Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/353

 On the Origin of I he Egyptian '' Zai-y 321

scents used were of Euro[jean manufacture, bought in the market at Omdurman.

It is difficult to obtain any exact knowledge of the beliefs prevalent in Abyssinia, but besides " Waq [the high god] there is a host of lesser deities who fall into two groups, viz. the good spirits named ayana, and the evil spirits named jumJ. The ayana . . . comprise the house gods (penates) and the souls of ancestors (manes). Even in a newly built house there is an ayana and crumbs are thrown on the floor for him when the people first enter the house. ... A special caste of sorcerers has to deal with these evil spirits. Among them are different degrees and specialists, some of whom predict the future, others cure diseases by driving out the devils, and others know the art of making good weather and producing rain."-'

Borelli describes the symptoms of possession by an evil spirit. Some one awakes at night in fearful pain, and is said immediately to be possessed by a ad>: As a remedy a black hen is swung round the patient's head and flung on the ground, if it dies it is a good omen, the spirit has passed into the hen and killed the bird. If it lives it is bad for the patient, for the spirit has not left him. At Ankoboer the adepts of the car gather together and shut themselves up" for three days and nights where they give themselves up to- mysterious and grotesque practices.-* The following account of the VVaddegenni from the Tigre shows more resemblance to the Egyptian ceremonies.

" VVaddegenni enters into young women and into girls in an unknown way. And she into whom he enters falls very sick. But if it is not known that her disease is caused by Waddegenni and if she becomes very sick she dies of it. However, if the relatives of the sick one find out that her disease is caused by Waddegenni, they bring a drum,

'*E. L. Littmann, Art. Abyssinia in Hastings' Encyclopedia oj Religion and Ethic s^ vol. i. (1908), p. 57.

2» Jules Borelli, Ethiofie Meridionale [Vo.ns, 1890), p. 133.