spirits of __

mhondoro (chiefs of the past)

vadzimu (ordinary people, "who possess their own descendants")

varoyi (witches)

ngozi (lost souls)

mas^ave (aliens)

river (njuzu)

p.

possession by spirits & dreaming

28

"signs of possession in their children" : "A family may test a spirit even after it has been authenticated at a bira (ritual of bringing out the spirit, when senior n’anga) question the spirit on its genealogy and intention), withholding the cloth and axe due to the spirit."

"One healer recalls that as a ... child ... he dreamt of falling stars that would crash and break into pieces. He would pick up the largest piece and jump into a river. ...

29

Later, as a young man, he had hallucinations in which the skyscrapers of Salisbury (now Harare) grew tiny, and in which he could see through cars and make out the engine parts, and in which he could see the medicine in people’s pockets. These occurred shortly before this family finally accepted that he had been called."

"female healer" :- "As a young adolescent she began to dream of herbs and her family accepted that she had been called. His father was informed in a dream that his daughter’s [divine patron-]spirit was male and that he must collect and handle the herbs revealed in her dreams ... Earlier signs had warned of her future possession : in Grade One at school she would become [temporarily] blind when told to write; at the age of eight she would fall into the river en route to school."

30

"Many [healers] know medicine that improves the recall of dreams, and some say it helps to make dreams prophetic. The ingredients usually include a vulture’s brain and ear (the area around it), which are ... placed ... in the skin which should be pricked with a vulture’s nail. The vulture’s heart is cooked ... and eaten. This medicine is given to trusted children, those with ... an interest in the healing business."

31

"All healers who claim to be possessed or guided by the shades say that their techical knowledge (their knowledge of materia medica) is revealed to them in dreams. ... Apart from minor ailments, every treatment must be revealed in dreams for each patient, even if the illness is one often treated by them. Dreams may appear in short spells of sleep during treatment sessions."

32

"A healer, who held high office in a national traditional healers’ organization, claimed that his mudzimu had revealed to him an extraordinary set of myths to do with healing that had been drawn from ... Zezuru mythology."

"Zulu believe that without dreams, true and uninterrupted living is not possible. ...

Zezuru believe the same : dreamless nights are said to be unhealthy. Dreams mediate between the shades and the living."

world

its inhabitants

no-ru / da-ru

humans [& animals]

ro-soki

spirits

ro-kerfi

ancestors

ro-seron

witches

p.

denizens

world

38

witches

"a large town whose inhabitants ... own palatial houses made of gold and precious stones. On the streets, one can buy a snack of roast ... human meat, as well as special clothes with transformative powers. In order to become temporarily transformed into a wild animal in the human world, no-ru, one can put on a "witch-gown" (an-thoro)".

humans

"this world as having been placed by God (K-uru) on the head of a giant, whose hair is the earth vegetation, which is infested with human beings and animals, the earth’s equivalent of head-lice ... "that the giant’s hair has been combed and wrought" ... further connections between plaiting the head[-hair] .... in the initiation rituals of the male ra-Bay and female an-Bondo cult associations."

ancestors

"The ancestors ... cohabit on such close terms with their living descendants in the latters’ villages that it is considered unwise to sweep the house after nightfall in case their benevolent presence is swept out."

town-spirits

"non-ancestral "town ... spirits" ... inhabit the village."

bush-spirits

" "Bush spirits" ... are described as looking so terrifying that anyone who sees their true appearance will go mad ..."

39

river-spirits

"A man seeking wealth or, more usually, a woman seeking children will establish a one-to-one contractual relationship with a spirit inhabiting a strikingly beautiful pebble {cf. the pebble-sized "black stone" of Mecca} found on the river bank, taking the stone home and promising to make a sacrifice in return for a child or for success."

p.

dreaming

40

"... dreams are also an important vehicle for communication from the ancestors, who are described as

41

"After death, it is only the left hand which is said to be able to give God a "true" account of the individual’s life. In sleep the left hand’s power manifests itself, ... in a commonly-reported experience in which ... one wakes up feeling crushed by an enormous weight, and is unable to either move or to call out."

"Although close visual contact with spirits in waking experience commonly results in madness ... for ordinary human beings, such contact in dreams is possible ... even for those who do not have the penetrative vision of "four eyes" because sleep is said to be a darkness (an-sum). ... Through dreams, we enter yet another region, called "the place of dreams", ro-mere, which is said to be close to ro-soki. ... like the other invisible worlds, ro-mere is spoken of as a definite spatial location – as a town again, in fact."

