Nyakang in 

 the Shilluk 



THE CULT OF NYAKANG AND THE DIVINE KINGS OK THE SHIljljUK 231 



form, is shown by the sacrifice made to her on another occasion. It lias been mentioned 

 tliat a sacrifice would be made at the shrine of Nyakang, or at the grave shrine of any king, 

 if Nyakang or one of the Shilluk kings had appeared in a dream, or if one of the kings had 

 possessed a man, causing him to become ill. When Nyakai takes up her abode in a 

 man or woman the sacrifice is made by throwing a live shecji witli its legs tied together 

 into the river. 



The Shilluk do not eat the fiesh of the lion, leopard, hyiena, a species of monitor lizard i-"ood taboos 

 (Varanun) and a fish called !<huro. The latter prohibition is directly attributed to Nyakang, 

 who told his people to bring him all the fish they caught in the river. Although they 

 brought him many fish they kept back one and Nyakang, who saw this and knew it, as 

 in a dream men see and know things happening at a great distance, told his people 

 that this fish should always be unlawful food to them. 



Concluding Eemakks 



In the foregoing account of the Shilluk cult of Nyakang and of his " divine" successors, 

 certain assumptions have been tacitly accepted, just as they were by my informants. The 

 most important of these could probably be deduced from what I have written, but to avoid 

 misapprehension it seems well to state these and to give other examples of the conceptions 

 upon which they are based. 



The fundamental idea of the cult of the Shilluk divine kings is the immanence in immanence of 

 each of the spirit of Nyakang. It is obvious that this is not congenital, for not only is 

 there nothing at birth to show that any given member of the royal house will be king, but kings 

 the ceremony described on pages 220 and 221 can scarcely have any other object than the 

 transmission of the spirit of Nyakang to his successor, for there can be little doubt that 

 the spirit of Nyakang is also thought to be immanent in the object called " Nyakang," 

 which plays such an important part in the installation of the new king. It must be 

 assumed, therefore, that the spirits of dead kings can be immanent in more than one 

 person or object at one and the same time. There is no doubt that this assumption is 

 correct, and this is borne out by a number of beliefs which have no direct connection 

 with that aspect of the cult of divine kings with which I have so far dealt. 



Certain men called njiKtijn have inmianent in them the spirits of the early Shilluk kings, Ajuago 

 and these men have the power of healing the sick. They also do a brisk trade in charms — 

 generally fragments of wood or bone, such as avert the evil eye {ijix'p) — and might be consulted 

 by women who desired to miscarry. The guardians of the shrine of Nyakang might or 

 might not be ajuayo, they do not become njiiago because of their connection with the shrine, 

 nor does their being ajniK/d alter their official position. According to my most reliable 

 informant only the spirits of Nyakang, Dag and Bwoch (the first, second and fifth of the 

 Shilluk kings) become immanent in men to make them ajnaijn. When a man first becomes 

 ajuago he becomes ill, perhaps waking up trembling and agitated from a dream (in which he 

 may afterwards say the spirit came to him). He consults an ajuago who may tell him " No, 

 you are not ill, you have the spirit of Dag within you." A long and complicated ceremony 

 is then performed in order that the spirit may not affect him so severely, for without this 

 ceremony the spirit would be so strong in his body that he would not dare to approach 

 his women. I could not discover with certainty the exact nature of the change effected by 

 the ceremony, but it seemed to mc that my informant, one Akon Achol, who had in him 

 the spirit of Dag, considered that after the ceremony, the spirit which had previously 

 attacked his body in the rudest fashion, became attached rather to his spirit or soul. 



One ancestral spirit may be immanent in many ajuago at the same time, often passing 



