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



reign in his stead. The killing could only take place at night, for during the day the king 

 would be surrounded by his friends and his body-guard and no would-be successor would 

 have the least chance of harming him. At night the king's position was very different. 

 Alone in his enclosure with his favourite wives and no men in the royal village to protect 

 him, except a few herdsmen whose huts would be at a little distance, he was represented 

 as passing the night in constant watchfulness, prowling round his huts fully armed, peering 

 into the sliadows, or himself standing silent and watchful in some dark corner. Then, when 

 at last his rival appeared, the fight would take place in grim silence broken only by 

 the clash of spear and shield, for it was said to be a point of honour for the rft not to 

 call the herdsmen to his assistance. 



Many commoners will give some such account as the above, and though nothing of the 

 sort occurred during the recent period before the Mahdia, I believe that these tales 

 reproduce with tolerable fidelity a state of affairs which once existed among the Shilluk, 

 or among their ancestors before they occupied their present territory. One survival 

 of the conditions outlined does, indeed, seem to remain. I was told on every side that the 

 king still kept awake at night and slept only by day, and the sleepy condition of the king 

 on the fev7 occasions on which I saw him seemed to confirm this. 



In recent times the leading part in the killing of the ret was assigned to the members 

 of certain families called Ororo, who are said to be the descendants of the brothers of 

 Oshalo the third king of the Shilluk {vide Genealogy, page 218). ' It is generally believed 

 among well-informed Shilluk that Duwad was the first king to be killed ceremonially, but, 

 according to one account, Tugo was the first to suffer. I have not been able to obtain 

 absolutely reliable information concerning the actual killing of the ret during recent times. 

 It is said that the Ororo and some of his chiefs announce his fate to him, after which he is 

 taken to a tttkl speciall)' built for the occasion, and strangled. The reasons determining the 

 Ororo to act were said to be the ill health of the ret or his incapacity to satisfy his wives, 

 which was regarded as an undoubted sign of senescence. Concerning this there are 

 two popularly received accounts. One states that his wives would themselves strangle 

 the ret, but this is incorrect ; the other is to the effect that the wives notify their 

 husband's shortcomings to some of his chiefs, who tell them to inform the ret of his 

 approaching death. This is done by spreading a piece of cloth over his face and over 

 his knees as he lies sleeping during the afternoon. I am unable to say whether there 

 is any truth in this belief, but it is certainly very widely held, not only among the 

 Shilluk themselves, but also among Arab traders and other foreigners such as Egyptian 

 officers who have served among them.^ 



Ignoring these discrepancies and recent practice, there is little doubt that the old 

 custom was to take the ret to a specially built ttikl in which he lay down with his head 

 resting on the thigh of a nubile virgin. The opening of the hut was walled up and the 

 couple left without water, food or fire to die of starvation and suffocation.^ 



It is said that this practice was discontinued some five generations ago on account 

 of the sufferings of one of the ret, who survived his companion for a number of days, during 



' Although the Oruro canuot become kiug there are among them many highly influential men. Yang Jok, 

 the chief [bieiuj) of Nyalwal district (fodo), is an Ororo, as are many of the btrrlt birncj Nyakang. 



■•^ The Kev. Father Hofmeyer (Zur Geschichte imd Gliederuug dcr Shilluk, Anlhropos, 1910, p. 330) gives 

 a legend, according to which Nyakang summoned his people to a great feast, lasting four days, until a whirlwind 

 arose which ended it abruptly. Presumably the whirlwind was caused by Nyakang, for when all had dispersed 

 he allowed a cloth to be bound over his face so tightly that he died. An account, for which I am indebted to 

 Father Banholzer, states that the Shilluk kings were killed by means of a cloth bound tightly across the mouth 

 by some of the most influential chiefs, who then gave out that the king had " disappeared." 



•' I believe that the girl chosen to die with the rd was always one of his brother's daughters, but I am 

 not certain as to this. According to one account the ret was given a pipeful of tobacco which was lit before the 

 door of the hut was closed. 



