoch into the ground.’ In the Shish tribe of Dinka, certain men who lived long ago were spoken of as “the sons of Dengdit”, though this expression does not imply a physical relationship ; it appears that the Shish considered these “sons” as spirits that came from above to possess certain men who became known by 1 C, G. Seligmann, of. czt. p. 708. tinction drawn between Dinka and Dr. Seligmann adds the following note: Nuer to be erroneous, and that the ‘‘ According to prevailing views, this Nuer are simply a tribe of Dinka shrine is situated in Nuer territory, differing no more from other admittedly though it was formerly held by Dinka, Dinka tribes than these do among and there are Dinka priests at the themselves.” shrine. The writer believes the dis- Vv WORSTIIPIOF LHENSKY IN EASTERN AFRICA © °307 their names. Each of these men is regarded as the ancestor of a Shish clan and has become a powerful ancestral spirit (yok) of the usual type. Every year, after the harvest has been reaped, ceremonies are performed at the graves of these men, four in number, whos¢ names are Walkerijok, Majush, Mabor, and Malan. At this yearly sacrifice a man, in whom the ancestral spirit is supposed to be immanent, kills a sheep or a bull, and smears its blood and the contents of the large intestine on the grave in the presence of the descendants of the hero, for no person but the descendants of the hero may take part in the rite. The flesh is boiled, all eat thereof, and great care is taken not to break the bones, which are thrown into the river.! The beliefs of the Dinka concerning the fate of the Beliefs of human souls (afzep) after death are apparently not always nia} consistent with each other. On the one hand they think the fate of that the spirits of the old and mighty dead (joé) and the ‘be human spirits of the recent dead (atzep) exist in and around death. the villages in which their descendants live. Of these two sorts of spirits those of the ancient dead (of) are the more powerful and energetic, and they sometimes have special shrines built in their honour. They are also supposed to have their home in the earth, in the immediate neighbour- hood of their shrines. The spirits of the recent dead (avtzep) are thought to be at their strongest immediately after death, and although funeral feasts are held for no other purpose than to propitiate them lest they should cause sickness and death, they gradually grow weaker, and in a very few generations may safely be forgotten. The spirits of the Sacrificesto ancient or, as we may perhaps style them, the heroic dead {76 P° (jok) retain their strength and energy, and require to be _ propitiated by sacrifice. Nor are the sacrifices offered to them on stated occasions sufficient to satisfy their craving. They accept these as their due, but they also make known their wants by appearing to their descendants in dreams and demanding that a bullock or other animal shall be killed ; or they may appear to a professional seer (tie) and command him to deliver their message. If their demands are disregarded, they send sickness or bad luck, 1 C, G. Seligmann, of. c#t. pp. 708, 709. 308 WORSATP OF (THE SKYVCIN APRICA CHAP. and the only remedy for these ills is sacrifice. But the spirits of the heroic dead (jok):may send sickness to man- kind without warning them beforehand in dreams, and visions of the night ; hence the usual treatment of all sickness is to begin by making offerings to the heroic dead or to the great god Dengdit, when he is confused with them.’ Belief that But side by side with this belief that the spirits of the Nees dead are everywhere around them and mingling in the toDengdit. affairs of the living, the Dinka entertain another and apparently incompatible belief, that after death the human soul (atzep) leaves the neighbourhood of its body at the time of burial and passes upward to the great god Dengdit in his place between earth and sky, whence comes the rain from which the deity, as we have seen, takes his name. But the spirits that thus attain to the abode of Dengdit are not absorbed in him, for they retain their power of returning to earth. It is a common notion that the spirits of the ancient or heroic dead (ok) can pass to and from this earth to Dengdit, and one of the most familiar articles of Dinka faith is that these august beings come to every dying person to take and conduct his parting spirit (a¢zep) to its placeof rest. The Niel Dinka believe that these angels of death, as we may call them, come in the form of their totem animals; for the Dinka are divided intd totemic clans, and most of the clans speak of their totemic animals as their ancestors. Among the totemic animals, and therefore the ancestors, of the Dinka are snakes, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, lions, and foxes.” Oaths by The reverence which the Dinka entertain for Dengdit Dengdit. appears in their oaths. In small matters the Shish Dinka affirm the truth of their asseverations “by Nyalich”, which, as we have seen, is a synonym for Dengdit. Among the Agar Dinka a form of oath is to place a spear or stick on the ground and jump over it, saying, “By Dengdit, I have not done this thing; if I have, may my spear be speedily put on my grave!” This refers to the Agar custom of putting a man’s spear, bracelets, and shield on his grave for seven days. The most solemn and terrific oath of all is to go‘to the shrine of Dengdit and swear by it.’ 1 C. G, Seligmann, of. ¢z¢. p. 709. Soasn le 2 C. G. Seligmann, of, czt. pp. 705 3 C, G. Seligmann, of, cit. p. 712. Vv WOKS UL eel LIV OAS TEV AL KIGA 309 The need of rain for the pastures and hence for the Import- cattle, which are the staff of life for the Dinka, has tended 2)" y to invest the office of rain-maker (6az7) among them with makers the highest dignity and power. The men who are commonly 5),...° a called the chiefs or sheikhs of the Dinka tribes are regularly. rain-makers, actual or potential. A successful rain-maker is supposed to be animated by the spirit of the great rain- makers of the past, and his influence is very great, for in virtue of his indwelling spirit he is believed to be wiser than common men.’ One of these ancestral spirits supposed to Lerpiu an be immanent in living rain-makers of the Bor tribe is called ae Lerpiu. In 1gtt the rain-maker of the Bor tribe believed thought himself to be animated by the great and powerful spirit ay Recetas Lerpiu, and he affirmed that at his death Lerpiu would pass i rain- into his son. There is a shrine in which Lerpiu is thought aa to reside more or less constantly. Within the hut is kept a very sacred spear, which also bears the name of Lerpiu, and before it stands a post, to which are attached the horns of many bullocks sacrificed to Lerpiu. The ceremony which is Sacrificesto intended to ensure the rainfall consists of a sacrifice offered Sak to Lerpiu for the purpose of inducing him to move Dengdit rain. to send the rain; for Lerpiu is regarded only as a mediator between men and the great sky-god or “rain-god Dengdit. The ceremony takes place in spring, about April, when the new moon is a few days old. In the morning two bullocks are led twice round the shrine and are tied to the post by the rain-maker. Then the people beat drums, and men and women, boys and girls, all dance round the shrine. Nothing further is done until the bullocks urinate, when every one who can get near the beasts rubs his body with the urine. After that all except the old people go away. Presently the rain-maker kills the bullocks by spearing them and cutting their throats. While the sacrifice is being prepared, the people chant: “ Lerpiu, our ancestor, we have brought you a sacrifice: be pleased to cause rain to fall”. The blood of the sacrifice is collected in a gourd, transferred to a pot, put on the fire, and eaten by the old and important people of the clan. Some of the flesh of one bullock is put into two pots, cooked with much fat, and left for many months near 1 C, G, Seligmann, of. czt. p. 711. Sacrifices for rain at the beginning of the rainy season, The Shilluk, a Nilotic tribe of the White Nile. 310 WORSHIP (OF THE SKY AIAN ALRICA CHAP. a sacred bush (aoz), which is an essential part of the shrine, because the spirit of Lerpiu is believed to quit the hut and come to the bush during the great rain-making ceremony in spring. Hence the meat left in pots at the bush is no doubt destined for his consumption; indeed, it is expressly said to be intended for the ancestral spirit (jo#). But the meat of the other bullock is eaten the’same day. The bones of the sacrificed bullocks are thrown away, but their horns are added to the rest on the post.’ Besides the great rain-making ceremony performed at a central shrine, some tribes offer a sacrifice for rain in each settlement. Among the Shish Dinka this takes place before, or at the beginning of, the rainy season. The old men of the settlement (daz) kill a sheep, thanking and praising Dengdit. The victim is bisected longitudinally and horizontally, and the upper half is cut in pieces and thrown up into the air as an offering to Dengdit. As the pieces fall on the ground, so they are left and are soon eaten by dogs and birds. The blood of the sacrifice is allowed-to soak into the ground, but the rest of the meat is boiled and eaten ; the bones may not be broken; they are buried in the skin for seven days and then cast into the river. Some durra (a kind of millet) is boiled, thrown into the air, and then left lying on the ground just like the flesh of the sacrifice? The throwing of the offerings, whether of flesh or of grain, up into the airis a very natural way of presenting them to the deity whose home is in the upper regions of the world. The Shilluk are a Nilotic tribe or nation of the White Nile. Their country is a narrow strip on the western bank of the river from Kaka in the north to Lake No in the south. They also occupy a portion of the eastern bank, and their villages extend some way up the Sobat River. Their country is almost entirely in grass; hence cattle constitute their wealth and the principal object of their care, but they also grow a considerable quantity of durra (a species of millet), though not enough to support the dense population. The villages are built on the slight elevations which break the monotony of the plain. Physically the Shilluk conform to the Nilotic type, being tall, lean, and so dark in colour as 1 C, G, Seligmann, of. cz¢. pp. 711 sg. 2 C. G. Seligmann, of, cit. p. 712. —— ae Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 311 to be almost black. The cheek-bones and lips protrude, but not excessively so; the nose in general is flat, but high noses are not infrequent.’ The Shilluk believe in the existence of a high god whom Beliefofthe they call Juok. He is formless and invisible, and, like the eae air, he is everywhere at once; he is far above men and even called Juok above Nyakang, the semi-divine ancestor of the Shilluk Bowertal kings; nevertheless it is only through Nyakang, as mediator ante or intercessor, that men can approach him, for by sacrificing Nyakang. to Nyakang they induce him to move Juok to send rain. Although the name of Juok occurs in many greetings, as in the phrase, “ May Juok guard you!” (Yemstz /Juok), and although a sick man may, like Job, remonstrate with the deity, crying out, “Why, O Juok?” (Er ra /uok), yet it seems doubtful whether he is ever worshipped directly; and although some Shilluk may vaguely associate the dead with him, this feeling does not seem to imply any dogma concerning the abode and state of the dead. There is an undefined but general belief that the spirits of the dead are about every- Beliefofthe where, and that sometimes they come to their descendants sae ane in. dreams and help them in sickness or give them good ofthedead. counsel. Yet, though, in the case of important men the funeral rites are neither short nor lacking in ceremony, never- theless there is no such considerable worship of ancestral spirits among the Shilluk as there is among the Dinka. The explanation is probably to be found in the concentra- tion of the religion of the Shilluk on the worship of Nyakang and of the divine kings in whom the spirit of Nyakang is believed to be incarnate. Thus, while the Dinka commonly attribute sickness to the action of an ancestral spirit, the Shilluk regard the entrance of the spirit of one of their divine kings into the patient’s body as the most usual cause of illness. But probably it is only the ancient kings who are imagined to afflict people in this manner. Be that as it may, the practical religion of the Shilluk at the present time is the worship of Nyakang.” 1C. G. Seligmann, Zhe Cult of | 458; D. Westermann, Zhe Shilluk Nyakang and the Divine Kings of the FPeople (Berlin, 1912), pp. xx-xxiii. Shilluk (London, 1911), p. 2173 7a., 2 C. G. Seligmann, Zhe Cult of sv. ‘*Shilluk”, in J. Hastings, Zx- Nyakang and the Divine Kings of the cyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, xi. Shilluk (London, 1911), p. 220; 7zd., Father Hofmayr on the Shilluk conception of Juok. 312 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP, The Shilluk conception of Juok is thus explained by a Catholic missionary, Father Hofmayr: “ The fundamental idea of the Shilluk word Juok is that of a Being who is unfathomable and unknown; to whom is ascribed everything that is gigantic and beyond the reach of human understand- ing ; who stands high above the spirits of the dead and the evil spirits, to which he abandons the world, and who thus has nothing to oppose him. The good and evil that befall mankind are both attributed to him, for he is the Creator, the Punisher of Sins, and the Author of Death. For the rest, he dwells high above and troubles himself not about mankind ; good and bad luck he has committed to the care of the subordinate spirits. Hence, once born into the world— the only good turn which the Shilluk acknowledges that he owes to Juok—the ordinary man is no longer dependent on him; indeed, since everything comes to him from his ancestors and he knows Juok only as an avenger, he feels under no obligation whatever to do any reverence to his Creator and Lord. It is very seldom that he mentions the name of Juok, and then only in three forms of greeting, on arrival, ‘Juok has brought you’, ‘Juok has kept you’; and again at parting, ‘Juok guide you.’ “To Juok, too, is ascribed anything wonderful or monstrous. So, for example, when Halley’s comet was seen here in full splendour, it was immediately entitled Juok or Juok’s Star. When the first great Nile steamers passed by the lands of the Shilluk, the people said, ‘Such ships can no man make: they are the handiwork of Juok’. “Lastly, the word Juok is mentioned in cases of sickness and death; at such times the Great Spirit appears only as the avenger of past sins. Thus, they say, ya da /uok, ‘1 am sick’, or anake Juok, ‘He is dead’. Only on such an occasion is an offering made, and that is done, not to show sv. ‘*Shilluk”, in J. Hastings, £7- cyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, xi, 459, 462. Compare W. Hofmayr, ‘* Religion der Schilluk”, Azthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 120 sgg.; D. Wester- mann, Zhe Shilluk People, pp. xxxix sqgqg. Father Hofmayr spells Juok’s name as Cuok, and Nyakang’s name as Nykang. Mr. Westermann spells Juok’s name as Jwok and Nyakang’s name as Nyikang. For the sake of uniformity I have adopted the spellings Juok and Nyakang throughout, even in quoting from Father Hofmayr. As to Nyakang and the divine kings of the Shilluk, see also Zhe Golden Bough, Part Ill. Zhe Dying God, Pp. 17 599. Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA — 313 reverence to the deity, but only to appease the spirit, and that in a mood of sorrow and dejection that accords well with the circumstances. If after such an offering the sick man recovers, strings of beads are tied round his feet, the cure is ascribed to Nyakang’s intercession with Juok, and the convalescent belongs to the class of persons who are dedicated to King Nyakang... . “As to the essence of Juok, he is yoo, that is, wind or The spirit, able to be present everywhere, invisible, from whose ("nce a hand everything has proceeded and can proceed. This Being can assume different shapes at pleasure, but he does not do so, at least not since the great kings have become his intermediaries. “To the question where this great Being dwells, the The abode Shilluk answers, e a mal, he is above, in the air, above the % Ju: clouds, there he has a great. house, there he lives, old and alone. Though the Shilluk stands at a lower level than the Mohammedans to whom he'was once subject, he does not think, at least he does not speak, of life in the other world after so sensuous a fashion as his former rulers, When the sun is passing the highest point in the sky, it is said that he is going under Juok’s house. Juok can certainly choose different places of abode, yet he does not do so and is usually at home, just like the elders of the Shilluk, who love to be in repose. He only comes to earth when something is to be created or when he visits the villages with sickness and death. What this Great Spirit does at other times, the Shilluk know not. Their notion of him is modelled on the mode of life of their aged chiefs, who, lacking nothing, pass The idea their time in gossip. Of old, after the creation, men often °% JU got speech of God. Nyakang was the first and last Shilluk Sibat of who conversed with the Great Spirit. Since he vanished °°" from the earth, Juok has not deigned to deal directly with mankind, but does everything at the intercession of that first king.” ? Of the creation of mankind the Shilluk tell the following Shitluk story. They say that Juok, the Creator, moulded all men Sele: out of earth, and that while he was engaged in the work of men by creation he wandered about the world. In the land of the J°* 1 W. Hofmayr, ‘‘ Religion der Schilluk”, An¢hropos, vi. (I9II) pp. 121 sg. 314 WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN AFRICA CHAP, whites he found a pure white earth or sand, and out of it he fashioned white men. Then he came to the land of Egypt, and out of the mud of the Nile he made red or brown men. Lastly, he came to the land of the Shilluks, and finding there black earth he created black men out of it. The way in which he modelled men was this. He took a lump of earth and said to himself, “1 will make man, but he must be able to walk and run and go out into the fields, so I will give him two long legs, like the flamingo”. Having done so, he thought again, “The man must be able to cultivate his millet, so I will give him two arms, one to hold the hoe, and the other to tear up the weeds”. So he gave him two arms. Then he thought again, “The man must be able to see his millet, so I will give him two eyes”. So two eyes he gave him. Next he thought to himself, “The man must be able to eat his millet, so I will give him a mouth”. So a mouth he gave him. After that he thought within himself, “The man must be able to dance and speak and sing and shout, and for these purposes he must have atongue”. And a tongue he gave him accordingly. Lastly, the deity said to himself, “The man must be able to hear the noise of the dance and the speech of great men, and for that he needs two ears”. So two ears he gave him, and sent him out into the world a perfect man.’ Dente the It is clear that Juok, the God of the Shilluk, is identical compared both in name and nature with the Jok of the Lango.” But Net aa while both names agree with the 7ok of the Dinka, they and the differ from it in meaning, since in the Dinka language jok Dinka. —_ signifies, not a great God and Creator, but the spirit of a dead ancestor. From this it might perhaps be inferred that, if we could trace back the history of the Shilluk Juok and of the Lango Jok far enough, we should find that both these great Gods were men who had been deified after death. It may be so, but the analogy of African Sky-gods or Supreme Beings in general is against the hypothesis. For we have 1 W. Hofmayr, ‘‘Religion der also that the word ¢zfo in the sense Schilluk ”, Amthropos, vi. (1911) pp. both of shadow and of the human 128 sg. I have cited this story of soul is common to the Lango and the creation elsewhere (/o/k-/ove in the Shilluk languages, See J. H. Driberg, Old Testament, i. 22 sq.). The Lango, pp. 228 sgg.; D. Wester- 2 Above, pp. 292 sgg. Itis notable mann, Zhe Sh7/luk People, p. xlv, Vv WORSHIP OF THE SKY IN EASTERN AFRICA 315 seen that for the most part the high gods or Supreme Beings are sharply distinguished from the ancestral spirits not only in name but in function; for while the task of creating the world and man is usually assigned to the high god, who generally dwells in the sky, or at all events in the upper region of the air, the work of carrying on what we may call the ordinary business of the world is commonly supposed to be deputed to the spirits of the dead ; for it is from them that the African for the most part imagines that he experi- ences both good and evil, and it is they accordingly whom he feels bound to propitiate by prayer and sacrifice, while the Creator, having retired from the active conduct of affairs and committed it to the inferior spirits, is supposed to exercise little or no direct influence on human life and accordingly receives but scanty worship from his creature man. The meaning of the names of African Supreme Beings is com- monly unknown or disputed ; but it is significant that among not a few tribes of Eastern Africa the name of the high The names god undoubtedly signifies Sun, Sky, or Rain,’ while other pee ae: tribes of Eastern Africa and many tribes of Northern Nigeria some of _ positively identify their Supreme God with the Sun, whether tara they call him by the name of the Sun or not.” So far as Sun, Sky, ’ ‘ or Rain. they go, these facts support the view that African Sky-gods or Supreme Beings in general are not deified ancestors, but simply personifications of the great celestial phenomena, whether the sky, or the rain, or the sun. 1 Sun among the Wagala, the Wafipa, Sun); p. 288 (as to the Sky); pp. 277, the Wapare, the Wachagga, and the 288, 304 (as to the Rain). Nandi; Sky among most of the Suk ; 2 See above, pp. 122-124 (as to the Rain among the Masai, the Dinka, and tribes of Northern Nigeria), 170 sg. (as some of the Suk. See above, pp.197, tothe Barotse), 173 sg.(as to the Louyi), 201-203, 205-207, 211, 281 (asto the compare p. 279 (as to the Kavirondo). Prithivi, the Vedic Farth- goddess, is the wife of the Sky- god Dyaus, but other- wise hardly figures in Vedic mythology. Hymn to the Earth- goddess in the A tharva- veda, GHIA BR THE WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG THE ARYAN PEOPLES OF ANTIQUITY §1. Zhe Worship of Earth among the Vedic Indians HAVING treated in previous chapters of the personification and worship of the sky, we may next proceed to examine the corresponding personification and worship of the earth, which in the physical world is in a sense the counterpart of the sky. In mythology the Earth, regarded as a person, is often conceived of as the wife of the Sky-god. We have seen that among the ancient Aryans of India the Sky and Earth were thus personified as husband and wife under the names of Dyaus and Prithivi, the father and mother of all living creatures." But apart from her association as a wife with the Sky-god, the Earth-goddess Prithivi appears to have played a very small part in Vedic religion. She is praised alone in a short hymn of the Rzg-veda,? but in it she is hardly regarded as an Earth-goddess pure and simple ; for, though she is said to quicken the earth, she is also described as wielding the thunder-bolt. In the AZztharva- veda, which is a much later collection of hymns than the Rig- veda and was not at first recognized as canonical,° there is a long and beautiful hymn addressed to the Earth- 1 Above, pp. 22 sgq. 2 Rig-veda, v. 84; Hymns of the Rigveda, translated by R, T. H. Griffith (Benares, 1889-1892), vol. i. p. 301. 3 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Indian Empire (Oxford, 1909), il, 229. Macdonell) says that ‘‘the Atharvaveda 316 The writer (Professor A. A. - is decidedly later in language than the Rigveda, but earlier than the Avah- manas. It must have been in existence as a collection by 600 B.C., but was a long time in attaining to canonical rank, It was, however, recognized as the fourth Veda by the second century B.C.” cH. vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG VEDIC INDIANS 317 goddess." In it we read: “The Earth is the mother and I am the son of the Earth: Parjanya is the father; may he nourish us!”* and again: -“Revetence be paid to the Earth, the wife of Parjanya, to her who draws her richness from showers”.’ Here it will be noticed that the husband of the Earth-goddess is not the Sky-god Dyaus, but Parjanya, who appears to be a personification of the rain-cloud.* In the same hymn we read: “O Mother Earth, kindly set me down upon a well-founded place! With (father) Heaven co-operating, O thou wise one, do thou place me into happi- ness and prosperity!”° But the greater part of the long ‘hymn is devoted to a description of the physical earth with its hills and snowy mountains and plains, its seas and rivers, its forests, and its races of men and animals. As to the inhabitants of the earth the poet says, addressing the goddess: “ The mortals born of thee live on thee, thou supportest both bipeds and quadrupeds. Thine, O Earth, are these five races of men, of mortals, upon whom the rising sun sheds undying light with his rays. These creatures all together shall yield milk for us; do thou, O Earth, give us the honey of speech! Upon the firm broad earth, the all-begetting Mother of the plants, that is supported by (divine) law, upon her, propitious and kind, may we ever pass our lives! . . . Upon the earth men give to the gods the sacrifice, the prepared oblation; upon the earth men live pleasant lives by food. May this Earth give us breath and life, may she cause me to reach old age!”° Once more we read in the hymn: “The earth upon whom the noisy mortals sing and dance, upon whom they fight, upon whom resounds the roaring drum, shall drive forth our enemies, shall make us free from rivals!”’ Throughout the hymn the poet never loses sight of the material nature of the earth; its mythical or religious aspect he touches on very lightly ; the personification is very slight and perfectly transparent. 1 Atharva-veda, xii. 1; Hymns of 5 Atharva-veda, xii. 1. 63; Hymns the Atharva-veda, translated by M. of the Atharva-veda, translated by Bloomfield (Oxford, 1897), pp. 197-205 M. Bloomfield, p. 207. (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii.). 8 Atharva-veda, xii. 1. 15, 16,.17, 2 J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, 22; Hymns of the Atharva-veda, v. (London, 1884) p. 23. . translated by M. Bloomfield, p. 201. bg I AL ey 7s 1 Atharva-veda, xii. 1. 41; Hymns 4 A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology of the Atharva-veda, translated by (Strassburg, 1897), p. 83. M. Bloomfield, p. 204. Mother Earth t the dead back to her bosom. bosom. The Greek Earth- goddess, Gaia or Ge, not pro- minent in Greek religion. The Earth- goddess in Greek mythology: Hesiod’s account of her. 318 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES cuar. By a natural train of thought Mother Earth, who gives akes birth to men, is conceived to take her dead sons Hee to her In a funeral hymn of the Azg-veda the poet, addressing a dead man, speaks thus : ‘* Betake thee to the lap of Earth the Mother, of Earth, far-spreading, very kind and gracious. Young dame, wool-soft unto the guerdon-giver, may she preserve thee Srom Destruction,” Then turning to Earth herself, the poet proceeds : “* eave thyself, Earth, nor press thee downward heavily: afford him easy access, gently tending him. Earth, as a mother wraps her skirt about her child, so cover him,?? § 2. The Worship of Earth among the Anctent Greeks* In ancient Greece, as in ancient India, the worship of Earth as a goddess was not an important element of the national religion, unless indeed we regard Demeter as an Earth-goddess, for unquestionably Demeter was one of the most important, as. well as among the most stately and beautiful, figures in the Greek pantheon. But she was a goddess of the corn rather than of the earth. The true Greek goddess of the Earth was Gaia or Ge, whose name means nothing but the actual material earth, and is con- stantly used in that sense by Greek writers from the earliest to the latest times. Hence in her case the personification is open and unambiguous; the veil of mythic fancy is too thin and transparent to conceal the physical basis of the goddess. But if the Earth-goddess never received a large share of Greek worship, she played an important part in the scheme of Greek mythology as expounded by the poet Hesiod in his Theogony. According to him, Broad-bosomed Earth, as 1 Rig-veda, x. 18. 10, 11; Aymns of the Rigveda, translated by R. T. H. Griffith, vol. iv. p. 139. On this beauti- ful hymn, see H. Zimmer, A/tindisches Leben (Berlin, 1879), pp. 404-407. 2 For details on this subject, see Preller - Robert, Grzechische Mytho- logie*, i. (Berlin, 1894), Pp. 632 599. ; rexiefe 5:0s0 er Grain. els WV oe Bas Roscher’s Ausfiihrliches Lexikon der grtiechischen und rimischen Mythologie, i. 1566; Eitrem, s.v. ‘*Gaia”, in Pauly- Wissowa, Real-Encyklopadie der clas- sischen Altertumswissenschaft, vii. 1. 467 sqgg.; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iii. 1 599., 307 599. 3 See 7The Golden Bough, Part V. Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 35 599. Ee | vt WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT GREEKS 319 he calls her, was the first being that came into existence after the primeval chaos. She was older than the sky, indeed she gave birth to the starry sky, he was her first- born ; and afterwards she brought forth the mountains and the sea. All these, apparently, she was thought to have produced of herself without the assistance of any male power. But thereafter, she mated with the Sky, her own offspring, and from their union were born Ocean and the Titans.’ For the poet distinguished the sea, by which he probably meant the Mediterranean, from the great ocean lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules, of which adventurous mariners had brought back tales of wonder to the Greeks of the home- land, and of which rumours had reached even the poet- husbandman Hesiod among the quiet dells of Helicon. Yet husbandman as he was, and author of the oldest extant treatise on husbandry, Hesiod appears to have felt little tenderness or respect for the Earth-goddess on whom he depended for his livelihood ; perhaps the land about Ascra, The poet's his native town, was hard and stony, and yielded but aya ees scanty harvest to the plough and the sickle. Certainly he grumbled at Ascra, which he described as “a wretched village, bad in winter, disagreeable in summer, good at no time”.? It stood on the top of a hill, exposed to all the winds that blow; by the second century of our era the place had fallen into utter decay and nothing worth mention- ing remained in it but.a single tower. The solitary tower still crowns the summit of the hill, a far-seen landmark, and the hill-side is still stony and rugged.* So perhaps after all the bard had some ground for complaining of the niggardli- ness of the goddess and for paying her out in the uncompli- mentary verses which he wrote about her. Certainly he represents her in a very unamiable light as hard, cruel, and treacherous. For did she not instigate her offspring, the Titans, to attack and mutilate their own father while he, quite unsuspecting, lay quiet with her in bed? Did she not even provide the weapon with which the. dastardly outrage was perpetrated on the deity by his unnatural son ? * 1 Hesiod, Theogony, 116-138. commentary (vol. v. pp. 149 sg.). 2 Hesiod, Works and Days, 639 sq. 4 Hesiod, Zheogony, 159-182. See 3 Pausanias, ix. 29. 2, with my above, pp. 36 sg. The Homeric hymn to Earth, the Mother of All. Plutarch on the worship of Earth. Antiquity of the worship of Earth in Greece. 320 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES cnap. A far more favourable portrait of the Earth-goddess, and one which probably harmonized much better with Greek notions and sentiments about her, is painted by the author of the Homeric hymn addressed to “ Earth, the Mother of All”. In English it runs thus: “PU sing of Earth, Mother of All, of her the firm-founded, Eldest of beings, her who feeds all that tn the world exists ; All things that go upon the sacred land and on the sea, And all that fly, all they are fed from thy bounty. By thee, O Queen, are men blessed tn their children, blessed in their crops ; Thine it ts to give life and to take it back From mortal men. Happy ts he whom thou tn heart Dost honour graciously; he hath all things in plenty. For him his fruitful land is big with corn, and his meads Abound in cattle, and his house ts full of good things. Such men do rule in righteousness a city of fair women. Great wealth and riches watt on them ; Thetr sons exult tn joyance ever new ; In florid troops their maidens blithesomely — Do sport and skip about the meadows lush with flowers. Such are they whom thou dost honour, Goddess revered, O bounteous Spirit. Flatl, Mother of Gods, Spouse of the Starry Sky, And graciously for this my song bestow on me Substance enough for heart's ease. So shall I not forget To hymn thee in another lay.” » Hundreds of years.later a like feeling of reverence and affection for the Earth-goddess was expressed by Plutarch with that simple piety and transparent sincerity which characterize all the writings of that excellent and lovable man. He says: “Fire receives barbaric honours among the Medes and Assyrians, who out of fear think to acquit themselves of the obligations of religion by worshipping the destructive rather than the venerable aspects of nature; but the name of Earth is dear, I ween, and precious to every Greek, and it is a custom handed down to us by our ella to revere her like any other deity ”.? But if in the historical ages of Greece the public worship of Earth was comparatively rare and unimportant, there are some grounds for thinking that it must have been very 1 Homeric Hymns, xxx. (pp. 296 s¢., 2 Plutarch, De face in orbe lunae, ed. Allen and Sikes). Xxli. 14, vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT GREEKS 321 ancient. The three great seats of the national religion were The Dodona, Delphi, and Olympia, and at all of them the for" % worship of the Earth-goddess would seem to have been Dodona. established in antiquity. At Dodona the main objects of religious reverence were certainly Zeus and his oracular oak, but side by side with them the Earth-goddess appears to have shared the homage of the pilgrims who flocked to the shrine. For the priestesses, who perhaps bore the title of Doves, are said to have chanted the verses : “* Zeus was, Zeus ts, Zeus shall be: O great Zeus / The Earth yields frutts, therefore glorify Mother Earth” + At Delphi the oracle is said to have belonged to Poseidon Tne oracle and Earth long before it was taken over by Apollo, and the ae * tradition ran that the Earth-goddess delivered her oracles in person, while Poseidon employed a mere human being as his interpreter and intermediary.” In a hymn to Apollo, which was discovered by the French in their excava- tions at Delphi, there is an allusion to the peaceful dis- placement of Earth by Apollo when he came from Tempe to take possession of the oracle.» The poet Aeschylus, a high authority on the religious traditions of his country, represents the Pythian priestess at Delphi as praying first of all to Earth, and calling her the first who ever gave oracles at the shrine.* Among her predictions she is said to have prophesied that Cronus would be dethroned by his own son, that Zeus would vanquish the Titans with the help of the Cvclopes, and that Metis would bear a son who should be the lord of heaven. Down to the time of Plutarch the ancient goddess had a sacred precinct at Delphi to the south of the great temple of Apollo.® The frowning cliffs above Delphi and the deep glen below might naturally -mark out the spot as a fit seat for a sanctuary and oracle of Earth. Nowhere else in Greece, unless it be at the foot with a human voice, 1 Pausanias, x. 12, 10, Pausanias here assumes that the priestesses were called Doves, But perhaps he mis- understood a tradition, recorded by Herodotus (ii. 55), that the oracle -at Dodona was founded in obedience to the bidding of a black dove, which flew from Thebes in Egypt to Dodona, and there, perching on an oak, spoke * VOL. I Compare my note on Pausanias, vil. 21. 2 (vol. iv. pp. 149 sq.). 2 Pausanias, x. 5. 6. 3 Bulletin de Correspondance Hellé- nigue, xvii. (1893) p. 566. * Aeschylus, Aumenides, 1 sq. erApollodorus, 4215, 1.2213 13-3,.0. 6 Plutarch, De Pythiae oracults, 17. Vy Altars and sanctuaries of Earth in Greece, 322 WORSHIP OF “EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES Scuar of the tremendous precipices down which the water of the | Styx falls or dribbles in Arcadia, has Nature thus wrought as with an artist's hand to impress on the spectator’s mind so deep a sense of awe and solemnity. Indeed, in antiquity some philosophers.attempted to explain the oracle at Delphi by a theory that the priestess was inspired by certain physical exhalations or vapours due to the nature and configuration of the ground, and they traced the decadence of the oracle in their own time to a decrease or cessation of the exhalations consequent on changes in the crust of the earth brought about by natural causes, such as heavy rains, thunderbolts, and above all, earthquakes. . Plutarch, who seems to have inclined to accept this view, compares the exhaustion of the oracular vein to the exhaustion of the silver mines in Attica, and of the copper mines in Euboea, and to the frequent intermittence in the flow of hot springs. On this attempt to reconcile science with religion one of the interlocutors in Cicero’s dialogue on divination pours scorn. ‘“ You might think”, says he, “that they were talking of wine or pickles, which go off with time; but what length of time can wear out a power divine? ”’ In the great sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia there was an altar of the Earth-goddess made of ashes, and the tradition ran that of old the goddess had an oracle on the spot.’ Some miles from the site of the ancient Aégae in Achaia there was a sanctuary of Earth, who here bore the title of Broad-bosomed. At this sanctuary an oracle of Earth sub- sisted down to the second century of our era. The priestess drank bull’s blood, and under its influence descended into the oracular cave. She was bound to remain chaste during her tenure of office, and before she entered on it she might not have known more than one man. The bull’s blood which inspired a chaste priestess was supposed to act like poison on one who had not kept her vow.® Similarly, the prophetess of Apollo Diradiotes at Argos drank the blood of a sacrificial lamb once a month as a means of inspira- tion before she prophesied in the name of the god. The 1 Plutarch, De defectu oraculorum, 3 Pausanias, vii. 25. 133 Pliny, 40 sgqg.; Cicero, De divinatione,i. 19. Nat, Hist. xxviii. 147. The two 30: \er 30.079; Jes eats accounts supplement each other. 2 Pausanias, v. 14. 10, eS vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIEN GREEKS 323 lamb was sacrificed by night, and the prophetess, like the priestess of Earth near Aegae, had to abstain from all intercourse with the other sex.! At Sparta there were two sanctuaries of Earth.” There was an altar to Earth at Tegea in Arcadia,*> and another at Phlya in Attica, where she bore the title of the Great Goddess.* [In the great sanctuary of Olympian Zeus at Athens, where the lofty columns which have survived the wreck of ages are among the most imposing monuments of ancient Greece, there was a precinct of Olympian Earth, where the ground was cloven to the depth of a cubit. Tradition ran that in Deucalion’s time the water of the great flood, which submerged almost the whole of Greece, all flowed away down this seemingly insignificant drain.’ This sanctuary of Earth is mentioned by Thucydides as one proof of the antiquity of the city in that quarter.° Thus, if the shrines of the Earth-goddess were neither numerous nor splendid, the traditions associated with them point to the great age of her worship in Greece. Perhaps the Greeks took it over from the aborigines whom they conquered or exterminated. | About the manner of the worship. which they offered Mode of to her we know very little. The victims sacrificed to her “os”? of Earth would seem to have been black. In Hoiner we read of the in Greece. sacrifice of a black ewe lamb to Earth, and of a white male cael lamb to the Sun:’ black yearling lambs were sacrificed sacrificed to Subterranean (Chthonian) Earth and Subterranean a (Chthonian) Zeus for the crops on the twelfth day of the month Lenaeon in the island of Myconos ;° and at Marathon a goat entirely black was sacrificed to Earth “at the oracle” on the tenth day of the month Elaphebolion, and a cow in calf was offered to her “among the acres” at another time of the year, but the colour of the cow is not mentioned.” 1 Pausanias, il. 24. I. iii. p. 1743 Ch. Michel, Aecaer? ad’ /n- 2 Pausanias, ill. II. 9, iii. 12. 8. scriptions Grecques (Bruxelles, 1900), 3 Pausanias, vill. 48. 