42

There are people who dream and see spirits [e-kerfi]. If they wake up they have to be helped or they’ll die. When someone dreams, ... If he comes across "bad people" [witches] and they put medicine in his eyes, he’ll get four eyes. It’s something like when we’re near death. I don’t have four eyes now, but I do when I sleep. ... Before people die they dream a lot, and some even dream their death."

p.

diviner

48

"Diviners insist that no-one can be a diviner unless they have had an initiatory dream in which a contractual relationship is established with either a spirit or an ancestor, or both. The patron ancestor is usually a deceased diviner or the same sex who was a close relative, while a diviner’s patron spirit is usually of the opposite sex. In return for a sacrifice ..., the spirit or ancestor bestows the ability to divine, and thereafter facilitates the diviner’s access to the "truths" of other worlds."

autobiography of a diviner :- "While I slept, I dreamt that a spirit tied me up {cf. Yis.h.aq tied up by Ya<qob} and said that he should work together. When I woke up the next morning, I could do it, and gave an egg to the spirit."

autobiography by a woman diviner :- "In the first dream my aunt showed me how to use the cowries. ... I was in ro-mere, and I saw these cowries first in a heap, then in a circle."

autobiography by another [male] diviner, initiated in his dream by a spirit of opposite gender, "in a sacred forest near Makump" :- "My eyes were tied with a white cloth, and I slept. I saw a fine white lady, who ... asked me what kind of gift I

49

would like ...? I replied that I wanted ... to learn what is hidden. I said, "Whenever something is hidden, I was to know how to find it." After this, she stretched out her hand and we greeted each other. Then she gave me a red cloth ... Anyone who has this ... can see hidden things. ... I was gone for two days : the lady had taken me to ro-soki. When she left me and I came back, ... I was dizzy for seven days. When I got back, sacrifices were made".

The dream-interpreter, "who used mirror-gazing divination (an-memne {cf. hero /MEMNon/}) to perceive the diagnosis, he told me that my mind (an-mera {cf. /meMoRia/}} was waking up ... He prescribed a protective sacrifice of a black umbrella and a length of black material, and offered to perform a ritual for me, which would have involved opening the umbrella {cf. [Kemetian] parasol for soul of the dead} over me and covering me with the material."

deity of __

is __

the land or earth ("as a female deity’)

"referred to variously as Ala, Ani, Ana, Ale, or Ane"

thunder

Amadioha {cf. [<ib.] /<AM<AD/}

sun

Anyanwu {cf. [<ib.] /<ANAN/}

p.

term

its meaning

57

onu

shrines (literally, ‘mouths’)

c^i

"personal deity"

ikenga

idol (carven)

eze

priest

58

dibia

diviners

69, n. 1

ofo

staff (rod) of lineage-authority

" "

alo

senior title staff (rod)

p.

60

"obtained the skull of the immediately predeceased king and encased it within his throne"

66

"Major deities in Eha Arumona, in common with those of many village groups in the Nsukka plateau, have an embodiment ... This embodiment is a bundle of ritual materials known as Onumonu or Awam. While carrying it, the bearer himself "becomes" the Onumonu as well as the deity which it embodies."

p.

61

[for the ic^i title, requiring "elaborate facial scarifications"] "an alose [spirit] named Ebaba was looking for him ..."

In the night something came down from the sky, like a vulture {cf. [Kemetian] vulture-goddess}, and put something into my hands. I found ofo and alo in my hands."

63

"in a dream, I was told by an unknown mmo (spirit) that I was to be the next eze."

65-6

"He dreamt that the Ana came to his house ... He (the Ana) was like a man but shone like brass {cf. "Talos was the ... bull-headed bronze servant, ... a survivor of the brazen race" (GM 92.m)}, and was as big as a house."

p. 78

"I came to a river and there saw a female spirit washing her hair. ...

p. 79

I was struck dumb. ... When night fell I dreamt that the jinni visited me and she gave me much weaving lore. The following morning my power of speech had returned ..."

dream

its prognostic

rain

locusts

recovery from illness

death

killing a snake

a praegnant woman will miscarry

locusts

rain

illness

long life

dirty cloths

health

being bitten by a snake

praegnancy

excrement

abundance of grain

lice

money

iron

more children

a broken tooth

the death of a relative

rabbit runs away

gain in the market

p.

term

its meaning

101

kingoma kimwil

"drum nobles"

nsaan

free persons

ketiul

daughter’s daughter

mutiur

grandsons

lebui

"spiritual power"

nkid (= [Ki-kongo] NKISi)

"fetish"

mun (= [Ki-kongo] ndoki)

