THE CULT OV NYAKANG AND THK DIVINE KINGS OF THE SHILLUK 223 



which time he was so much distressed by the stench arising from her body, that he shouted 

 to the people whom he could hear moving about outside the tnkl coimnanding them on 

 no account to leave his successor to die slowly in this way. 



Some months after the king's death, when decomposition was judged to have ])ioc('ed(!d 

 so far that little but the bones would be found, ^ the hut was broken open by the Urorn, 

 a grave dug and the bones of the king and of his companion placed in it after being 

 wrapped in the skin of one of the oxen killed on this occasion. A new liikl was liuilt 

 over the grave, and one or two other huts put up within the enclosure for the attendants 

 on the new shrine which had thus arisen. 



No mention is made in this account of any public announcement of the king's death, 

 and all my informants agreed that none was ever made, hut it was said that the news would 

 spread gradually, and I have little doubt that this is what actually happened. It has 

 already been stated that it was impossible to obtain information as to who actually killed 

 the king, nor could I determine under what circumstances, or by wlioui, the king was 

 brought to his birthplace, where his grave shrine would be erected. 



During the interregnum which always occurs after the death of a ret the strongest 

 chiefs (bseng) decide all comparatively small matters, great affairs standing over until the 

 appointment of a new king, who is chosen by the most powerful chiefs. According to one 

 account the matter lies in the hands of not more than eight or ten men, none of whom are 

 Ororo. I am uncertain whether there is any feeling that their choice is inspired, probably 

 not, for the object called " Nyakaug" might indicate that the wrong man had been chosen, 

 while, according to another account, the behaviour of one of the animals sacrificed before 

 the tomb of Nyakang at Fashoda might point in the same direction. - 



One of the b!eng takes the king-elect to a village called Akwach where they are joined installation of 

 by the other bxng, and all go to Kwom, a small village near Fashoda, where they stop until i^ing^^lect 

 the return of two or three baeng who go as messengers to Akurwa near the northern limit of 

 the Shilluk country. These men bid the Akurwa people to bring the sacred four-legged 

 stool from the shrine of Nyakang in their village, and also an object called " Nyakang,'' 

 which is kept w-rapped in a piece of daminur, i.e. the common cotton cloth of the Sudan. 

 "Nyakang" and the sacred stool are carried southwards towards Fashoda; each night 

 " Nyakang" is placed upon the sacred stool, but by day these objects are borne upon men's 

 shoulders who, as they march, sing songs that Nyakang has commanded them to sing.^ 

 The party bearing the sacred objects may seize anything they like on the way, but it 

 seems that their wants are so freely provided for in the villages they pass that they 

 scarcely exercise their prerogative. My informants from the neighbourhood of Fashoda 

 said that "Nyakang" was more or less cylindrical in shape and 2 to 3 feet long, by, perhaps, 

 6 inches broad, but they admitted they knew little about it, saying that if anyone not 

 of Akurwa looked at it steadily he would become blind. If Nyakang should not approve 

 of the newly selected ret, the object "Nyakaug" becomes so heavy that it cannot be 

 removed from the shrine ; it is also said that were the king-elect to die, the men who enter 

 the shrine to bring forth " Nyakang" would not be able to see it, so that they would think 

 it was no longer there. 



' According to one account it was only after swarms of flics had been seen to emerge between the top of 

 the clay wall of the hut and the thatch that the hut was opened. 



- Father Hofmeyer (o^j. cil. p. 333) records the following: — As many small stones are thrown into the tire as 

 there are candidates, each stone is given a name and he becomes king whose stone remains after the others have 

 burst out of the fire. 



■' Nyakang appears in a dream to one of the guardians of his shrine at Akurwa and tells him which songs 

 are to be sung. It will probably be found that songs phiyed an important part in the tribal lore of the 

 Shilluk. My notes (unchecked) indicate that there is a sort of tribal epic commemorating the great deeds of the 

 royal family. 