8. No. 714, p. 616; J. de Prott, L. Ziehen, 4 Pausanias, 1: 31. 4. Leges Graecorum Sacrae(Lipsiae, 1896—- 6 Pausanias, 1.0.18. 7. “4 1906), No. 4, vol. i. p. 14. 6 Thucydides, ii. 15. 7 Homer, ///ad, iii. 103 sg. Be Pe Menebrolty le Lienen,.eces 8 G. Dittenberger, Sy/loge /nscrip- Graecorum Sacrae, No, 26, vol. 1. tionum Graecarum*, No. 1024, vol. p, 48, col, B. Earth the Fruit- bearing. Earth praying for rain. Earth the Nursing- Mother. 324 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES. *CHAP: The sacrifice offered to her for the crops in Myconos proves that she was supposed to quicken the seed in the ground, which was a very natural function for an Earth-goddess to perform. The same inference may be drawn from the epithet, Fruit-bearing, which was applied to her both at Athens and at Cyzicus. At Athens the name of the goddess with this epithet is engraved on the rock of the Acropolis, and the inscription, which is still legible, informs us that it was carved in compliance with an oracle.' Near this inscription on the Acropolis there was an image of Earth praying to Zeus for rain,” from which we may perhaps infer that the goddess was invoked to intercede with Zeus for rain in time of drought. The image may have represented her in the act of emerging from the rock and stretching her arms upward, while a great part of her body remained under ground. In this attitude she is often depicted on Greek vases and on a well-known terra-cotta relief, in which the goddess is represented with her head and shoulders only above ground, holding up the infant Erich- thonius to his mother Athene in presence of Poseidon, whose fishy tail gives him the appearance of a merman.® The conception of Earth as a power able both to fertilize the ground and to bestow offspring on men appears to be indicated by her association with Green Demeter, and -by the epithet of Nursing-mother (Kourotrophos) bestowed on her at a sanctuary which was dedicated to her and to Green Demeter, near the entrance to the Acropolis at Athens.* Erichthonius is said to have been born from the earth, and very appropriately he is reported to have been the first to sacrifice to the Earth-goddess under the title of Nursing- mother, and to set up an altar to her on the Acropolis out of gratitude for his upbringing.» The Athenian lads used Denkmaler des 1 Corpus Inscriptionum Alticarum, it, No. 166; Es.S,-Roberts and E. A. Gardner, /r¢roduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part II.(Cambridge, 1905), No. 245, pp. 465 sg. The epithet Fruit-bearing applied to Earth at Cyzicus is known from an inscription. See L. R. Farnell, Czlts of the Greek States, iv. 91, quoting Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique, 1882, p.454. 2 Pausanias, i. 24. 3. “ A. Baumeister, klassischen Altertums, i. 492, fig. 536 ; W. H. Roscher, dusfihrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mytho- logie, i. coll. 1577-1578, fig. 2. As to the legend of the birth of Erichthonius from the earth, see Apollodorus, iii. 14. 6. 4 Pausanias, i. 22. 3. 5 Suidas, s.v. Kouporpddos. vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT GREEKS 325 to sacrifice to the Nursing-mother on the Acropolis ;' and in a fragmentary inscription found on the Acropolis the sacrifice of a pig to Earth the Nursing-mother appears to be prescribed.” Aristophanes represents the Athenian women praying to Demeter and Earth the Nursing-mother at the festival of the Thesmophoria.? Not far from the joint sanctuary of Earth and Green Demeter, whose epithet of Green refers to the green sprouting corn, there was a sanc- tuary of the Furies near the Areopagus, and in it were statues of Earth, Pluto, and Hermes. Here sacrifices were offered both by Athenians and foreigners, but especially by persons who had been acquitted at’ the bar of the Areopagus.* Curiously enough, persons who had_ been wrongly supposed to be dead, and for whom funeral rites had been performed, were not allowed to enter this sanctuary ~of the Furies.” The Earth-goddess was often invoked in solemn oaths, along with other deities, especially Zeus and the Sun, to witness the truth of an asseveration. Thus when Agamemnon solemnly swore that he had not approached Briseis while she was his prisoner, he sacrificed a boar to Zeus, and looking up to heaven called upon Zeus, the Earth, the Sun, and the Furies to be his witnesses that he did not lie.® And in the Odyssey Calypso swears to Ulysses by “ Earth, and the wide Sky above, and the down-trickling water of Styx” that she meant him’no harm.’ An Aetolian oath was by Zeus, the Earth, and the Sun.& In Chersonesus, a Greek city of the Crimea, the citizens took an oath of loyalty to their city, swearing by Zeus, the Earth, the Sun, the Virgin, the gods and goddesses of Olympus, and the heroes who protected the city and the country and the walls. Ina treaty of alliance between the cities of Drerus 1 Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum, ii, No. 481, lines 58 sg. 2 Corpus Inscriptionum Alticarum, i. No.. 4. 3 Aristophanes, Z7hesmophor. 297 59q- ee 4 Pausanias, i. 28. 6. 5 Hesychius, s.v. Aevrepdrorpos, citing Polemo as his authority. 6 Homer, //éad, xix. 252-265. 7 Homer, Odyssey, v. 184-187. SES 75 70 8 G, Dittenberger, Sylloge Juscrip- tionum Graecarum*, No, 1212, vol. iii, p. 3573 Ch. Michel; Recaezl a’ /n- scriptions Grecques, No. 1421, p. 939. 9 G. Dittenberger, Sy//loge /nscrip- tionum Graecarum%, No. 360, vol. i. pp. 585, 586; Ch. Michel, ecuer/ a Inscriptions Grecques, No, 1316, pp. The Virgin was a deity worshipped in Chersonesus, where she had a sanctuary. See Strabo, vii. 4. 2, Earth invoked in oaths. 326 WORSHIP. OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES: ~Cuar. and Cnossus in Crete the allies took a tremendous oath of fidelity by Hestia of the Prytaneum, and Zeus (Den) of the Market-place, and Tallaean Zeus (Den), and the Delphinian © Apollo, and Athene the Guardian of the City, and the Poetian Apollo, and Latona, and Artemis, and Ares, and Aphrodite, and Hermes, and the Sun, and Britomartis, and Phoenix, and Amphiona, and the Earth, and the Sky, and the heroes, and the heroines, and the springs, and the rivers, and all the gods and goddesses, that they would never and by no manner of means be friendly to the Lyttians, neither by night nor by day, but that on the contrary they would do all the harm they possibly could to the city of the Lyttians.. About the year 244 B.C. the people of Magnesia concluded a treaty of alliance with Smyrna and King Seleucus II., and swore to observe it faithfully, calling on Zeus, the Earth, the Sun, Ares, Warlike Athene, Tauropolus, the Sipylene Mother, Apollo of Panda, all the other gods and goddesses, and the Fortune of King Seleucus, to be their witnesses. The people of Smyrna on their part swore in much the same terms to observe the treaty, but in the list of deities by whom they swore they omitted Apollo in Panda and the Fortune of King Seleucus, substituting Stratonicean Aphrodite in their room.*. The mercenary troops of Eumenes I., King of Pergamum, took an oath of loyalty to him, swearing by Zeus, the Earth, the Sun, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Warlike Athene, Tauropolus, and all the other gods and goddesses ; and the king swore by the same deities to observe good faith to the troops.’ In or about the year 3 B.C. the Paphlagonians swore fealty to the Emperor Augustus by Zeus, the Earth, the Sun, all the gods and goddesses, and -also by the p. 308. She hadan altar on the acropolis of Chersonesus, and the people cele- brated in her honour a festival which included a procession. See G, Ditten- berger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graec- arum%, No. 709, vol, iii. pp. 344, 345. 1G. Dittenberger, Sy//oge Tnscrip- tionum Graecarum >, No. 527, vol. i. pp. 769-771; Ch. Michel, Aecwer? a’ Inscriptions Grecques, No..23, pp. 28 sq.; P. Cauer, Delectus Inscriptionum Graecarum*, No. 121, pp. 77 sg. Emperor himself.* | Thus in 2 W. Dittenberger, Ovzentis Graect Inscriptiones Selectae (Lipsiae, 1903- 1905), No, 229, vol. i. pp. 371, 372. 3 W. Dittenberger, Orzentis Graect Inscriptiones Selectae, No, 266, vol. i. pp. 438-440; Ch. Michel, Reczez/ a’ Zn- scriptions Grecques, No. 15, pp. 9 sg. 4 W. Dittenberger, Orientis Craeci Inscriptiones Selectae, No. 532, vol. ii. pp. 198 sg. ; H. Dessau, /scriptiones Latinae Selectae, No. 8781, vol. ii. p. IOIO, vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT ROMANS 327 Greek-speaking lands the old oath by Zeus, the Earth, and the Sun persisted from the Homeric age down to imperial times. § 3. The Worship of Earth among the Ancient Romans? The ancient Romans, like the ancient Greeks, personified and worshipped the Earth as a Mother Goddess; but though her worship was doubtless very ancient, the evidence for its observance in Rome and Italy is very scanty; the goddess would seem to have been pushed into the back- ground by other and more popular deities, above all by the Sky-god Jupiter, and by the Corn-goddess Ceres, with whom she was often confounded.” Her proper name was Tellus,> which is also a common Latin noun signifying “earth”; but in later times she was more usually invoked under the name of Terra or Terra Mater,* that is, “ Mother Earth,” ¢erra being practically synonymous with ¢e//us in the sense of “carth”. Apparently she personified, not so much the whole earth as, primarily, the fruitful field to which men owe their food and therefore their life, and, secondarily, the burial ground which receives their bodies after death. The poet Lucretius sums up the conception of the Earth- mother in her double aspect in a striking phrase by saying that she is thought to be “the universal parent and the common tomb”.? So the older poet Ennius said that the Earth “gave birth to all nations and takes them back again”.® Again, in an epitaph on a tomb it is said that, 1 For details, see L. Preller, Romesche Mythologie® (Berlin, 1881—1883), ii. 2 syg.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Aultus der Rémer* (Munich, 1912), DoaLOhwga 7a... rellus” in WIT. 3960, 5050136, 8008. According to Servius (on Virgil, dev. 1.171), Zellus was properly the name of the goddess. and fervra the name of the element of earth. As to the lateness of the Roscher’s Ausftihrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie, V. 331 svg. 2 Compare G. Wissowa, 5.v.‘Tellus”, in W. H.. Roscher’s Aus/ihrliches Lextkon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie, Vv. 339. 3-H. Dessau, /ascriptiones Latinae Selectae, Nos. 1954, 3956, 3957, 3958, 3959, 7994. 4H. Dessau, /mscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Nos. 1522, 3950, 3951-3954, designation Zerra Afatex compared to the earlier Ze//us or Tellus Mater, see Ll. Preller, Romische Alythologte%, ii, 2 note*; G. Wissowa, s.z. ‘* Tellus ”’, in W. H. Roscher’s dAusftihrliches Lextkon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie, V. 332. 5 Lucretius, v. 259, ‘‘ Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum”, 6 Ennius, quoted by Varro, De lingua latina, v. 64, ‘* Terris gentis omnis peperit et resumil denuo”, Scanty evidence of the worship of Earth in Rome and Italy. Her nanies, Tellus and Terra. Pregnant sow sacri- ticed to her. Earth coupled with the Sky and Jupiter. 328 WORSHIP. OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES CHAP. “the bones which Earth produced she covers in the grave”.’ For the Earth was thought to be the source not only of vegetable but of animal life. In the ode composed by Horace to be sung at the Secular Games which Augustus celebrated in 17 B.C, the poet prays that “ Earth (Ze//us), fruitful in crops and cattle, may bestow on Ceres a crown of ears of corn”; and from an inscription containing an account of the Secular Games, which was found in the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) at Rome in 1890, we learn that on this occasion the goddess was invoked under the title of Mother Earth (Zerra Mater) and that a sow big with young was sacrificed to her.’ Again, in an oath of loyalty to Rome, which the Italians took in g1I B.C, they swore by Capito- line Jupiter, by the Roman Vesta, by Mars, by the Sun, and by “Earth, the benefactress both of animals and plants ”.4 In an inscription found at Rome mention is made of a sanctuary dedicated to the Eternal Sky, to Mother Earth, and to Mercury Menestrator.2 At the beginning of his treatise on agriculture, Varro, the greatest of Koman antiquaries, tells us that he will invoke the twelve Confederate Gods (dez consentes), not those twelve gods, male and female, whose gilded statues adorned the forum, but the twelve gods who were the special patrons of farming. Among them he invokes in the first place Jupiter and Earth. (Zed/us) because they, in their respective spheres of sky and earth (derra), contain all the fruits of husbandry ; therefore, he proceeds, because they are called the Great Parents, Jupiter is named Father, and Earth (Zée/us) is named Mother.’ In this passage, just as Tellus is plainly’a personification of the physical earth, so Jupiter is plainly a personification of the physical sky. Thus Varro is at one with the writer of the inscription, in which, as we have just seen, Mother Earth is ' H. Dessau, Juscriptiones Latinae tres,i. 1.5. In this passage the MSS, Selectae, No. 7994. read Zellus terra mater. But terra 2 Horace, Carmen Saeculare, 29 sq. 3-H, Dessau, /nscriptiones Latinae Selectae, No. 5050 1°6, 4 Diodorus Siculus, xxxvii. 11. 6 HI. Dessau, /uscriptiones Latinae Selectae, No. 3950. 8 Varro, Rerum rusticarum lori appears to be a gloss on Ze/lus, as H. Jordan observed (L. Preller, Rémische Mythologie, ii, 2 note”). It is rightly omitted by G. Wissowa, av, ‘Tellus ”, in W. H. Roscher’s Ausfihrliches Lexthon der griechischen und rimischen Mythologie, v. 332. vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT ROMANS 329 coupled with the Eternal Sky; and Varro more than hints at the ancient myth of the marriage of Sky and Earth, though perhaps his orthodox Roman faith prevented him from expressly substituting Earth for Jupiter’s legitimate wife Juno. A similar collocation of Jupiter and Earth occurs in the solemn form of imprecation in which a Roman general devoted to destruction, the cities, lands, armies, and people of the enemy, for at the close of the curse he called on Mother Earth (Ze//us) and Jupiter to be his witnesses ; and when he named Earth, he touched the earth with his hands; and when he named Jupiter, he raised his hands towards the sky.’ Here, again, the identification of Jupiter as a Sky-god is rendered indubitable by the accompanying gesture, and it is remarkable that in this fearful imprecation Mother Earth takes precedence of the Sky-god, perhaps with reference to the fate of the foemen who might be expected soon to return to the bosom of their Mother, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. | Elsewhere Varro tells us that the pontiffs used to sacrifice to four deities, namely Earth (Ze/us), Tellumo, Altor, and Rusor.” Here Tellumo is apparently a male Earth-god, the husband of the Earth-goddess. Certainly his name appears to be only a masculine form of Tellus, “the earth”. Varro himself saw this and explained the two deities as personifications of the earth in its twofold aspect, first as a male who produces the seeds ( 7e//uimo), and second as a female who receives and nourishes them (7¢//us).2 In a late writer a masculine deity Tellurus, no doubt equivalent to Tellumo, is mentioned along with Ceres.* As to the deity Altor, whom the pontiffs’ associated with Earth 1 Macrobius, Saturn, iii, 9. 9-12. 2 Varro, quoted by Augustine, De ctuitate Det, vil. 23. The passages of Varro bearing on the worship of Earth (Ze//us) are collected by R. Agahd, A/. Terenti Varronts Anti- guttatum Rerum Divinarum libri i. xiv. xv. xvi. (Leipzig, 1898) pp. 212- 214. 3 Varro, quoted by Augustine, De ctvitate Det, vii. 23, ‘* Una ecademgue terra habet geminam vim, -et mascu- linam, quod semina producat ; et femt- nina, guod rectptat atgue enutriat”. Compare Augustine, De czvitate Dei, iv. 10. According to C. Pauli, Tellumo is an Etruscan deity. See W. H. Roscher, Ausfihrliches Lexikon der griechischen und rimischen Mythologie, ¥i01320, 75.25 1 Lellumo™, 4 Martianus Capella, De nuptiz's Philologiae et Mercurit, i. 49, ‘‘ Cor-. rogantur ex proxima [regtone] trans- cursts conjugum regum Ceres Tellurus Terraeque pater Vulcanus et Gentus”’. Here Zerraegue pater is perhaps a gloss on Tellurus. Sacrifices offered by the pontiffs to Earth (Tellus) and Tellumo. The Earth- goddess (Tellus or Terra) associated with Ceres, the Corn- goddess, Sacrifices to the two goddesses at the festival of sowing. 330 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES CHap. (Zellus) and Tellumo, he was no doubt rightly interpreted by Varro to mean the Nourisher, from the verb a/ere, to nourish, “because all things that are born are nourished from the earth”. The fourth deity Rusor was explained by Varro to signify Reverser, because all things revert or revolve back again to the same place.’ Naturally enough the Earth-goddess Tellus or Terra was often associated with the Corn-goddess Ceres. The two are neatly compared and distinguished by Ovid, who says that the Corn-goddess makes the seeds to grow, while the Earth-goddess gives them a place in which to grow.’ Hence certain sacrifices were offered to them jointly. One such sacrifice took place at the festival of sowing. The most approved time for the winter sowing was from the autumnal equinox in September till the winter solstice in December.® The festival of sowing followed in January, after the seed had been committed to the ground,* and its aim was no doubt to foster the growth of the seedlings.” No fixed day was appointed for it in the calendar; it was a moveable feast, the time for which varied from year to year with the state of the season and the weather. The day for the beginning of the festival was appointed in each year by the pontiffs." The offering to the two goddesses con- sisted of spelt and the inward parts of a sow big with young.® The festival comprised two days which were separated from each other, curiously enough,.by an interval of seven days. The first of the two days was dedicated to the Earth-goddess Tellus or Terra, the second 1 Varro, quoted by Augustine, De ctvttate Det, vii. 23, ‘** Altort quare ? Quod ex terra, inguit, aluntur omnia quae nata sunt. Rusort guare? Quod rursus, inguit, cuncta eodem revolvun- tur”. As to these names, see G. Wissowa, s.v. ‘* Tellus”, in W. H. Roscher’s, dusfihrliches Lextkon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie, Vv. 333, who prefers to connect Rusor with the same root as ruma, rumen, Rumina. 2 Ovid, Fasti, i. 673 sg., ‘* Offictum commune Ceres et Terra tuentur: Haec praebet causam frugibus, tlla locum”. Twolines before the poet used 7e//usgue was dedicated to the Corn- Ceresque in precisely the same sense as Ceres et Terra, thus proving that he re- garded Ze//us and 7ervu assynonymous, 3 Varro, Rerum rusticarum libri tres, i. 343 Pliny, Mat. Ast. xviii. 201-204; Geoponica, ii. 14. 4 Ovid, Fastz, i. 657-662. 5 Festus, De verborum significatione, s.v. **Sementivae”’, p. 455, ed. Lindsay. 6 Ovid, Fastz, i. 657-662; Joannes Lydus, De mensitbus, iii. 6, ed, Bekker: Macrobius, Saturn, i. 16. 6; Festus, De verborum significatione, s.v. ** Con- ceptivae ”, p. 55, ed. Lindsay. 7 Varro, De lingua latina, vi. 26. 8 Ovid, Fastz, i. 671 sg. vi WORSH/P.OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT ROMANS 331 Twelve subordi- nate deities of agriculture, goddess Ceres.’ On this second day, probably, the Flamen Cerialis offered to Earth (7e//us) and Ceres jointly a sacrifice, at which he invoked the help of twelve subordinate deities, each concerned with a special department of agriculture, and all of them together making up a complete cycle of the operations of husbandry, from the first breaking up of the fallow under the plough to the reaping, gathering into the barn, and the taking of corn from the granary.” These twelve lubbardly fiends, with their uncouth names, furnish a good instance of the minute scrupulosity of the Roman religious mind, which, far from content with committing the direction of affairs to a few great gods, relieved these over- worked deities of a great part of their functions by installing a complete bureaucracy of minor divinities, whose special business it was to superintend the whole circle of human life down to its pettiest and most seemingly insignificant details. Indeed, deities multiplied at such a rate that a Roman philosopher calculated that the population of heaven exceeded that of earth,* and a Roman wench complained that she could not walk the streets in pursuit of business without knocking up against a god much oftener than against a man.” Even the twelve minor divinities, whom _ the Supple- Flamen Cerialis invoked at the festival of sowing, did not ™°my) of female suffice to bring the corn to maturity ; they were all males, divinities d Augustine furnish it! lementary list of Gyn an ugustine furnishes us with a supplementary list of \ith foster. ing th 1 Joannes Lydus, De menstbus, iv. Compare G. Wissowa, s.v. ‘‘ Tellus”, Peta of 6 ed. Bekker. According to this in W. H. Roscher’s Aumsfihrliches pe author, the first day was dedicated to Demeter in her character of Earth (Anunrpt, olov TH yn TH Umrodexoueryn Tovs Kapmovs), but we must correct this statement hy the evidence of Ovid, Fasti,i.671, ‘‘Placentur frugum matres Lellusque Ceresgue”. So Wissowa, S.v. ‘‘Tellus”, in W. H. Roscher’s Azes- fithrliches Lexikon der griechischen. und romischen Mythologie, v. 334. 