Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/341

 0)1 the Origin of the Ei^yptian '' Za)-.' 311

again shook the gourd, his whole body trembled, his head was thrown back and his eyes closed. Then Lerpio spoke through him to Biyordit, and Biyordit answered. Holding the gourd in his hand and making a free circling motion from the elbow, the //>/ spoke in short sentences. Lerpio directed Biyordit that a bull from Lerpio's own iierd must be sacri- ficed. The husband of the sick woman must take one of his own cow calves and go to the Aliab countrx' and there exchange it for a bull ; this bull he must bring back and put in Lerpio's herd. The directions were not all given at once, frequently Biyordit asked questions of Luwal, who always closed his eyes when answering, and spoke in a peculiar throaty voice. Lerpio.though he spoke through the /;V/, rested in the gourd ; at one time during the ceremony the stopper fell out of the gourd, then all present said "■ glitck, glucicl' as if they would pacify an animal, in order to placate the spirit and keep it in the gourd. The stopper was put back with care, and all said " nrain." Then, still in an intensely agitated state, with eyes closed, Luwal waved the gourd to the north-west, that is down wind, and all the audience moved their hands in the same direction. In this way Lerpio wafted away the disease, for though he did not cause the illness, Lerpio was such a powerfuiyt?X' that he might cure what he had not caused.

Later when the bull would be sacrificed its meat would be divided carefull)', the tiel receiving the right ribs, Biyordit the right haunch, and the rest being divided amongst Bui's near relatives, but a certain part would be cut up and left near the homestead, apparently for the spirits.

Another Nilotic tribe, the Shilluk, have one king and rain- maker and the long line of his ancestors are all powerful spirits. Any of these may possess the people. In one Shilluk village I noticed two sheep's skulls thrust into the thatch of a hut, and I was told that these had been sacri- ficed on behalf of a woman who was possessed by Dag son of Xyakang, the first king of the Shilluk. Three little pieces