"witchcraft"

ndoey

dreams (collective); beard

101-2

lo-ndoey

a dream (singular); single hair of beard

102

ma-ndoey

dreams (plural), viz., recurrent (frequently re-occurring) dreams

apwo ndoey

to sleep a dream

a sami ndoey

to announce a dream

a swo ndoey

to reveal a dream

a taa ma-ndoey

to itemize (list) series of dreams

a bumi ndoey

to turn (interpret) a dream

a bel ndoey

to pick over (elucidate) a dream

103

a kori ndoey

to open a dream

a kori kengan

to open a proverb

a kori soo

to open a riddle

ndoey ndeag

important dream ("which will come true")

ndoey mutwe

"dream of the head" (= ndoey ndoey ‘a dream dream’)

mutwe ndoey

"a head of dreams" : "they can dream about what is to occur, they can also dream the solution to vexing problems"

104

sami-ndoey

"dream teller" : "those storytellers ... believed ... their audiences into a state of dreaming."

language

mun

Tiv

tsav

Lugbara

ole

proverb

its application

"ndoey pwo tol, "to recount a dream is to come out of sleep""

excuse by witnesses in court for not giving testimony {to say too much would be to endanger one’s self, just as one may wake up from telling too much in a dream about it}

" "ndoey lor mbua" (the dream of a dog)"

{dreams of hounds are well-known just by observing them – their growling etc. in their sleep, their bodily movements (of legs etc.) in sleep give their experience away to any avid observor – they disclose without intending to}

p.

explanation

104

"Yansi will sometimes say that a person dreams only of what they like and that what is seen in the dream is what has been preoccupying that person in the day, during waking life."

105

{Freud, however, wildly interpreted dreams to mean, arbitrarily and very fancifully, all manner of things quite different from what the dreamer was concerned with during routine waking life.} [The author is taking Freud to agree with the Yansi here, whereas actually he emphatically disagreed.]

The Yansi exclaim that "these things we call dreams" are "strangely entertaining!" {True; and quite the contrary from Freudism, which can see no entertainment-value in dreams, but only morbid hatreds and mistrusts.}

p.

omen

106

"dreams are sought after ... as commentaries ... before going hunting in order to find out whether it would be worth while, before making a journey and ... In order to identify the day for the ceremony the clan elders pass the night out in the open under the star. In the morning all the dreams of the night are recalled and carefully interpreted to learn how the dead are disposed towards the ceremony ... Moreover, during the ceremonies the dreams

107

In practice the dreams which are given the greatest public attention are ... such as when restoring to a place of honour a fetish which has been abandoned and therefore has been provoking sickness ... the dreams of a clan chief, or fetish owners, of diviners, or guardians of clan fetishes, of twins, of pregnant women and of ill persons are considered with particular care."

On certain days, particularly Thursdays, when hard work is prohibited, people confine themselves to light work in the village such as basket weaving. They gather in the shade and chat during the work, and it is here that dreams are recounted and interpreted. ... Each time a dream is told a determination through interpretation is made first of all as to whether it is a good or bad omen."

p.

dream

its signification

108-9

"one is mourning the death of an infant"

"one will be successful in hunting, and kill game."

109

"an ancestor comes and offers a goat"

"this will turn out to be in the form of fame."

"one has been arrested by soldiers"

"one has fallen into a trap set by sorcerers."

"one has been wounded by a buffalo"

"one is being attacked by a sorcerer."

p.

term

its meaning

112

kaik

diviners

cak

people with "double-eyes" ("second-sight")

nenk

"ghastly creatures which bring illness and death" [plural]

113

caal

a dream (singular)

caalk

dreams (plural)

nams i caalk

"consumed by dreams"

114

nenet

a frightening dream (about a nen)

enk

frightening

cer

a stick for digging

jerg i nenet

buried object causing frightening dream

kutek

"souls" or "shadows" of the dead

117

tel

deity; the sun

p.

people

115

Jok Calofan, who come at night to work ritually completely encircling a house

116

Jok Tao, who are the children of the female ninit Narema in a temple at Aselk : she is the wife of the ninit Mufu inhabiting a temple at Matelk

p.

entity

117

description by a doctor-diviner :- 3 principal nenk (Narema, Mufu, and Melesonol) "were not human in appearance and Ngarema, whom he had seen, could not be described because the image seemed to reflect like a mirror." {cf. [Aztec] god Tezcatlanextia; and the mirror of the god Dharma; flying-saucers are likewise usually reflective-surfaced.}