2 Servius, on Virgil, Georg. i. 21, “‘ Fabius Pictor hos deos enumerat, quos envocat Klamen, sacrum Cereale factens Tellurit et Cerert: Vervactorem, Redara- torem [so we must read with Salmasius for the MS. Reparatorem), Inporcitorem, Insitorem, Obaratorem, Occatorem, Sar- ritorem, Subruncinatorem, Messorent, Convectorem,Conditorem, Promttorem’’. Lextkonder griechischen und rimischen My thologte, Vv. 334. Servius, or his au- thority Fabius Pictor, doesnot mention which of the Flamens was charged with the duty of offering this sacrifice to Earth and Ceres, but we may safely conclude that it was the Flamen Cerialis, whose existence at Rome is known from at least one inscription. See H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, No. 1447, compare No. gorl. 3 These minor divinities were the Di Indigites. For a formidable list of them see R. Peter, s.v. ‘‘ Indigita- menta”’, in W. H. Roscher’s dusfihr- liches Lexikon der griechtschen und romischen Mythologte, ii. 129 sgq. 4 Pliny, Wat. Hes?.. ii: 16. 5 Petronius, Satyrtcon, 16. The Fordicidia : sacrifice of pregnant’ cows to the Earth- goddess on April rsth. 233 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES Ciiap. female divinities, whose duty it was to assist the growth of the corn at every stage of its development ; it would task a professional botanist to explain the nice distinctions between the various functions which they discharged. The Christian Father makes merry over the really excessive exuberance of the Roman deities, remarking, that while one man sufficed to act as door-porter, no less than three gods were required to do the same job, one of them being told off to look after the door, a second to take care of the hinges, and a third to keep the threshold in order.’ To such a degree of perfection did the Romans carry the principle of the division of labour in the sphere of religion. | Another sacrifice for the crops was offered to the Earth-goddess Tellus on the fifteenth of April. The victim sacrificed was a cow in calf; such a victim was called a bos forda; hence the festival bore the name of Fordzczdia, that is, the Killing of the Pregnant Cow.? These victims were sacrificed in all the thirty wards (curzae) of Rome and also by the pontiffs on the Capitol. No doubt a victim big with young was chosen with reference to the crops, in order that, by a sort of sympathetic magic, Earth's womb might teem with increase and yield an abundant harvest. A curious piece of ritual was performed at this sacrifice. The unborn calves were torn from the wombs of their mothers and burned to ashes, and these ashes, mixed with the blood of a horse and bean-stalks, were afterwards used by the Senior Vestal Virgin to purify the people at the shepherds’ festival of the Parilia, which fell six days later, on the twenty-first of April: On that day people repaired to the temple of Vesta, where the Senior Vestal distributed to them from the altar the mingled ashes, blood, and beanstalks. These they carried away to be used in the fumigations which formed a notable part of the rites. The poet Ovid, who describes the ritual in his valuable work on the Roman calendar, tells us that he himself 1 Augustine, De czvitate Dei, iv. 8. 2 Ovid, Fasti, iv. 629-634; Varro, De lingua, latina, vi. 15; Festus, De verborum significatione, s.v.‘* Fordicis”, p. 74, ed. Lindsay. Another form of the name of the festival was Fordicalia, flordicalia, or Hordicidia, the two latter being derived from horda, a different dialectical form of forda, ‘‘ pregnant”’. See Varro, Rerum rusticarum libri tres, i. 5.'-6 3) Festus, sv: ““ Horda:~ p- 91, ed. Lindsay; Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iv. 49, ed. Bekker. 3 Ovid, Fastz, iv. 635 sg. vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT ROMANS 333 often came away from the altar with a handful of ashes and beanstalks." The blood, which was mingled with the ashes ‘rhe of the unborn calves to serve in fumigation, had also a Pood of curious history. On the fifteenth day of October in every horse year a chariot-race was run in the Field of Mars, and the avian right-hand horse of the victorious chariot was sacrificed to sacrifices. - Mars for the good of the crops. The animal’s tail was then cut off and carried by a runner at full speed to the King’s House in the Forum, where it arrived still reeking, and was held so that the blood dripped on the hearth or altar. It was this blood, shed just six months before, and now clotted and dry, which added its own purificatory virtue to that of the ashes of the calves and the beanstalks. The vulgar opinion was that the Romans, as descendants of the Trojans, sacrificed the horse out of revenge, because Troy had been betrayed and captured through the stratagem of the Wooden Horse.® On this the hard-headed Polybius observed sarcastically that by the same token all the bar- _barians must be descendants of the Trojans, since all, or almost all, of them sacrificed a horse before going to war, and drew omens from its death agony.* The true signifi- cance of the rite as designed to contribute to the fertility of the soil is intimated by the statement that the sacrifice was Offered for the sake of the crops, and that the severed head of the horse was encircled with a necklace of loaves.° But while a cow in calf was sacrificed to the Earth- Pregnant goddess at the Fordicidia in April, her regular victim was a seth ae sow big with young.’ We have seen that such victims were victims sacrificed to her at the festival of sowing and at the Secular Pace goddess. 1 Ovid, Fast?, iv. 637-640, 721-735. 2 Festus, De verborum siguitficatione, suv. ‘October equus” and ‘‘Panibus”, pp. 190, 191, 246, ed. Lindsay; Poly- bius, xii. 4B; Plutarch, Qzaestzones Romanae,g7. Compare W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen (Strassburg, 1884), pp. 156s99.; The Golden hough, Part V. Spirzts of the Corn and of the Wild, ii, 42 sgg. Plutarch wrongly places the sacrifice on the Ides of December (13th December) instead of on the Ides of October (15th October). The name of the sacrifice (the October horse) would be conclusive against this date, and the exact day of October (the Ides) is mentioned by Festus (p. 246, ed, Lindsay). 3 Festus, De significatione verborum, s.v. October equus”’, p. 190, ed. Lind- say; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 97- 4 Polybius, xii. 4B. 5 Festus, De verborum significatione, s.uv. ** Panibus”, p. 246, ed. Lindsay. 8 Festus, De verborum significatione, s.v. ** Plena sue,’, p. 274, ed. Lindsay, p. 238, ed. Miiller; Arnobius, ddversus Nationes, vii. 22. 334 WORSHIP OF EARTH BY ARYAN PEOPLES cuav. Games.’ The true reason for sacrificing pregnant sows and in general pregnant victims to the Earth- “goddess was not that the pig is an animal destructive of the crops,” but that, as I have already pointed out in the case of the Fordicidia, a pregnant victim is supposed to communicate its own fertility to the ground and so to ensure a good harvest. The Earth- Another occasion on which the Earth-goddess appears anal to have been associated with the Corn-goddess Ceres was at associated a Sacrifice offered every year before the reaping began, or aes perhaps rather before it was lawful to partake of the new goddess fruits. The victim was a sow which received a special name G, in < ° . : cnerifice ar (Porca praecidanea), referring to its slaughter before the harvest. harvest, or before the eating of the new corn.* It is true that the writers who mention the sacrifice of a sow at this season speak of it as offered to the Corn-goddess Ceres alone, without any. mention of the Earth-goddess; but on the other hand we are told on the high authority of Varro that Sow a sow bearing the same title (forca praectdanea) must be neste: sacrificed jointly to the Earth-goddess (7Ze//us) and Ceres by goddess an heir when the person to whom he succeeded had not Aaah byan been duly buried ; otherwise the family would be ceremoni- heir when ally polluted.? This latter custom is mentioned also by two the person ‘ : hen ae of our authorities (Aulus Gellius and Festus) who record cape a the sacrifice of the sow before harvest; but again they been duly Mention only Ceres as the goddess to whom the sacrifice buried. —_ was offered. Festus says that if any person had not paid funeral rites to a dead man by casting a clod on his body, he had to sacrifice a sow (forca praecidanea) to Ceres before he might taste the new corn of the harvest.© To the same 1 Above, pp. 328, 330. — 5 Varro, De vita Populi Romani, lib. ili., quoted by Nonius Marcellus, assigned by Festus (De verborum signi. Ve oar doctrina, 5.v. “* Prae- ficatione), in a mutilated passage re- Cidaneum”, p. 173, ed. Quicherat, stored by K. O. Miiller, p. 238; ** Quod humatus non sit, heredi porca compare za., p. 274, ed, Lindsay. praccidanea suscipienda Telluri et . Cerert: aliter familia pura non est”. 6 Festus, De verborum sionificatione, p. 250, ed. Lindsay, ‘‘ Pruectdanea agna ahi vocabatur, quae ante alias caedebatur. tates ipsius . Item porca, quae Cerert mactabatur ab ‘4 Cato, De agrd cultura, cxxxiv. 1; €0, gut mortuo justa non fecisset, id Aulus Gellius, iv. 6. 8; Festus, De est glebam non objecisset, guia mos erat verborum stenificatione, PP. 242, 243, ets zd facere, priusguam novas fruges 250, ed, Lindsay. gustarent”. 2 This seems to be the reason 3 This is recognized by Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, vii. 22, ** Tellurt gravidas atgue fetas 0b honorem fecundi- vi WORSHIP OF EARTH AMONG ANCIENT ROMANS 335 effect Aulus Gellius declares that the sacrifice of the sow (porca praecidanea) to Ceres was an expiation incumbent on persons who had failed to perform the usual purificatory rites after a death in the family, and that this sacrifice had to be offered by them before they might partake of the new fruits. Thus explained, the sacrifice of the pig (porca prae- ctdanea) becomes perfectly intelligible. It is a widespread view, all over the world, that the first-fruits of harvest are holy, and that consequently they may not be eaten by persons in a state of ceremonial pollution.” But a man who has been rendered unclean by a death in his family, and has not taken the proper steps to cleanse himself and _ his relations by performing the funeral ceremonies incumbent on him, is held to be in a state of virulent pollution, and conse- quently cannot without gross impiety partake of the new corn until he has first appeased the Corn-goddess by the sacrifice of a sow. Hence in this application the term porca praecidanea is a sow sacrificed before eating the new corn® rather than a sow sacrificed before reaping the new corn.* But, as we have seen, Varro tells us that in such cases the sow was sacrificed to the Earth-goddess as well as to: the Corn-goddess, and this also is perfectly intelligible ; for the Earth-goddess, who receives the dead into her bosom, naturally resents any omission of funeral rites as disrespectful to herself as well as to the departed, and naturally calls for an expiation in the shape of the sacrifice of a sow. | Another occasion on which a sacrifice was perhaps offered to the Earth-goddess ‘was after an earthquake. It is said that during an earthquake a voice was once heard from the temple of Juno on the Capitol commanding an expiatory sacrifice of a pregnant sow,° and a pregnant sow, as we have 1 Aulus Gellius, iv. 6. 8, ‘* Porca 4 Festus, p.. 243, ed. Lindsay, etiam praectdanea appellata, quam ‘‘anteguam novam frugem praecide- piacult gratia ante fruges novas captas rent”; Aulus Gellius, iv. 6. 8, ‘ azte tmmolare Cerert mos erat, st gut fruges novas captas”. Jamiliam funestamautnon purgaverant, aut aliter eam rem, quam oportueral, procuraverant”, 2 The Golden Bough, Part V. Spirits 6 On this sacrifice, compare G. Wissowa, s.v. ** Tellus”, in W. H. Roscher’s Ausfiihrliches Lexicon der art V Pairs a's ENG as eS of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 48 sgg. ®” In every Bobo village there is generally, in Mee ay addition to the village chief, a religious chief who bears esc the title of Chief of the Earth and is charged with the duty of offering sacrifices! to the Earth and to the other local deities. He has no political authority and in that respect is subject to the village chief; but he is the necessary mediator between the people and the gods, and when he dies he is succeeded in his office by his son.* Like the other tribes of this region, the Bobos regard the Earth as a great ,and formidable deity who avenges breaches of the moral law. Dislike of In particular he or rather she (for the sex of the deity appears the Earth- to be feminine) dislikés to see human blood flowing and is goddess to see blood : : : flowing, 1 See above, pp. 90 sgq. 3-L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Soudan, , Pp. 42. 2 L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Soudan 4 L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Soudan, (Paris, 1912), p. 30. p. 61. 396 CHAD. x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 397 offended when it is spilt. Hence when a murder has taken place or a simple wound involving bloodshed has been inflicted, it becomes necessary to appease the angry deity by sacrifice, which is offered either by the Chief of the Earth or, where there is no such priestly authority, by the chief of the village. The culprit furnishes the victim or victims, it may be a goat, a sheep, a dog, or fowls, or several of these different sorts of creatures. After being offered to the Earth the flesh of the victims is consumed by the chief and the village elders. The wounded person or the family of the murdered man gets nothing, because the intention of the rite is not to compensate the wronged at the expense of the wrong-doer, but to pacify the anger of the Earth at the sight of blood- shed. But if an assault has not involved the shedding of blood, nothing is done, no atonement is needed.’ In other tribes of this region the victims sacrificed to the Earth to pacify her wrath at bloodshed are usually oxen, one or more in number.” The place of sacrifice may be either the sacred grove or the holy place in the middle of the village.’ | But sacrifices are offered by the Bobos to the Earth on The many other occasions. The people live in large communal 7" houses houses, massively constructed of beaten earth so as to present (svéa/a) the appearance externally of fortresses. Each such com- ve munal house, called a swzsa/a, is inhabited by the members of a single family in the larger sense of the word, including married sons, married brothers, the sons of married brothers, and so forth. The daughters at marriage quit the parental dwelling, but are replaced in it by the wives of the married sons. The head of the family presides as chief over the communal house. When the house becomes too small to lodge the growing family, it is enlarged; or, if that is not possible on account of the proximity of other houses, the younger brother of the head of the family goes away, taking: some of the overflowing household with him, and settles in a new communal house elsewhere. Each of these family dwellings or fortresses usually stands by itself, at an interval 1 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, pp. 101, 176, 177, 178, 227 sg., 290, pp. 64 59-, 73. : 313-315, 352. 3-L. Tauxier, Ze Noir du Soudan, 2 L. Tauxier, Le Motr du Soudan, p. 239. Sacrifices at sowing and harvest to the ancestral spirits and to a tree which re- presents the Earth and the Forest. 398 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. of one or tavo hundred yards from its next neighbour, and the ground about each is planted with maize, hemp, and other plants with long stalks, so that in the rainy season every house is surrounded by a compact -mass of lofty verdure, above which its massive walls rise like cliffs from a green:sea. At that time of the year all the members of the household, whether married or not, work together on the family fields from early morning till late afternoon, with an interval of about three hours for rest and refresh- ment in the heat of the day.’ At the time of sowing the head of the family offers a sacrifice to the ancestral spirits in order that they may make the seed to sprout. The sacrifice is performed either at the door of the communal dwelling (swkala) or on the grave of the last head of the family. But in addition he offers a sacrifice to a great tree in the field. This tree represents both the Earth and the Forest; for in the mind of the black man these two great and mighty deities are practically fused into one, and the sacrifice offered to them in the form of the tree is intended to ensure their favour for the sowing. The victims presented to them and to the ancestral spirits on this occasion are fowls. At harvest some Bobos always sacrifice a fowl and millet flour to the ancestral spirits and the great tree as a thank-offering to the spirits and to the Earth for their bounty. Others, more cautious or economical, consult a diviner as to whether it is necessary to testify their gratitude to the higher powers in this fashion. If the sage says yes, they sacrifice the animal which he pre- scribes, it may be a sheep, a goat, or a fowl, to the ancestral spirits to thank them for having caused the crop to grow ; for dwelling underground they can make the seed to sprout, and without their goodwill the earth would remain barren. The sacrifice is appropriately offered on the grave of the last head of the family dwelling (sukala). Thus we see the close relation which subsists between the divinity of the ancestors and the divinity of the Earth.? If there is a Chief of the Earth in the village, it is he who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving after harvest; if not, the duty 1 L, Tauxier, Ze Noir du Soudan, 2 L. Tauxier, Ze Moir du Soudan, pp. 41, 60. pp. 70 sg, x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 399 devolves on the chief of the village. The season of the harvest is November or December.’ At the same time the Bobos sacrifice to the Forest, Sacrifices because at this season they burn the grass and kindle fires ee in the forest as a preparation for hunting, in order that when fires the hunters may not be stung by serpents, devoured by par cea leopards or lions, or incur other mishaps. The sacrifice, consisting of a fowl or a goat, is offered by the Chief of the Earth or the Chief of the Forest near the village or some- times on a rising ground. But it is to be borne in mind that the blacks do not clearly distinguish between the Earth and the Forest. They say that the trees are the children of the Earth, and that when they sacrifice to a tree or a sacred grove they sacrifice at the same time to the Earth, their Mother. Thus the Forest, embracing all the vegetation that grows on the bosom of the Earth, is a daughter of Earth and as such is confused with her Mother. Hence, too, the members of Secret Societies in these tribes claim to be under the special protection of the Earth and carry leaves and branches in support of their claim.” This ascription of maternity to Earth appears to designate that deity as female, as a divine Mother rather than a divine Father. The worship of the Earth as the great deity, or rather the Worship of greatest of the deities, prevails in similar forms among all eee the pagan tribes of the Mossi-Gurunsi country. All have thetribes of _ their Chiefs of the Earth, who preside over the worship, and ((¢ Mos" all offer sacrifices to the Earth on various occasions, such as country. at sowing and harvest, when human blood has been shed, and when rain is wanted, and indeed whenever the diviner declares that the Earth demands this mark of homage. All look upon the Earth as a just divinity, who does good to the virtuous and punishes the wicked. She is the abode of the dead, and it may be that from them she derives her power of being kind to the righteous and a terror to evil-doers.” The profound confidence which these tribes repose in Oaths by , ; ; : th th. 1 |. Tauxier, Ze Moir du Soudan, 3 LL. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, eee pew: POmLOl et OagelOS,0 100, 0170). 170, 2 L. Tauxier, Le Nor du Soudan, 177, 190, and especially 194. PP. 73 59: 400 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. the Earth as a power which makes for righteousness is clearly manifested in the solemn oath which an accused man will swear by the Earth in order to attest his innocence. Thus when a man is charged with being a sorcerer and with having caused the death of somebody by “eating his soul,” he is made to drink water in which is mixed a handful of earth taken from the. place of sacrifice. Before he drinks he protests his innocence and calls upon the Earth to kill him if he lies. Should he be guilty, it is thought that the Earth will take him at his word and slay him on the spot; whereas if he is innocent, she will not harm a hair of his head.’ Sometimes the accuser as well as the accused was obliged to drain the cup, and it was left to the Earth to decide between them by killing one or the other. One of the two always succumbed, or at least ought to do so; and if both perished, it was accepted as proof Sacrifices to the Earth at clearing land for cultivation. conclusive that both were sorcerers.” One of the nefarious tricks practised by sorcerers in this region is to turn them- selves into hyenas and in that disguise to attack and kill anybody against whom they have a grudge. When that has happened, and the crime has been brought home to the criminal in the usual way, by the corpse bumping up against him when it is carried by two bearers, the accused has to swear his innocence by the Earth, and if he forswears _ himself, it is believed that the Earth will kill him within two days. But if he refuses to swear and prefers to confess that he really did turn into a hyena and as such despatched his victim, they put on his breast some earth, which is supposed to kill him the very next time he turns into a hyena. One way in which the Earth slays a perjurer is by causing his belly to swell after he has drunk the water in which a little of the sacred soil has been dropped.* One of the occasions of sacrificing to the Earth is naturally at clearing land for cultivation. A man who is about to clear some ground in the forest goes to the Chief of _ the Earth or the chief of the village, and together they repair to the spot where the field is to be laid out. There they 1 |, Tauxier, Ze NMotr du Soudan, i bs Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, Pp. 194 sg., 229, 289. p. 353. 2 L. Tauxier, Le NMotr du Soudan, 4-L. Tauxier, Le NMotr du Soudan, Pp. 375, 376. Pp. 375: x THEVWORSHIP OR. EARTH IN APRICA 401 sacrifice a victim, it may be a fowl, a goat, or what not, to the Earth, and sometimes also to the Forest ; and having slaughtered the animal they cook and eat the flesh. After that the operation of cutting down the trees and bushes may proceed.’ Another motive for offering sacrifice to the Earth is to Sacrificing obtain rain in time of drought. For rain is very important foe Pa" for all these agricultural tribes, and if it does not fall in time of : , ; : : drought. sufficient quantity to ripen the crops during the rainy season, it is a public disaster. In such a case the village elders take a fowl to the Chief of the Earth, who sacrifices it to the Kearth in their presence that the rain may fall, and together they eat the flesh. If still no rain falls, they repeat the sacrifice.” Sometimes, to encourage the Earth to do her best for them, the Chief of the Earth, in sacrificing the fowl, promises to sacrifice a goat also as soon as rain falls. Some- times, cheered by the prospect, the goddess puts forth her power at once: the thunder rolls, the tornado bursts, and ‘the rain pours down in torrents. At other times several days pass before the water of heaven descends, but it always falls sooner or later, which is not so miraculous as it might seem, because such sacrifices are only offered in the rainy season.° Among the Kassunas-Buras the Chief of the Earth sacrifices a dog, a sheep, a goat, or even an ox to the Earth for rain in the sacred grove or, if there is no sacred grove, at the place set apart for sacrifices to the Earth. Only the chief of the village and the elders may assist at the ceremony. Among the Sissalas, when rain has fallen in great abundance, the Thauk- Chief of the Earth thanks the goddess by seizing a fowl by Cheings the legs and dashing its head against the ground on the bare for rain. spot in the middle of the village which is dedicated to the worship of Earth.’ Among the Nunumas, when a heavy shower has fallen, the head of a house (suka/a) takes a fowl to his field. If there is a tamarind tree or another tree of a certain species in the field, he causes the blood of the fowl to 1 LL. Tauxier, Le Notr du Soudan, 3 I. Tauxier, Le Moir du Soudan, pp. 163, 328, 347. pp. 241 sg. 4 L. Tauxier, Le Moir du Soudan, 2 L. Tauxier, Le Notr du Soudan, p. 327. ; pp. 74 5g7.; compare zd, pp. 106, 6 L. Tauxier, Ze Noir du Soudan, 196 sg. p. 358. VOL, I PAB Worship of the Earth among the Lassunas- Buras. Seat of the Farth- voddess on dunghills, The Earth- soddess and the l’orest- goddess. 402 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. flow on the tree, but. if there is no such tree he lets the blood pour on the ground. This is a sacrifice to the Earth and the Forest for a good crop.’ If the harvest answers his expectations, the husbandman makes a mess of millet porridge, seasoned with fish sauce, carries it to his field, and pours part of it on the ground, while he thanks the Forest for having given him a good crop.” Among the Kassunas-Buras the Chief of the [Earth sacrifices to the Earth for the whole village at the time of sowing, in order that the seeds may thrive. ‘The sacrifice consists of millet flour, moistened with water, which he offers at or near the door of his family house (suAa/a); and after harvest he sacrifices to the Earth for the whole village to thank the goddess for her bounty.’ But in this tribe the husbandman himself at. sowing sometimes sacrifices in his field to the Earth and the Forest. If there is a great tree in the field, he pours the blood of the victim or smears a paste of flour on it; but if there is no tree, he applies the sacrificial blood or flour to a rock or stone; and if there is no rock or stone, he pours out the whole on the ground. The tree, the rock, or the ground is supposed to convey the offering to the deity.* More usually, however, in this tribe, the head of a family at sowing offers the sacrificial paste to the ancestral spirits at their little huts made of beaten earth in the large communal dwelling (sukada).’ Among the Kassunas-Fras one of the favourite seats of the Earth deity, curiously enough, is on the great dunghills, sometimes twelve feet or more in height, one of which is usually to be seen at the door of the large communal house (sukala) of the village chief. In such cases the sacrifices to the [Earth-goddess are offered to her on the heap of ordure.® While the Earth-goddess, as we have seen, is at times confounded with her daughter the Forest - goddess, the two great deities are sometimes distinguished from each. 17, Tauxier, Ze Noir du Soudan 4 L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Soudan ’ 3 > peut Bets Binet het } k : : ® L. Tauxier, Le Nozr du Soudan 2 LL. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, p. 322. For 7 a Hiei Be arth nT le : : : : + aad at sowing, see 7a. p. 587. 3°L, Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, 6 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, Pp. 323. pp. 315, 328. x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 403 other. Thus the Nunumas look on the Forest as the second great divinity and as closely related to the Earth, who indeed is her mother. At bottom she is righteous like her parent, yet is she of a sterner temper, more terrible, more mischievous. In the gloomier cast of her character we may trace the horror of the dense thickets and matted jungle, the haunts of wild beasts.’ In some villages of the Kassunas- Fras there is a Chief of the Forest distinct from the Chief of the Earth, and at sowing he sacrifices one or two fowls to the Forest for the whole village in order that the .seed sown may prosper.” In most villages of the Kassunas-Buras and_ probably The office of most other pagan tribes of the Mossi-Gurunsi country, suneaaanas there is a Chief of the Earth as well as a chief of the village. its origin. When a native was asked why there was this division of authority, and why the chief of the village could not be also the Chief of the Earth, he answered that the duplication dated from a time when two brothers had divided the power between them, the elder electing to be Chief of the Earth and the younger to be chief of the village, and that their descendants had inherited their respective offices.’ In this explanation there may be an element of truth, if we sup- pose that the Chiefs of the Earth are representatives of the aboriginal race which was conquered and deprived of political predominance by a race of invaders and conquerors, the Mossis, who were content to leave in the hands of the ancient inhabitants those religious functions, and especially that worship of the Earth, which as newcomers they felt themselves incompetent to undertake.’ In Yatenga, a district of Upper Senegal or the French The _ Sudan, to the north of the Mossi-Gurunsi country, the aeaLr worship of the Earth is similar. There also the Earth im Yatenga. (Tenuga) is esteemed a powerful divinity, indeed the supreme divinity in conjunction with Wenda,the Sky. But she is The Earth- much more terrible than he. She is the great champion S{¢°s'"° great of morality and justice, the great avenger of wrong. She pepe ie ° ° : ralit is angered by all the crimes and faults that men commit, erahinte: 1 LL, Tauxier, Le Noir du Soudan, 3 LL. Tauxier, Ze Mocr du Soudan, p. 195. Pp. 309 57. 2 L. Tauxier, Ze Moir du Soudan, 4 LL, Tauxier, Ze Noir du Soudan, pp. 170, 240. Pp. 594-596. Oaths by Earth. Worship of the Forest Pa THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA cuap. for example, by the shedding of blood ; and if these crimes and faults are not redressed, she manifests her indignation by the various calamities which she has it in her power to inflict, as by withholding rain or sending famine, locusts, and disease. For example, if a girl is raped in the forest, it is necessary to sacrifice two goats and two fowls to the Earth-goddess, otherwise the rain will not fall and the millet harvest will fail; and the same thing holds good of other crimes. In particular, the Earth is the relent- less foe of perjurers. The way of swearing by her is as follows. The Chief of the Earth (Zengasoba) of the village collects spear-heads, arrow-heads, old knives, and so forth, and puts them all in a hole dug in the ground. There he kills a fowl, goat, sheep, or ox, while at the same time he invokes the formidable divinity. Over the hole, thus watered. with the blood of the victim, he compels the accused to swear his innocence and to call upon the Earth to kill him if he is not speaking the truth. If he is innocent, the Earth naturally spares him; but if he its guilty, she kills him within a given time. The Mossis and Foulses of Yatenga stand in great fear of the Earth-goddess (Zenga), and often prefer to make a clean breast of their misdeeds rather than forswear themselves in such conditions.’ In Yatenga the Forest is also worshipped. Before a in Yatenga, patch of ground is cleared for cultivation, a sacrifice is offered The Chief ofthe Earth to the Forest. The victim is generally a fowl, sometimes a goat, more seldom a sheep, and still more rarely an ox. At sowing also a sacrifice is offered. But indeed the Forest divinity is only one side of the Earth divinity ; on closer analysis the two appear to coincide.” ,. In every village of Yatenga the public worship is in the in Yatenga. hands of the Chief of the Earth (Zengasoba, from tenga, “earth,” and soba, “ chief”). He is always a Foulsé by race, not‘a Mossi. The political chiefs (cexganabas) of Yatenga never themselves offer sacrifices, though they may command the Chiefs of the Earth to do so.2 Towards the end of February the people hold a festival for the purpose of 11. Tauxier, Le Moir du Yatenga p. 377. (Paris, 1917), pp. 376 sq. 3 L. Tauxier, Le Moir du Vatenga, 2 -L. Tauxier, Le Notr du Yatenga, p. 389. xX BAPE MVORSHIPAOL BARTH IN AFRICA. 405 ensuring a good crop. They dance and beat drums for seven days and nights, and offer sacrifices to the ancestral Spirits, to the Earth, and to the Sky.’ . Again, when a husbandman is about to sow his field, he calls in the aid of the Chief of the Earth (Zengasoba) of his village and gives him a fowl, a goat, and so forth to sacrifice to the Evil Spirits, to the Earth, and to the Forest. The animals are roasted and eaten on the spot by the Chief of the Earth and the man on whose behalf the sacrifice is offered. Similarly, if the harvest turns out well, a thank-offering of a fowl, a goat, and so forth, is presented in the fields to the same divine powers.” Further to the south the worship of the Earth is The practised in similar form by the negro tribes in the interior pace ates of the Ivory Coast. Thus the Kulangos regard the Earth among as their great divinity. They think that she hates murderers, OC". thieves, sorcerers, and all who do ill. Often she is repre- of the sented by a tree of which the great roots ramify like serpents Bee on the ground. On these roots they place a block of massive... _ red ferruginous stone, looking on the tree, the roots, and the worship stone as symbols or images of the Earth. If they can find eee two or three of these trees so near together that their roots are’ intertwined, so much the better; the red block is then placed in the middle of the group of trees and completes the material representation of the great divinity.’ In the opinion of the Kulangos the Forest is a deity identical with the Earth, the mother of all vegetation.’ Besides the civil chief there is in every Kulango village a religious chief, who bears the title of Chief of the Earth (Sakotese, from sako, “earth”). If anybody wishes to sacrifice to the Earth, he must call in the aid of the Chief of the Earth, who will offer the sacrifice for him. Every seventh day is a day of rest, on which no work may be done; different villages choose different days of the week for their rest-day or Sabbath. On the Sabbath they assemble in the courtyard of the Chief of the Earth, bringing palm-wine with them. The Chief of the Earth 1 L, Tauxier, Le Noir du Yatenga, 3 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Bondoukou Di ss7oe (Paris, 1921), p. 175. 4 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Yatenga, + L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Bondoukou, p. 380, p. 176. Sacr fices of the Kulangos to the Earth- goddess at burning the forest. Succession to the office of Chief of the Earth. 406 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. then prays that the Earth will be pleased to send a good crop, to protect the husbandmen, and to see that no evil befalls them. Then he offers a little of the palm-wine by pouring it out on the ground. After that all the people drink of the wine and enjoy this bounty of the divine civer,' In the dry season, which falls in December and January, when the Kulangos are about to burn the withered grass and kindle fires in the forest, they hold a festival which lasts from one to seven days. They beat drums, dance, and eat fowls, after having cut the throats of the birds and offered the blood to the Earth-goddess. They thank her for having given a good harvest, and pray that in burning the forest they may not be hurt by the wild beasts that lurk in it. They also pray that in these conflagrations the villages may not catch fire, an accident which often happens, partly through the negligence of the natives and partly through the force of the parching north-easterly wind, the harmattan. If anybody sets fire to the forest before the festival and before the Chief of the Earth has offered the usual sacrifice, that functionary obliges him to pay a fine of a goat and two fowls, which he sacrifices to the Earth to appease her anger. The forest fires are kindled to assist the people in clearing ground for cultivation and to make hunting easier.” When the Chief of the Earth dies, he is succeeded in office by his nephew, the eldest son of his eldest sister. If the heir is too young to take office, the sacrifices to ‘the Earth are offered by his mother till he is grown up, when he assumes. the priesthood in succession to his uncle.* The office of village chief is also hereditary, but it passes at death to the chief’s eldest son and not to his sister’s son.‘ Thus the archaic rule of hereditary transmission to a sister’s son is observed in succession to the religious office, while the succession to civil office is regulated by the more modern rule of hereditary transmission to a man’s own son. Here as usual religion is essentially conservative. ~The Abrons, another tribe in the interior of the Ivory 1 L. Tauxier, Le Noz7 du Bondoukou, 8 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Bondoukou, Dy ELovze p. 168, 2 L. Tauxier, Le Nor du Londoukou, 4 L. Tauxier, Le Noir du Bondoukou, pp. 167 sq. p. 170. x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 407 Coast, also worship the Earth and offer sacrifices to her, Worship of especially when they are searching for gold." They also ae sacrifice a victim, generally a fowl, to the Earth at clearing Abrons. land for cultivation ; the blood of the fowl is the share of the goddess, its flesh is eaten .by the sacrificer. Further, they promise a fowl or a goat to the Earth if she gives them a good harvest; and when the goddess grants their prayer, they pay their vow.” The Nafanas, another pagan tribe in the interior of the Worship of Ivory Coast, recognize two great deities, the Sky and the ee nan Earth, to both of whom they offer sacrifices. They regard among the the Earth as the guardian of morality. They think that the ‘“’*"** Earth resents an act of unchastity committed in the forest, and that in such cases it is necessary to offer a sacrifice in order to appease her anger; otherwise she will not allow the rain to fall or will send some other calamity.° Among the Gagus, another tribe in the interior of the The Chief Ivory Coast, there is a Chief of the Earth (¢oua-kinit or seen toua-kéné) in every village besides the ordinary civil chief. Gagus: his Before the French occupation these Chiefs of the Earth were Shieh more important and had more power than the civil chiefs. The French have altered the balance of power, making it incline to the side of the civil instead of. the religious authority.* The Chief of the Earth used to offer sacrifices to the Earth for the whole village on a great stone that stood in his courtyard.. He interpreted the wishes of the Earth, and could announce that the deity would have no work done on a particular day. Thus he could prevent the villagers from going forth to their labour, even when they wished to work, and they obeyed from fear of incurring the vengeance of the goddess. On the other hand, if anybody was wounded 1 L. Tauxier, Ze Noir du Bondoukou, p. 353. In the gold-bearing districts him in his mining operations. See (Sir) A. B. Ellis, Zhe Zshi-speaking of the Gold Coast, where the natives dug for alluvial gold, it was thought that the precious metal was brought up from the bowels of the earth by a local deity, who thus rewarded his worshippers for their offerings, When the supply of gold ran short, the people fancied that the god was angry or lacked labourers, so they sacrificed two or three slaves to him to assist Peoples of the Gold Coast (London, 1887), pp. 69 sg. 2 L. Tauxier, Ze Notr du Bondoukou, Pp. 309. 3 LL. Tauxier, Le Notr du Bondoukou, Pp. 379. 4 L. Tauxier, Véegres Gouroet Cagou, Centre de la Céte ad’lvotre (Paris, 1924),.),,.135- Worship of the Earth among the Guros of the Ivory Coast. Chiefs of the Earth: their duties, 408 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRIGA CHAP. or killed in the forest, the Chief of the Earth was responsible, and had to pay compensation to the wounded man or to the family of the deceased. Moreover, he had to sacrifice a young he-goat and a fowl to the Earth to pacify her wrath.’ A murderer had to give a kid to the Chief of the Earth, who sacrificed it to the Earth to appease her anger.” Theft also excited the wrath of that righteous deity, and the thief was obliged to soothe her by the sacrifice of a kid, which was offered to her by the Chief of the Earth. If the theft had been committed in another village than that of the thief, the sacrifice of the kid was offered half-way between the two villages by the Chiefs of the Earth of both places and in the presence of the two village chiefs and the elders of both villages.? So when there had been war between two villages and some of the combatants had been slain, the Chiefs of the Earth of the two sides used to meet half-way between the two villages and sacrifice two young he-goats to the Earth, begging her to forgive the slaughter and the blood that had been spilled. The civil chiefs and the elders of the villages attended the ceremony and partook of the flesh of the kids. Thus peace was restored between the villages.’ The Guros are another tribe in the interior of the Ivory Coast who revere the Earth as a great divinity, the upholder of the moral law.® .In respect of political evolution they stand at a somewhat higher level than the Gagus, for unlike the latter they have chiefs of tribes as well as chiefs of villages. Yet their social organization would seem to have remained essentially theocratic till it received a rude shock through contact with European civilization when the French invaded and conquered the country. For the tribal chiefs and their subordinates, the village chiefs, were rather priests than civil rulers; they all bore the title of Chief of the Earth (Zerezan, from ¢eré, “earth”), and their principal _ functions were religious, it being their duty to offer sacrifices to the Earth both periodically and on special occasions, when the wrath of the great goddess was excited by 1 L, Tauxier, Végres Gouro et Gagou, p. 138. p.. 136. 4 L. Tauxier, Végres Gouro et Gagon, 2 L. Tauxier, Vegres Gouroet Gagou, p. 139. Dela7 6 L. Tauxier, Wegres Gouro et Gagou, 3 ‘L. Tauxier, Vagres Gouroet Gagou, pp. 248. x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 409 breaches of the moral law, such as murder, theft, rape, and adultery. The tribal chiefs, in their capacity of Chiefs of the Earth, sacrificed to the Earth on behalf of the whole tribe ; and the village chiefs, in their capacity of Chiefs of the Earth, sacrificed to Earth on behalf of the whole village.’ The periodic sacrifices include those offered at clearing the land for cultivation, at sowing, and at harvest,” but some at least of these appear to have been offered by the heads of Sacrifices families rather than by the Chiefs of the Earth. Thus among ois the southern Guros it is the head of a family who at sowing offers a fowl to the Earth on an ant-hill,? and among the central Guros it is the husbandman himself who sacrifices a fowl and a little rice to the Earth at clearing land for cultivation.* But among the northern Guros it is the tribal chief or Grand Chief of the Earth in person who sacrifices to the Earth at harvest, while the people drink palm-wine and dance to the sound of the drums for two days.” Among the crimes which, in the opinion of the Guros, Crimes had to be atoned for by an offering to the Earth, homicide "7c? Pad, or simple bloodshed was generally expiated by the sacri- for by | fice of a male kid, sometimes two kids, offered either by pears the Chief of the Earth or by the oldest man of the village,° but sometimes in the case of wounds the victim was a fowl.’ When somebody killed a person of another village, the village of the slain man or woman took up the quarrel and killed somebody of the homicide’s village immediately, it might be in the very night that followed the murder. The chief of the tribe then intervened to stop reprisals. He exacted a kid from the family of the first homicide, and a kid from the family of the second homicide, and the Chief of the Earth of the one village, bringing with him the kid, met the Chief of the Earth of the other village, bringing the other kid, at a point between the two villages, both chiefs being accompanied by the 1 L, Tauxier, Vegres Gouroet Gagou, pp. 197. PP. I71, 182, 196 sg., 243, 244. 6 L, Tauxier, Mégres Gouro et Gago, 2 L, Tauxier, Végres Gouro et Gagou, pp. 260, pp. 186, 197, 208, 225, 260. 6 LL. Tauxier, Vegres Gouro et Gagou, wy be Tancier Negres Gouro et Gagou, PP. 173, 175, 198, 199, 245. p. 186. 7 L. Tauxier, Vegres Gouro et Gagou, 4 L, Tauxier, Végres Gouroet Gagou, p. 246. 410 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP, inhabitants of their respective villages. At the place of meeting the great Chief of the Earth sacrificed the kids to the Earth, then seasoned the flesh with a medicine intended to prevent the repetition of such acts ; the medicine consisted of a little earth or sand gathered at the spot where the sacrifice had just been offered to the Earth. The people of the two villages ate the flesh thus seasoned, and the quarrel | was over.’ Sacrifices to When a man killed a member of another tribe, no com- the Earth 4s 3 ; aineree position for the murder was accepted, and the result was making. a petty war between the tribes which might last two or three years. When both sides were weary of hostilities, the great Chief of the Earth of a third tribe interposed his good offices as mediator between the combatants. If they accepted his mediation, the tribe which had killed the first man gave a kid, which was sacrificed to the Earth by the great Chief of the Earth. The kid was cut in two, and the tribe which had killed most men in the war enjoyed the privilege of eating the fore-quarters of the animal, while the tribe which had shed less blood acknowledged its inferiority by consuming the hind-quarters of the victim.” Sacrificesto Among the Guros the expiation for theft also con- Reece sisted in the sacrifice of a male kid to the Earth. These of crimes. people deemed rape a less serious offence than theft; the ravisher furnished a fowl, which was offered to the Earth as an atonement by the brother or husband of the injured woman.® Among the central Guros an adulterer had to give a kid and two fowls to the injured husband, who sacrificed them to the Earth; for if the wrath of the Earth at the adulteress were not thus appeased the woman’s children would die.’ Among the northern Guros the sacrifice of a fowl to the Earth was deemed sufficient to protect the guilty couple - and the innocent husband from the natural consequences of the crime.’ Another crime abhorred by the Earth was sorcery, the malignant art of killing a person by eating his or her soul. A convicted wizard or witch had to give a 1 L. Tauxier, Végres Gouroet Gagou, pp. 174, p- 245. 4 L, Tauxier, Vegres Couro et Gagou, 2 £,. Tauxier, Veyres Gouro et Gagou, p. 195. pp. 245 sg. 6 L, Tauxier, Végres Gouro et Gagott, 3 L. Tauxier, Végres Gouroet Gagou, p. 241. x THEO WORSHIP OOF EARTH IN AFRICA 4Il goat and a fowl, or even a goat and a bull, which were sacrificed to the Earth in atonement of the horrid crime.’ On the whole, among these tribes of Upper Senegal and Moral the Ivory Coast the belief in the moral character of the great Da opee Earth deity appears to have exercised a powerful influence an Earth in enforcing respect for human life, for private property, and ack for the sanctity of the marriage tie. The Ashantis of the Gold Coast regard the Sky and the Worship of Earth as their two great deities. With their Sky-god, whose eas name is "Nyame, we have already dealt.27,_ The worship of the among the Earth-goddess is less well known, perhaps because it is not mat oT quite so obvious. No temple, no image is reared in her honour, but her power is none the less universally acknow- ledged. From the Earth, according to one of their most familiar myths, sprang some of the noblest of the Ashanti clans, for example the Oyoko, from whom the later Ashanti kings were descended. The Ashanti name for Earth is Asase Ya, that is, Old’ Mother Earth, The day dedicated to her worship was Thursday, and even now the Ashanti farmer will not till or break the soil on that day; down to some thirty years ago a breach of the rule was punished with death. To this day the Ashanti farmer makes an offering to Old Mother Earth every year on the day when he begins to till his land. He goes to the field, taking with him a fowl and some mashed plantain or yam which his wife or sister has cooked for him. Arrived at the field where work is to begin, he wrings the fowl’s neck, and letting the blood drip on the mashed yam and the earth he speaks as follows : “Grandfather So-and-so, you once came and hoed here and then you left it to me. You also Earth, Ya, on whose soil I am going to hoe, the yearly cycle has come round and I am going to cultivate; when I work let a fruitful year come upon me, do not let the knife cut me, do not let a tree break and fall upon me, do not let a snake bite me.” He then cuts up the fowl and mixes the flesh with the yam. After that he throws portions of the mixture to the four points of the compass; and some of the remains he places 1 L. Tauxier, Végres Gouro et Gago, 3 R. S. Rattray, dshanti (Oxford, pp. 204, 222. 1923), pp. 214 sg. 2 Above, pp. 97 s¢g¢. 412 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN _ AFRICA CHAP. in a leaf and deposits on the spot where he stood in making the offering.’ eit ars Among the inhabitants of the Northern Territories of among the the Gold Coast there prevails a worship of the Earth like indabiants that which we have found characteristic of the inhabitants Northern Of Upper Senegal or the French Sudan, and the resemblance Pasa is natural enough since, as I have already pointed out, the Coast. boundary between the two countries is not racial but merely political, the same tribes being settled on both sides of it.” While the natives of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast all recognize the existence of a great Sky-god or Supreme Being, whom they call Wuni, Weni, or We,’ they in practice pay much more attention to the Gods of the Earth; for, like the ancient Chinese, they have not risen to the general conception of a single Earth-god, the per- sonification of the whole earth, but believe in the existence of a great number of Earth-gods, each presiding over his own particular territory, like a human chief. For the most part every community possesses at least one Earth-god, and the names of the Earth-gods vary from place to place. Sacred They are invisible, but abide in natural objects, such as Apa eeont clumps of trees, rocks of large size or remarkable appearance, gods. and ponds; but clumps of trees are their favourite homes. © At Kanjaga, for example, there are two such sacred groves. One of them is a sinall cluster of fan palms surrounding a single tall one, all of them growing out of a white ants’ nest. The other is a group of short, long-leaved raphia palms such as grow in the marshes of the Ashanti forest. This latter grove, situated in a small dale otherwise bare of trees, presents a striking appearance, all the more so because these palms are elsewhere unknown in the district. The Propitia- propitiation of the local Earth-god is deemed of the utmost paeas importance, for, were it neglected, famine would surely follow after the as a consequence of the wrath of the offended deity. His Sf certain. righteous indignation is excited by the spilling of human area _blood on the ground, and by the commission of incest, bloodshed for such acts are thought to pollute the soil. Even so and incest. seemingly trivial an act as the shooting of an arrow in 1 R. S. Rattray, Ashanti, pp. 215 sg. 2 Above, pp. 94 sg. 3 Above, p. 95, ns THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 413 anger suffices to disturb the equanimity of the sensitive deity. When such a deed has been done, or indeed anything untoward has happened, the particular Earth-god on whose domain the event took place must be appeased. The duty of making atonement devolves on the religious chief or priest who. bears the title of téxdana, tengyona, or tengsoba, meaning literally in every case the Owner of the Land or Chief of the Earth, as the corresponding official is commonly designated in Upper Senegal. It is his office to intercede between the people and the deity who gave them the land on which they live and the food which they eat. They say that no place is without its Chief of the Earth (¢zzdana), and to this day, if people migrate into an uninhabited country in the hope of finding there a less niggardly soil than the one they have left behind them, they must obtain a grant of land from the Chief of the Earth who happens to be nearest to the new settlement. As usual, the atonement takes the form of sacrifices, which are ordered by the Chief of the Earth to be performed as the occasion arises. He also appoints the day when the new crops may be eaten by the community ; in short, he regulates all matters that concern the religion of the Earth-god.? The requirements of the deity are revealed from time Sooth- to time by a soothsayer, who ascertains them by means of.2..° a certain magical stones, which he shakes out of a-bag. The Stones. divine wishes announced by this form of soothsaying are regularly gratified, or if not, so much the worse for the Chief of the Earth who is responsible for the omission. For example, the Chief of the Earth at Issa was informed by the soothsayer that his Earth-god desired a market to be re-established on the spot. The Chief delayed to comply - with the divine injunction, and in consequence his son was badly mauled by a leopard as a warning to the Chief himself to be less dilatory in obeying the deity.” Through the communication which the soothsayer thus maintains with the higher powers his services are indispensable, not only in religious matters but in the conduct of everyday 1 A. W. Cardinall, 7he Natives of 2 A. W. Cardinall, Zhe Natives of the Northern Territories of the Gold the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (London, N.D.), pp. 15-17, 24-26. Coast, pp. 26, 30. Worship of the Iarth- goddess among the Ewe- speaking people of Southern Togo. Oaths by the Earth, 414 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP, life ; practically nothing is done without consulting him ; the whole structure of society is in his hands. Yet the stones by which he works his wonders are neither rare nor beautiful: they are just hard, smooth stones which may be picked up anywhere in the fields. The natives believe that the stones have fallen from heaven, so they gather them and pile them on the ancestral graves, or rather on the little pyramids of mud which are set up to serve as altars in the worship of the dead. But sceptical Europeans are of opinion that these precious stones are simply disused hand-grinders.’ The Ewe-speaking people of Southern Togo, a province to the east of Ashanti, worship the Earth as a goddess under the name of Anyigba. One of the epithets applied to the goddess is Mother of the Little Children, for she it is who bestows offspring on people. She also makes the yams to grow and trade to prosper; she gives good luck in hunting and victory in war. It is in her power, too, both to inflict and to heal sickness and disease. One day of the week, named aszamighe, is her rest-day or sabbath ; there- fore on that day it is unlawful to hoe the ground, to dig yams, and to thrust a stake into the earth, because such acts are clearly calculated to disturb her divine repose, if not to do her bodily injury. Anybody who hoes the ground on her sabbath will surely die. When a man is accused of theft or any other wrong and denies the accusation, he smites the earth with his hand, praying that the Earth may kill him if he is not speaking the truth; and if he is lying the Earth will surely kill him, for she can distinguish between truth and falsehood and make the distinction manifest. She is served by a priest whose office is hereditary, descending from father to son. The badges of the priest are two bells and a priestly cap woven of rushes.” If a man has sworn falsely by the Earth, his sin must be expiated by the sacrifice of two fowls and a goat, which the priest offers to the goddess, killing them without the use of a knife.” 1 A. W. Cardinall, Zhe Natives of 56 sg., 59; zad., Die Ewe-Stamme the Northern Territories of the Gold (Berlin, 1906), p. 716. Coast, pp. 29-31. 2 J. Spieth, Dze Religion der Eweer 3 J. Spieth, Dze Religion der Eweer in Siid- Togo (Leipzig, I911), pp. 72 Stvd-Togo, pp. 62 sg. ane THE WORSHIP OF EARTH 1N AFRICA 415 When a wife is childless she goes with her husband Wite’s to the priest of the Earth. Her husband gives the priest you"? palm-wine, two hen’s eggs, some tobacco, and four strings goddess for of cowries, and begs him to pray the goddess to cause his“ i wife to conceive. The priest takes a little of the wine, names the goddess, gives the woman a chicken in her hand, and prays, saying, “ This woman says she would like to have a child, and if she gets one she will come again and thank thee”. Thereupon her husband says to the goddess, “TI have made over my wife to thee, that thou mayest give her a child, which she shall bear. If she gets a child, I will come again and thank thee.” The priest now commands the husband to inquire of his wife at home whether she has been guilty of any secret sin; for should she have sinned and not confess her fault before putting her hand in the sacrificial vessel of the goddess, she would surely die. If the wife agrees, she draws water next morning, and she and her husband go with the water to the priest. To him the woman confesses her secret sins. If she hides anything, she will surely die. After her confession the priest pours holy water into a vessel of the goddess, and causing the woman to kneel down pours the water over her. In the vessel are palm-kernels and pebbles, which consecrate the water. Then the priest withdraws, and the woman bathes in water taken from the holy vessel. After that the priest binds round the woman’s neck a cord made of the bark of the raphia palm, with two cowries fastened to the end. The cord signifies that the woman has been made over to the goddess. Twice a week, during the time that she is gone with child, the woman must bring maize-meal to the priest in order that he may feed the goddess with it. This the woman must do down to the day of her delivery. When her child is born and the navel string has fallen off, the mother brings the infant to the priest, who prays over it, bathes it, and ties a cord of raphia-palm bark about its neck. If the child thrives, the mother bathes it twice a week (on astamigbe and domesigbe) with water drawn from the holy vessel of the goddess. If the child is a girl, she will after- wards wash herself with water from the holy vessel. If the child is a boy, he will afterwards buy palm-wine for the The place of sacrifice. Offerings to the Earth- goddess at the planting of yams. Offerings to the Earth- goddess at the festival of the new yams. Offerings and prayers to the Earth- goddess for rain. CHAP. 416 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA priest, work on the priest’s field, and run errands for him to the neighbouring towns,’ The place of sacrifice is a great mound of earth in which the quills of a porcupine and the feathers of a certain bird (aklama) are inserted. On this mound fowls are sacrificed to the goddess.” When the time has come for planting the yams, all the towns bring each a piece of seed-yam to the priest of the Earth. ‘The women give maize, earth-nuts, and cotton-seeds, On the day of the week called domeszgbe, which, as we have seen, is the sabbath of the goddess, these gifts are brought to the priest. They are carried to the sanctuary in the forest, the seed-yams on three great wooden plates, and the maize, nuts, and cotton-seed in a basket; and on arriving at the holy place they are set down on the earth. When the people have returned home, the priest casts up two mounds. of earth and plants the seed-yams in them. After that he gives notice that any one who pleases may plant his yams. At the annual festival of the new yams all the chiefs bring an offering of two yams apiece to the priest of the Earth. To these offerings he adds his own, and carries the whole to the house of the goddess, where he prays, saying, “ To-day the life-yam has come into the town. Here is thy portion. Take and eat it. Thou must eat before we eat. May no man who eats yams to-day suffer pain.” There in the house of the goddess the yams are left, and the priest returns home. Arrived there, he cooks some of the new yams, mixes them with oil, and strews them all about his house and courtyard. When he has done so, everybody is free to eat the new yams.* In time of long drought the servants of the chiefs go about the town catching fowls. When they have caught about a score, they bring them to the house of the Earth- 1 J. Spieth, Dre Religion der Eweer tn Stid-Togo, p. 58. 2 J. Spieth, Dee Religion der Eweer in Stid-Togo, pp. 58 59., 59 Sg. 3 J. Spieth, Dre Religion der Eweer in Stid-Togo, p. 60. 