Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/340

 3IO 0)1 the Origin of the Egyptian '' Za7\'

ancestral spirit, that is immanent in the tict; and, as the spirit on the death of the tict will generally take up its residence in the body of a near relative, the office tends to become hercditarj'. Often a tiet will explain to a relative that after his or her death, the spirit will come to him ; and a change of manner, trembling fits, and periods of uncon- sciousness are regarded as signs that the spirit has taken up its new abode. The powers of the tiet are most commonly directed to discover what should be done in case of sickness, i.e. he indicates what jok is responsible for the illness, and what must be done in order that the patient may get well ; but he also gives advice concerning lost cattle and other accidents of daily life."^'

One day in March, 1910, I saw a tiet at work among the Bor Dinka. Some time before a woman had been ill and her husband, whose name was Bui, consulted a tiet. The latter communicated with the spirits. Lerpio, the great Bor j'o/c, denied any influence over the woman, but Deng, a j'ok of the Aliab Dink'a, admitted that he was responsible for her illness, and demanded the sacrifice of a bull. -Now the Dinkas prize their cattle above all their other possessions, so the sacrifice was a great one, and it was probably because the Jok who demanded it was a stranger, the ancestor of Dinkas living on the opposite bank of the Nile and at least a clay's journey to the south, that the husband at first neglected the request. Time passed and the woman did not recover, so at length her husband consulted Luwal, the tiet of Biyordit, the big Bor chief and rain-maker. The husband of the sick woman vvith several others of his clan awaited Biyordit and his tiet outside the sacred hut of Lerpio. When they arrived all sat down, Luwal the tiet sat upon a skin and held a gourd which he rubbed gently with his hand, then he shook the gourd and shut his eyes and exhibited the usual signs of possession. Biyordit clutched his arm ta restrain the fury of the spirit from injuring the tiet. Luwal ^"Seligmann, /oc. cit.