THE CULT OF NYAKANG AND THE DIVINE KINGS OF THE SHILLUK 217 



enclosed by a fence of dura stalks. One lukl is the sleeping compartment for the 

 householder and his wife, one is used as kitchen, while the remaining liut or huts are 

 assigned to the children and servants, if there are any of the latter class. 



The Shilluk Kings 

 The aristocracy of the Shilluk nation consists of the king (re/), his children (niaret), ''"he Siiiiiuk 



*ir 1 St o c r 3.C V 



his grandchildren (ui'dret) and his great grandchildren [kwaniaret). Eoyal descent is not 

 recognised beyond four generations. Nyakang was the first of the Shilluk kings, and all 

 subsequent kings are his descendants, their genealogy being shown in the table on joagfe 218. 



The Shilluk take every care of their king and pay him much honour. In the old days 

 he was not allowed to go to battle and even now the Shilluk king keeps up considerable 

 state and has much authority. He usually rides a donkey and never moves without a body- 

 guard of some 12 to 20 men, for the most part more or less well armed, and all ready 

 to do whatever he tells them, even should this mean an uninteresting and harassing 

 journey, lasting several days, with the white man. In the old days his word was law, and 

 his decisions are still obeyed in all matters coming before him, e.g. the fines of cattle 

 that he imposes are paid with reasonable speed. 



No more eloquent evidence of the power wielded by the king could be offered than the 

 really imposing mound upon which stands the ttckl of the present king (Fig. 49), for although 

 the Shilluk are intensely lazy and the king is far from being generally popular, the mound 

 was said to have been built quickly and with the minimum of grumbling. 



Anyone killing a leopard, a giraffe or an antelope, called gu'k, must hand over the skin 

 to the king, who, while taking it as his by right, would present something valuable in 

 return, such as a spear, sheep, or, j)erhaps, even a bullock. It was said that only the 

 king could wear the skin of the gu'k, but his sons, grandsons and great grandsons might 

 wear leopard skins, and, in practice, I believe that some old and important men, even if 

 not of the royal blood, were allowed to use the latter. Before the Mahdia, only the king 

 had the right to wear certain finely woven imported cloths, though he might give any 

 member of the roj'al family permission to wear material of this quality. It was said 

 that silver, which was formerly very scarce and which even now is much admired in 

 the form of a bracelet, properly speaking, might be worn only by the king, his sons and 

 grandsons, though it appeared that kwnnidret would readily be given permission to wear a 

 silver bracelet.' 



All Shilluk commoners have the lower central incisors knocked out, but ret, niaret 

 and ni'dret do not conform to this practice, while kwanidret please themselves in the 

 matter. This applies to both sexes. - 



Polygamy is prevalent, and a large number of the hikl in Fashoda are the residences of Royal marriage 

 the king's wives, of whom he has very many. His sons, too, take many wives, but the ■'egiilations 

 daughters of a king must remain unmarried, the alleged reason for this being that it is 

 unfitting that the daughter of a king should marry a commoner, while she could not marry 

 a niaret since this would be incest. The prohibition of marriage does not, however, 

 extend to all intercourse ; a king's daughter is allowed to select lovers as she chooses, 



' A song relates how Dag, the second Shilluk king, caught a wonderful creature called Qaro Wirchang, 

 a relative of the sun, on whose wrist glittered a marvellous bracelet. Dag cut off his captive's thumb to obtain 

 possession of the ornament, which he wore on his own wrist, and since that time all ret, niaret and ni'arct have 

 the privilege of wearing a silver bracelet. 



■-■ There is no seclusion when the teeth are removed, but the boys whose teeth are knocked out together are 

 looked upon as life-long companions, though I cannot say whether they form a definite age-class among the 

 Shilluk as they do among some Dinka. It seems possible that the retention of the teeth by members of the 

 royal family may be a device to avoid the levelling effect of the ceremony and to accentuate the difference 

 between themselves and commoners. 