4 J. Spieth, Dée Religion der Eweer én Stido-Togo, p. 60. Among the Hos of Togo the Earth-deity to whom the new yams are offered is a male god named Agbasia, See J. Spieth, . Die Ewe-Stimmnie, pp. 304-310, 340; The Golden Bough, Part V. Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 58-62. In a prayer to Agbasia the priest ad- dresses him: as ‘‘QOur Father” (J. Spieth, Dre Hwe-Stamme, p. 308). x THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 417 goddess on her sabbath (domeszgbe). There the priest prays over the fowls, saying, “ Because it rains no more, the elders have stolen these fowls for thee. Grant therefore that the rain again falls on the crops and not upon men.” In thus praying the priest holds up a cock and a hen. After the prayer he kills them both by dashing them on the ground. The flesh of the birds is then cooked and eaten, and at the conclusion of the meal the worshippers drink palm-wine.’ When the chiefs hear that an infectious disease is raging; Offerings they go together to the priest of the Earth. He prays, anne saying, “ We have heard that an evil disease is raging. Let Earth- it not come to us. If thou wilt hinder it from coming to us Sone: we will give thee a goat.” Next morning the whole town is disease. swept and the sweepings are carried outside the walls. On the third day all the fires in the whole town must be extinguished, and the ashes are carried out of the town by women on broken wooden plates. The chiefs take thick clubs, wrapt in creepers, fasten a toad and the fruit of the calabash-tree to a fresh palm-leaf, and going out into the forest throw away the leaf and its contents. On their return fires may again be lit in the town? | On the outbreak of war the chiefs gather to the priest of Offerings the Earth, and he prays to the Earth, saying, for example, 7¢Ph""" ? to the “The men of Agate are about to go to war. If nobody on Earth- our side falls, we will give thee a goat.” Then the warriors Sears take a white fowl, go out into the street, hold up the bird, and pray, saying, “ To-day thy children are about to go to war and have made a sign for themselves. Therefore be round about them, and if none of us falls in the war, we will come and thank thee.” After praying thus each man plucks a feather of the white fowl and fastens it to his gun. The servants of the chiefs kill the fowl and eat it, after which the warriors march away to the battle.’ We have seen that the Bafioti of Loango believe in a Worship of great deity named Zambi or Nsambi, who created men but, the Barth: god Mkissi 1 J. Spieth, Dze Religion der Eweer of the new yams, See J. Spieth, Deze ae in Stid-Togo, p. 60. Ewe -Stimme, pp. 305-307: The among the 2 J. Spieth, Die Religion der Eweer Golden Bough, Part VI. The Scapegoat, Bafioti of in Stid-7ogo, pp. 60 s7. Among the pp. 134-136. Loango. Hos of Togo a similar ceremony is 3 J. Spieth, Die Religion der Eweer annually performed before the eating 7% Sud-Zogo, p. 61. VOL. I | ; 2E Native opinions as to the Earth-god, 418 THE WORSHIP OP CEARTH AN APRICA CHAP. wearied by their importunity, retired from earth to heaven, where he now dwells aloof from human affairs and occupies himself but little with the weal and woe of his creatures.’ However, they think that at his departure to a higher sphere the deity did not leave this lower world entirely forlorn. He either left behind him or sent down from above a certain being named Mkissi nssi or Bunssi, whose name and attributes appear to mark him out as an earth-god, though the native opinions about him are various and conflicting. His name Mkissi nssi is compounded of mzssz, “magic”, and zssz, “earth”; so that literally it signifies “ Magic-earth”. His other name Bunssi is sometimes explained as meaning mama ma nssi, that is, “Mother Earth”, from mama, “mother”, and #ssz,“earth™.’ He“or she appears? tobe an embodiment of the earth viewed in its productive and fertilizing aspect. Like Nsambi himself, he is invisible and intangible; but, unlike Nsambi, he dwells in the earth and comes up occasionally to the surface, especially at places where in former times public fires were maintained on behalf of the State.” His function is to look after the welfare of all that dwell on Nsambi’s earth, particularly to regulate the fertility of the ground and the distribution of rain. This he does chiefly by requiring the strict maintenance of the sacred taboos (chzna), which are nothing but the commands and pro- hibitions issued by the great god Nsambi himself. Breaches of these ordinances bring down misfortunes either on the guilty district or on the whole country, and for the sake of the general weal they must be punished and expiated. Closely connected with these beliefs are the notions of the holiness of the earth and the importance of its fertility, which, for an agricultural people like the Bafioti, is an essential condition of life. The native opinions about the Earth-god Mkissi nssi or Bunssi are, as we have seen, various and conflicting. The old orthodox opinion would seem to be that he is one and all powerful and everywhere the same; but others hold that there are many independent Earth-gods differing from each 1 Above, pp. 136 sgy. pp. 276 sy, 2 Ff. Pechuel-Loesche, ()%e Loanvyo- 3K. Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- Expedition, wi, 2 (Stuttgart, 1907), £.vfpedttzon, ii, 2, p. 277. x PUNO RST Of LAR YIN APRIGA 419 other in power, and that every district has its own particular Earth-god, each with his own special name. Some believe that the Earth-god was established by the great god Nsambi; others say that he has nothing to do with Nsambi. Some think that he no longer exists or at least is no longer active, that like Nsambi he has retired from business and withdrawn into the depths of the earth or somewhere else far away. In the old days, when native kings reigned in Loango, the sanctuaries of the Earth-god were also the places where the king’s sacred fires burned perpetually. Such spots are still well remembered by the people, who will not pass them by without doing them reverence.” At the present day the sanctuaries of the Earth-god are found either in the forest remote from dwellings or in the villages, sometimes sur- rounded by a clump of trees, sometimes standing on the edge of a thicket. They all contain a building of some sort, varying from a solitary and much weathered hut to a _ more elaborate structure in which a number of fetish-men or magicians may be lodged. The materials used in their con- struction are largely papyrus stems and palm branches; the wooden posts and beams are often carved and painted red and black; the walls, made of slim papyrus stems set close together, are sometimes decorated with graceful patterns formed by dark stalks of plants or creepers, which are woven in and out of the papyrus stems so as to produce the effect of embroidery. The simplest form of sanctuary con- sists of a square or oblong hut, closed on all sides and built on a floor of beaten earth. In a single place Dr. Pechuél- Loesche saw a circular hut, open on all sides, with a thatched conical roof supported on seven round wooden pillars. The existence of such a round hut, dedicated to the Earth-god Bunssi, is all the more remarkable because the nearest round huts are said to be situated far to the north in the Cameroons mountains.® The sanctuaries of the Earth-god in Loango. The sanctuaries of the Earth-god are characterized by Simplicity great simplicity. No sacred animals are kept in them, and % t 1 E. Pechuél-Ioesche, Die Loango- Expedition, iii. 2, pp. 278, 281. Expedition, iii. 2, pp. 278, 279. 3 FE. Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- 2 E. Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango- Expedition, iii. 2, pp. 282-284. sanctu- aries. The priest of the Earth-god. Prayers to the Earth- God for rain, Other occa- sions of consulting the priest. 420 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. no bloody sacrifices are offered; no one may hunt in the neighbourhood. At the entrance of some, but not all, of the huts, an antelope horn or a leaden funnel is stuck in the ground as a_ receptacle for the palm-wine or rum which worshippers offer to the Earth-god.’ The priest who is charged with the guardianship of the sanctuary and with the performance of all rites at it must be a man of sound and unblemished body who has never shed blood. He receives no regular salary, but is maintained by the offerings of the faithful, for whom he performs the offices of religion. He has no official costume and no official dwell- ing; he resides in the village, and for days or weeks to- gether may not go near the sanctuary of which he has charge. None but he may enter the holy building: he must celebrate the rites between sunrise and sunset: he must have fasted and abstained from women since the evening before. How- ever, these rules are said to be now not everywhere strictly observed. From a variety of indications it is inferred that in the regal period the priests of the Earth-god were trained smiths and workers in metal. Nothing is known of stone tools in Loango. When the priest enters the holy house and shuts the door behind him to convey the petition of the worshipper to the deity, he rings an iron hand-bell, which, like all his priestly furniture, must be of native workmanship.’ _ In time of severe drought the people go on pilgrimage to one of.these sanctuaries to pray for rain. Arrived at the holy place they take up position on three sides of a square facing towards the house of the god, and wait in silence till the sun rises. Then they all begin to pray in a loud voice, their prayer being accompanied by the beating of drums and the blowing of horns, while the priest is officiating and ring- ing his bell in the house. So it goes on without a break till sunset, or until the people, who must be fasting, are com- pletely exhausted. Such assemblies are said in times of great distress to have numbered many thousands.® Different and more complicated are the rites of the © sanctuary when the pilgrims come to ask for help in their 1 FE. Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- Expedition, iii, 2, pp. 285-287. Expedition, iii. 2, p. 284. 3 E, Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- * E, Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- Expedition, iii,.2, pp. 288 sg. x THE. WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 421 private affairs or to do penance for sins which they have committed by breaking taboos. The occasions which induce them thus to go on pilgrimage may be long-continued sick- ness, or inexplicable misfortunes, or the fear of coming evils. The priest consoles and encourages the sick, the dejected, and the sinful by a variety of antics, clashing iron instru- ments of antique patterns or scraping the rust off them into water, cutting capers and prancing round the pilgrims, puffing at them, stroking them, painting red, yellow, and white lines, dots, and circles on their bodies, or setting vessels full of water on their heads and observing the ways in which the water overflows. Finally, he assures them that all is now well and dismisses them with advice for their conduct in the future.’ Among the sins which in the native opinion are fraught with serious consequences are sexual offences, and the guilty couple must do penance at a sanctuaryof the Earth-god. They must fast from meat and drink for twenty-four hours, then appear at sunrise at the holy place, their bodies clean shaven and smeared with charcoal, their heads and shoulders sprinkled with ashes. They bring two new mats and a pair of un- blemished fowls, which must be either pure white or pure black in colour; the man brings the hen, and the woman the cock. The mats are unrolled before the door of the hut, and the sinners take their stand on them, while the priest with a piece of iron traces a circle about them on the ground. Next he tethers the cock to the ankle of the woman and the hen to the ankle of the man, but so that the fowls can approach each other, for from the behaviour of the birds one to the other omens are said to be drawn as to the future weal or woe of the guilty pair. The sinners now make their confession in a low voice, and the priest afterwards repeats it in the holy hut, ringing his bell at the same time. The ceremony of confession is repeated thrice, at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset. All that time, till darkness falls, the pair must stand silent and motionless, exposed to the jeers, the witticisms, and the reproaches of passers-by or of the villagers who have gathered to witness their penance. It is related that on one such occasion the woman, unable to bear the shame of the exposure, fled from the-spot, but the angry 1 E, Pechu2l-Loesche, Die Loango-E xpedition, iii, 2, p. 289. | Penance done by sinners at the sanctuary of the Earth-god. Purifica- tion of sinners. Why sexual crimes are deemed grave. Hunters bring the heads of game to the Earth-god. 422 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. crowd pursued and killed her, and then put her paramour also to death.’ Many of these penitents are said to be obliged to appear at the sanctuary for three days in three successive months, after full moon, and to creep on all fours or to hop on one leg thrice round the holy hut. And by way of cleansing them from their sin earth is thrown on them, dust is puffed at them, and they are sprinkled with rust scraped from a sacred implement of iron. Other modes of purification are sprinkling the sinners with salt water and forcing them to leap over wisps of burning grass. It is probable that the rites of penance vary with the nature and gravity of the misdemeanour.” The reason of the extreme seriousness with which the natives of Loango regard breaches of sexual morality is that such offences are supposed by them to blight the fertility of the earth, especially by stopping the rainfall.” Similar notions prevail and lead to similar practices in other parts of Africa. Thus among the Chagga of Mount Kili- manjaro almost the most heinous crime was deemed sexual intercourse between a girl and.an uncircumcised lad, because such an offence was thought to bring misfortune on the land. Hence, if the girl was got with child, the guilty pair were laid one on the top of the other and staked to the ground. This was done above or below the cultivated land, and the corpses were left unburied.* In Loango hunters are expected to bring to the priest of the Earth-god the fresh heads of the animals which they have killed, along with the tongues. The flesh is eaten at the sanctuary, and the priest adds the skull to the heap of mouldering skulls and bones which gradually accumulates at the holy place. The reason alleged for the custom is that the animals live on the products of the earth. A hunter who omits to bring a fresh head of game to the sanctuary of the Earth-god is bound, according to the priests, to do penance for the omission; for they say that by his negligence he has injured the earth and lost his luck 1 E. Pechuel-Loesche, Dze Loango- Second Edition (London, 1913), pp. Expedition, iii, 2, pp. 290 sg. 54 599- 2 E. Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango- Expedition, iii, 2, pp. 291 sg. * Ch. Dundas, Atdimanjaro and its 3 J. G. Frazer, Psyche’s Task, People (London, 1924), p. 296. - THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 423 in the chase.’ It might naturally be thought that the first- fruits of the ground would be offered at the sanctuaries of the Earth-god, but there is no strict rule on the subject, and such offerings are said to be few in number and small in quantity.” The Baganda, the once powerful nation who give their Worship of name to the Uganda Protectorate, used to worship an Earth- Sandie god whom they called Kitaka. He had a temple in among the Busiro, where his will was interpreted by a prophet. When 2*8°2¢* the king contemplated putting to death people who had been condemned by the other gods, he would often send to Kitaka and ask him to destroy the ghosts of the doomed men. Speaking in the name of Kitaka, the prophet under- took to destroy both their bodies and their spirits, so that their ghosts could not return to harm the king. Kitaka was consulted by women when they wished to ensure the fertility of a garden which they had just laid out ; moreover, prayers and offerings were addressed to him in order that the land might yield abundant crops.’ But the Baganda also believed in another Earth-god Musisi, named Musisi, whom they held to be responsible for earth- pene quakes. He had his temple on one of the Sese Islands in of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, but he was believed to dwell in the **8*"** centre of the earth and to cause earthquakes when he moved about. At such times anybody who had fetishes at hand patted them and asked the god to keep quiet; pregnant women patted their stomachs to prevent the god from taking either their own life or that of their unborn child; others raised a shrill cry to remind the deity of their existence and to induce him to remain still. He was not a god who was much consulted by the people, but they made him gifts lest he should be angry and disturb the earth by his movements.’ In the central district of Busoga, the country which Worship ot adjoins the territory of the Baganda on the east, the Earth- ae god Kitaka is believed to be the cause of earthquakes, among the a ° . soga, The Basoga think that the god is present in the form of a Orin 1 FE. Pechuél-Loesche, Die Loango- 3 J. Roscoe, 7he Baganda (London, Expedition, iii. 2, pp. 291 sg. IQII), pp. 312 5g. 2 E. Pechuél-Loesche, Dze Loango- 4-J. Roscoe, Zhe Baganda, pp. Expedition, iii, 2, p. 292. 313 59g. 424 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP, great stone or rock. Accordingly they build a shrine beside the rock to receive offerings, and they go thither to pray to the deity. Sometimes men disappear from the district and are said to have been spirited away by the god. Fowls and goats are sacrificed at the rock; the blood is poured out on the ground beside the shrine, and the head of the victim is buried close by. The worshippers cook and eat the meat in the vicinity of the rock.’ tow the The Basoga say that sometimes Kitaka journeys through Earth- the land and causes the earth to quake on his passage. He quake god , , : Kitaka. is always followed by another god named Kibaho, who is Passes greatly feared, because plague or sickness of some kind through Busoga usually dogs his steps, unless it can be averted. So when are a tremor of the earth betrays the passage of Kitaka, the follower medicine-men set to work to ward off the evil which his Kibaho. follower might bring in his train. They say that Kitaka passes from Mount Elgon to Lake Kyoga; hence when an earthquake is felt they call on the people to cut a path for the god Kibaho, in order that he may pass by as swiftly as possible. So in each district the people cut down the grass and shrubs and smooth a road some ten feet wide, while others bring food and place it at the boundary of their land to be carried on by the inhabitants of the next district. This road is said to expedite the god and to carry him through to Lake Kyoga without doing any harm. The people of the next district take up the work and pass on the victuals to their boundary ; and in this manner the path is made and the food carried on, with additions from each district, until the shore of Lake Kyoga is reached. There a canoe is ready, and the food is put into it and rowed to an island, where a priest takes the food and offers it to the god by scattering it upon the water. This offering averts the plague and death that otherwise would almost certainly have attended the passage of the Earthquake-god Kitaka and his : dreadful follower.’ | aa Among the Banyankole, a pastoral people whose kolein country adjoins that of the Baganda on the south-west, the Earth- one ats quake gods the Earthquake - god was originally known as Omusisi, a Omusisi and 1 J, Roscoe, Zhe Northern Bantu 2 J. Roscoe, The Northern Bantu, Nabingé. (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 250 sy. p. 251, se THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA 425 name which is clearly identical with Musisi, the appellation of the Earthquake-god among the Baganda. But of late years some people among the Banyankole have claimed to be the prophets of another Earthquake-god called Nabinge. These prophets or priests built a hut and hung about in it things that rattled when they were shaken. So when anybody came to consult the oracle the priests made a noise like the rumbling of an earthquake and shook the hut till it seemed to be falling down. This so terrified the applicants that they willingly made offerings to the priests in order to avert the threatened danger.’ The worship of this Earthquake-god Nabinge has in recent years spread also among the Bakyiga, a large tribe of the Bantu stock who inhabit the mountainous region called Kigezi to the east of Lake Edward. They are a wild and truculent people, who set little value on human life and in their mountain fastnesses long maintained their independence against all comers. The country inhabited by these savages, with its wonderful mountain scenery, its tropical luxuriance of vegetation, its dashing waterfalls and calm lakes spangled with water-lilies and embosomed in forests of grand timber, is said to be the most beautiful in Eastern Africa.” Like the Basoga, the Bakyiga associate the outbreak of plague or other sickness with the Earth- quake-god and think that on such occasions it is neces- sary to appease his wrath. So the headman of the village builds a shrine and calls upon the people to bring offerings of goats and sheep, which, according to their number, are exchanged for a cow or cows. One cow is sacrificed, and the blood, heart, and liver are the portion of the deity ; the blood is allowed to run on the ground, while the heart and liver a e placed in the shrine. Some of the meat is cooked and eaten on the spot, and the people carry the rest to their homes.” Worship of the Earth- quake-god Nabinge among the Bakyiga. On the eastern slope of the great Luenzori range, Offeringsto between Lake Edward and Lake Albert, there are at various rock-spirits at earth- places boiling springs, where the natives have long been quakes. accustomed to take vapour baths as a cure for fever or 1 J. Roscoe, The Banyankole (Cam- 2-J. Roscoe, The Bagesu (Cam- bridge, 1923), p. 25. bridge, 1924), pp. 162 5g. 3 J. Roscoe, The Bagesu, p. 166. Worship of the Earth- Spirit Irungu among the natives of Kiziba. 426 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AFRICA CHAP. X rheumatism. At one place the bubbling of the water under a rock can be both heard and felt ; the people say that a rock-spirit dwells there and makes his presence known by this noise. They used to make offerings here whenever a severe shock of earthquake was felt. These shocks are frequent and sometimes severe.’ The natives of Kiziba, a district to the west of Lake Victoria Nyanza, believe in the existence of an Earth-spirit called Irungu, who, at the bidding of the Supreme Being Rugaba or of a powerful spirit named Wamara, fashioned the earth, the mountains, and the woods, and peopled them with animals. For the use of this. Earth-spirit every householder builds two miniature huts of grass or sticks to right and left of the doorway of his own hut; in shape the little huts resemble the big one; their doors must face in the same direction. In each of the tiny huts is placed a potsherd with an offering of bananas for the spirit. Irungu presides not only over the house but also over the forest trees that grow on the edge of the banana groves, also over any rivers that may flow there, and over the birds. It is especially necessary to propitiate him when one of his creatures, the wild animals, has been killed either in the chase or by accident. All who have been concerned in the slaughter, sometimes amounting to hundreds of men, assemble before the house of the Earth-spirit, with the dead animal lying in their midst. The priest comes forth with the severed bloom of a banana-cluster in his hand. This he cuts in two with a knife, inserts wood of various sorts between the halves, and then presses the whole together. After that he kills a fowl, sticks it on a spit with the banana- bloom, carries it into the hut of the Earth-spirit, and there roasts it. As soon as they perceive the smell of the roast fowl the hunters form in line, and, preceded by the priest, stride over the dead game. Thus the anger of the Earth- — spirit at the slaughter of his creature is appeased. Such an expiatory rite is called by a name which means “healing ” (kutamba). 1 J. Roscoe, Zhe Soul of Central Leute (Stuttgart, 1910), pp. 126, Africa (London, etc., 1922), p. 124. 127 sg., with the illustration on_p. 2H. Rehse, Mexicans, to. be justified in treating her as an Earth-goddess,® though she is not definitely so described, so far as I have observed, by the original Spanish authors who have described her strange and bloody rites. Her festival fell in the eleventh month of the Mexican year, which began on the twenty- fourth of August and ended on the twelfth of September.’ The goddess presided over medicines and medicinal plants, which accords well with the character of an Earth-deity. Hence she was worshipped especially by physicians, surgeons, blood-letters, midwives, women who procured abortion, and fortune - tellers of all sorts, such as those who predicted the future from grains of maize or drew omens from the - inspection of water in a bowl. All these guilds clubbed Festival at together once a year to celebrate a great festival in honour of vee their patron divinity. For this purpose they bought a woman was who was to personate the Boddess at the festival and to be put een to death in that character.> She had to be neither very old woman, nor very young ; hence a woman of about forty or forty-five putto | Was usually selected tor the fatal dignity. The purchase was ere made forty days before the festival. Like all the other slaves character. Chosen to personate deities she was washed and purified and The received the name of the goddess whom she was to represent consecra- in life and death. Thus sanctified and consecrated she was tion of the : victim, | from that day onward shut up in a cell and closely guarded, that she should not sin; for the representative of a goddess must be sinless. When twenty days were over, they brought her forth from her cell, clothed her in the garments appropriate Mttos, Supersticiones y Supervivencias History of the New World called populares de Bolivia (La Paz, 1920), pp. 38 593. ' B, de Sahagun, Histotre générale des choses de la Nouvelle - Espagne, traduite et annotée par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), pp. 18, 68, 134; Diego Duran, Astoria de las Indias de Nueva Espaita (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 185, 187; E. J. Payne, America, i. 464, 468, 2D. Duran, Astoria de las Indias de Nueva Espafia, ii, 187. 3 E, J. Payne, Hestory of the New World called America, i. 464, 468; T. A. Joyce, Mexican Archeology (London, 1914), pp. 43. 4 J. de Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana (Madrid, 1723), ii. 275. 5 B, de Sahagun, of, cit. p. 18. XI THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AMERICA 435 to the goddess, and set her before the public that all might see and adore her as the deity incarnate. From that hour the people esteemed her as the Mother of the Gods herself and paid her as much reverence as if in truth she had been that great divinity. Seven days before the festival they gave her in charge to four old medical women or midwives, who waited on her and made it their business to keep her in a happy and cheerful frame of mind, telling her stories and encouraging her to laugh and be merry, for it was an evil omen if any woman or man who was to die in the character of a god was sad and cast down at the prospect of death.' If that happened they thought that many soldiers would be slain in war or that many women would die in child- bed.» Among other occupations the woman who person- ated the Mother of the Gods was given a quantity of aloes which in her last days she had to dress, spin, and weave into a shirt and petticoats, which were afterwards to figure in the ghastly ritual. But the principal mode of diverting the thoughts of the unhappy woman from her approaching The doom was the dance. Four rows of dancers, carrying ¢"°* branches of trees in blossom, danced silently, without singing, daily in the afternoon till set of sun. They hardly moved their legs or bodies, but lifted and lowered their arms in time to the music. These dances went on for eight days. Then the medical women, young and old, divided themselves into two parties and engaged in a sham fight before the woman who acted the part of the Mother of the Gods. In the battle the two sides pelted each other with balls made of tree-moss, leaves of reeds, portions of cactus, or yellow flowers of a certain sort; and the woman who personated the goddess had to lead the first attack.* These sham-fights lasted four days, and when they were over they led the woman who was to die to the market- place, escorted by all the medical women, that she might bid it a last farewell, for she was to return to it no more. On The her return from it she scattered maize wherever she passed {*ewell 0 by way of good-bye to the market. Thence they reconducted 1D, Duran, Astoria de las Indias 3D, Duran, Astoria de las Indias de Nueva Espaiia, ii. 187 sz. de Nueva Espanta, ii. 188. 2 B. de Sahagun, of. czt. p. 134. 4°B. de Sahagun, of. crt. pp. 133 59- The sacrifice. Personi- fication of the goddess and her son Cinteotl by men wearing the skin of the victim. Ritual observed by the representa- tives of the goddess and her son, 436 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AMERICA CHAP. her to her cell, which was hard by the temple where she was to die that night. As they went, the medical women and the midwives consoled her, saying, “ Be not sorrowful, sweet- heart ; this night you will sleep with the king. Therefore rejoice.’ They did not let her know that she was about to be killed; for her death must be sudden and unexpccted. They covered her with the ornaments of the Mother of the Gods, and at midnight they led her to the temple where she was to die. A great multitude had gathered to see her pass, but no one spoke or coughed ; a profound silence reigned. Arrived at the place of sacrifice she was hoisted on the back of an assistant, whereupon the priest came up, and seizing her by the hair adroitly cut off her head, while her streaming blood drenched the man who supported the now headless body. The skin was immediately stripped from the still warm and throbbing corpse, and in it a tall robust young man clad himself, thus personating the goddess come to life again. Over the woman’s skin he wore the shirt and petticoats which she had woven in her last days.’ One of the woman’s thighs was flayed separately and the skin carried to another temple, where a young man put it on his face as a mask and thus personated the maize-god Cinteotl, the son of the Mother of the Gods. Besides the mask of skin he wore a hood and jacket of feathers.” The man who represented the Mother of the Gods and was clad in the skin of the dead woman now joined the other who personated the son of the goddess-and wore the mask of skin on his face. After a curious ritual of flight and pursuit, in which the fugitives carried bloody besoms of couch-grass and at sight of which all the beholders were seized with fear and trembling, the two actors who played the parts of the divine Mother and the divine Son repaired together very deliberately to the temple of the Mother of the Gods, where the woman had been slain in the character of the goddess. There the man who represented the Mother of the Gods entered the temple. It was still night, but at break of day he ascended the steps of the pyramidal temple and took up his post on the summit. No sooner did his 1 B. de Sahagun, of. cit. p. 1343; Mueva Espana, ii. 188. D, Duran, Hestorta de las Indias de * B. de Sahagun, of. c7t. p. 135. XI THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AMERICA 437 figure appear outlined against the sky than men who had been waiting below ran up the staircase at full speed to bring him offerings. Some covered-his feet and head with white eagle down; others painted his, face red; others put on him a short cloak which bore the likeness of an eagle embroidered or woven in the stuff; others clad him in painted petticoats. Some cut off the heads of quails in his presence; others offered him copal. Also they decked him out in all the richest ornaments of the goddess and set a splendid crown on his head. Then the captives Sacrifice who were to die were set in a row before him. He took SOL one of them, laid him on his back on the block, cut open his breast, and tore out his heart. This he did to a second, a third, and a fourth. The rest he left to be butchered by the priests.' Leaving the sacred shambles the two men who per- The sonated the divine Mother and the divine Son then repaired (Peer ® to the temple of Cinteotl, preceded by devotees who wore goddess ornaments of paper, cotton, and feathers, and escorted on ae either side by medical women who sang as they marched, the temple while priests led the singing and played on musical instru- Coon ments. The heads of the human victims were brought to this temple. There a great many old soldiers were waiting, and when the procession arrived they took the man -who played the part of the divine Son in their midst and ran with him at full speed to a certain hill which stood at the borders of the enemy’s country. There the divine Son took The | from his face the mask made of the skin from the thigh a itt of the dead woman and deposited it in a tower or keep of human at the frontier. Often the enemy was waiting for them au at the spot, a fight ensued, and some were slain, after which the survivors returned home.” A variety of ceremonies followed in which the repre- The dance sentative of the Mother of the Gods played a conspicuous ab part, dancing with the medical women in the court of the tive of the temple of the Mother of the Gods. The captains and ceaehg soldiers who had just been decorated by the King for gallantry took part in these dances. They danced silently to the tuck of drum, and all were so: festooned that they 1 B, de Sahagun, of. ct. pp. 135 5g. 2 B. de Sahagun, of. cz/. pp. 136 sg. The blood of the human victims tasted by the representa- tive of the Mother of the Gods. The skin of the woman who personated the Mother of the Gods hung ona tower. 438 THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AMERICA CHAP. looked like living flowers to the admiration of the beholders. But the women who saw them dancing in gorgeous array wept, saying, “Our sons now so richly bedecked will have to march when war is proclaimed. Think you that they will return? Perhaps we shall see them no more.” ‘The King and all his courtiers were present at these ceremonies. The gold on their persons was so plentiful that the courtyard shone with a dazzling splendour in the blaze of the sun.’ Yet the human representative of the Mother of the Gods had to figure in another and grimmer scene than these flowery sun-illumined dances. For the blood of the human victims slain in sacrifice was brought to him in a vessel decked with feathers, and he had to stoop over it, dip his finger in the blood, and suck his bloody finger. Then he gave a doleful groan, and all who heard it were seized with fear and said that the Earth herself felt it and shook. At the conclusion of this dismal rite, all the people stooped down, took up a little earth on one finger, and ate it. This ceremony of eating earth they commonly performed at their solemn festivals and in presenting themselves before their idols ; they looked on it as a mark of reverence and humility towards the gods. After their conversion to Christianity they sometimes observed the custom before the images of the saints.” Finally, a priest descended the staircase of the temple- pyramid of the great god Uitzilopochtli, carrying in his hand a wooden basket full of white chalk and white feathers, which he left at the foot of the steps. Immediately a great number of soldiers, who had been waiting and watching, raced to the basket, striving who should be the first to reach it. There they filled their hands with the contents of the basket and ran back to the point from which they had started. The man who wore the skin of the dead woman and who personated the Mother of the Gods watched them plundering the contents of the basket, and when they had done he ran after them as if in pursuit, while all the spec- tators accompanied his movements with loud cries, and when he passed them in his course they spat at him and hurled at 1 2. de Sahagun, of. cit. pp. 137 59. 2 D. Diego, Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espanta, pp. 189 sq. XI THE WORSHIP OF EARTH IN AMERICA 439 him whatever they happened to have in their hands. The King himself took part in this affray and returned to his palace at a run. All did the same, and abandoned the representative of the Mother of the Gods with the exception of a few who joined-some priests and escorted him to a place called Tocititlan, that is, “ Near our Grandmother ”. There the representative of the goddess stripped off the woman’s skin and hung it on a tower or keep that stood on the spot. There it was stretched out with the head up and the arms open, in full view of the road. Such was the end of the festival of the Mother of the Gods,’ The custom of choosing a living woman to represent Meaning of a goddess, treating her as the divinity in person, and after- reat wards killing her and clothing in her skin a man who there- ing men upon figured as the representative of the deity, was by no “*"¢ women to means confined to the worship of the Mother of the Gods ; personate ° : ° ° : gods or it was a common piece of Aztec ritual, in which men as well coadesses as women played the fatal part of gods and came to the andputting : 2 ; them to same tragic end.” The only probable explanation of such death, barbarous rites would scem to be that they were based on a belief in the natural mortality of the gods, and were intended to prolong the lives of the deities for the good of the world by annually killing their human representatives and then simulating their resurrection, this pretence of resurrection being effected by clothing a living man in the skin of the slain representative of the deity. In this way, 1 B. de Sahagun, of. cit. pp. 138 sg. The two fullest accounts of this strange festival are those of B. de Sahagun, op. cit, pp. 18 sy., 68 sg., 133-139, and ID, Duran, of. czt. ii, 185-191. The two accounts differ from and supplement each other on many points, but are not necessarily inconsistent. I have combined ‘them in the text, following mainly the account of Sahagun. A much briefer description is given by J. de Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana (Madrid, 1723), li, 275 sg., which appears to have little or no independent value. pr'37. Ushas, the Dawn. Her mythical relation- ship to Night and the Sun. 452 WORSHIP OF SUN AMONG ARYAN PEOPLES chap, which are often referred to in the hymns. Scholars are almost unanimous in interpreting the three strides with reference to the course of the sun, but they differ as to the application of the myth, some understanding the three steps to mean the rising, culminating, and setting of the sun, while others regard them as descriptive of the sun’s passage through the three realms of the universe. The former view is favoured by most European scholars; the latter is sup- ported by a practically unbroken tradition in India from the later Vedic period onward. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the highest step of Vishnu is heaven, where the gods and the fathers dwell. In several passages he is said to have taken his three steps for the benefit of mankind. According to a myth of the Brakmanas, Vishnu rescued the earth for man from the demons by taking his three strides after that he had assumed the form of a dwarf. In this we have a transition to the later mythology, in which Vishnu’s benevolent character is further developed in the doctrine of Avatars or incarnations for the good of humanity.’ Closely connected with the solar gods is Ushas, the Dawn. Her name, derived from the root vas, “to shine”, means. the dawn, and is etymologically identical with the Latin aurora and the Greek 2s, both signifying “dawn”. Hence, conceived as a goddess, she always betrays her physical basis through a transparent veil of mythical fancy. In her graceful figure the personification is but slight: in addressing her the poet never forgets the radiant glory and the gorgeous hues of the sky at break of day.’ She is said to have been born in the sky, and is constantly called the daughter of heaven. She is the sister, or the elder sister, of Night, and the names of Dawn and Night are often conjoined as a dual compound. She is said to have opened the paths for Surya, the Sun-god, to travel in: she shines with the light of the sun. In one passage the Sun-god Surya is spoken of as following her as a young man follows 1 A.A Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, Religion of the Rigveda, pp. 282-285. Pp. 37-393 2d., ‘ < : .U) a be BL435 .F84 The worship of nature, Volume I. Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Library 1 1012 00162 4263