Narema, Mufu, and Melesonol are nenk and " "their ancestor is the ground squirrel" ("ek methenii sej") [xerus erythropus]."" [north-African white-striped chipmunk] {inasmuch as the Wic^ol chipmunk-god is aequivalent to Theseus, therefore Theseus’s son Hippo-lutos (worshipped, at Troizen, as constellation Auriga – GM 101.i) ought to be one of these Inessana deities. That his chariot must be a reflective flying-saucer would tend to exemplify the speculation that all such "chariots of the gods" may be flying-saucers.} {[Inessana] /TeL/ must be etymologically cognate with [<ibri^] /T.aL/ of the resurrection (in YS^<YH 26:19), judging from the resuscitation (GM 101.k) of Hippo-lutos; while the constellation Auriga would be the starry resurrection (in DNY>L 12:2-3).}

118

Some people who suffer from pains [arthritis] in the joints and who have dreams in which doctor-diviners appear may have to be made ... in order to prevent their limbs from becoming stiff and crippled."

"A cak ... is able while asleep to leave his body and go out on the back of of a manyil and travel over great distances instantaneously." {thus, the cak may be symbolized by the cross carried on the back of the spider in depictions from antient pyramids in the southeast U.S.A. (C); while the 4-eyen nature of the cak may be displayed as the 4 dots in the corners of the cross-symbol of the hieroglyphic Maya day-sign Lamat}

p. 118 "This sacrificial animal would then, if it really is the cow of god, ... start walking towards the hills of its own accord with the people following behind and it will, still unguided by men, perambulate ... to the temple at Kamol".

"Ilos follows a dappled prize cow to the site where he founds Ilion (Apollodoros 3.12.3). On a more exalted level, the Egyptians believed that a celestial cow conducted the dead pharaoh to a heavenly throne." (M&P, p. 55)

Carolingian legend :- "the Camel, ... impressing its footprints in the hard rock as if it were wax, ... led the closely following worshippers to ... the Niedermunster ... Convent". (SD, p. 214)

"The Sin i Poinj announces the season typified by the music of the lyre".

"On the day of the festival ... "the jeza mat comes down" ... a large mat women from dom palm (jeza) fronds. This mat hangs, rolled up, ... Inside there are some sold staff and throwing sticks which belonged to the ancestors who were temple custodians (aurek) {/AUR/ may be cognate with [<ib.] />AHRo^n/} ... along with ... other relics of dead kinsmen. ... The mat is also brought out ... at burials, when the dead person is bound into the mat to be carried to the grave. But a relic is brought back from the grave to be lodged in the jeza mat which is suspended in the hut. Ingessana say that this is the deceased’s shade (kuuth)." [kut is "the remembered image of the whole person." (p. 124, n. 2)]

p.

rite

121

... the parents of a child who has suffered some frightening experience ... approach the local leader of the cult and ask her (this person, called taun {perhaps cognate with [<ib.] /TH.iNNah/ ‘favor, grace’}, is always as woman) to restore the child".

122

The second phase begins when the child is taken to the place where they had the frightening experience. The child is made to the spot and is then covered with ashes. The child is stood up and then sprayed with water, and immediately everyone runs back to the homestead. ... The main elements of the rite involve the taun putting ash on the left legs and arms of the children, making them smell ... a species of cress ... The children are then picked up and held upside down over gourds containing ... ashes. They are then stood right way up and the taun sprays them with mouthfuls of beer from a special double gourd ... A chicken which as been immerse in beer is circled over and around the children and this way too sprays them as the bird flaps about." {the [Hellenic] god of healing by means of dreams, namely Asklepios, likewise had the chicken as dedicated animal (for the festival Asklepieia, on the 8^th of the month Xanthikos – FNA)}

p.

feature

122

On other occasions some of their number are dressed in masks said to represent hyenas."

123

"caalk or caalk-like institutions are known ... to exist among neighboring peoples such as ... the Murghaja ... to the west and south."

"The contrasting orientations ... is vividly represented by the spectacle in waking life of the benign grandmother, the taun of the caalk group, casting seed around the house as a benediction, and the dream image (caalk) of the ... ghost casting malevolent seed around the dreamer’s homestead."

"before the interment his corpse was seen to be moving. It was unwrapped and they found the man had come to life again. ... When he recovered he explained a great high God "enthroned in a spacious place, from top to bottom in white. {the whiteness of Oba-tala?} On his right is the God Orisha-nla and on his left the God ifa, both his counsellors ...; and before him ... are the Gods Ogun and Sopona. Ogun is armed with 4000 short swords ... Sopona {deity of plague-epidemics} also has 4000 vials about him {cf. "the seven vials full of the seven last plagues" (Apokalupsis of Ioannes 21:9)} ..."

"when anyone dies "he has to enter the womb of women"."