232 



THE CULT OF NYAKANG AND THE DIVINE KINGS OF THE SHILLUK 



Sickness due to 

 possession 



Importance of 

 Shilluk beliefs 

 from the 

 comparative 

 standpoint 



at the death of an ajuago, or shortly afterwards, iuto one of his children, who thus becomes 

 an ajuago like his or her father. 



It was said that ajuago of the female sex should not marry if they were unmarried at 

 the time that the spirit came to them ; they would be allowed to take lovers, but, like 

 the kings' daughters, they should not bear children. But I believe that v.-omen 

 very seldom became ajuago in their youth, and it is certain that married women who 

 are ajuago do not leave their husbands, and continue to bear children. The following 

 information on this matter was volunteered by the kivaniaret Choi, one of the most 

 reliable of informants. The husbands of women who are ajuago have access to their wives 

 only during the dark half of the month for " Nyakang and Dag only come during that half 

 of the month when the moon is bright." Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity 

 of following up this information or even of verifying it. 



Probably the commonest cause of sickness was the entrance into the body of the 

 spirit of one of the divine kings, a cure being effected when the spirit could be persuaded 

 to leave its involuntary host. I believe that only the early kings were thought to 

 produce illness in this manner, and certainly three or four cases into which I enquired 

 were all possessed by Dag. One of these cases, a woman, who recovered after two sheep 

 had been sacrificed to Dag, wore bead anklets, and amidst the beads there were threaded 

 small pieces of the concha of the ears of the goats. These anklets were considered 

 protective against future possession by Dag. 



A few days later we met a hseng who had been badly treated and imprisoned by the 

 king. On his release his friends brought him beads, sheep were killed, and he now wears 

 the beads and pieces of the ears of the sheep in exactly the same manner as the woman 

 who had recovered from sickness, the result of possession by the spirit of Dag, the second 

 Shilluk king. 



All these facts indicate the close similarity between the cults of Nyakang and that 

 of his successors the Shilluk kings, and the likeness that exists between the shrines 

 raised over the graves of the kings and the "tombs of Nyakang," as well as the 

 similarity in the ceremonies performed, merely serve to emphasise the identity of the 

 "divine" kings and their semi-divine ancestor. It is even certain that, in the minds of 

 many of the Shilluk, the spirits of Nyakang and his successors are considered as 

 identical, that is to say, the spirits of his successors, although worshipped each at his 

 own shrine, are recognised as being manifestations of the spirit of Nyakang. In proof 

 of this I may adduce the following information, given by Choi at the end of a 

 discussion on the shrines of the Shilluk kings, that whatever king appeared in a dream 

 it was really Nyakang who was communicating with the dreamer. 



Finally, I may be permitted to draw attention to the importance, from the 

 comparative standpoint, of the ceremony by which the spirit of Nyakang is transmitted 

 in turn to each of the Shilluk kings. Among all the instances of the killing of "divine" 

 kings collected by Dr. Frazer, there is none — as Dr. Frazer himself observes — in which 

 there is proof that "the soul of the slain divinity is transmitted to his successor" [Golden 

 Bough, 1900, II. 56), and ujjon this defect in the chain of evidence Professor Westermarck 

 has based his criticism that it is not really the soul of the divine king that is transmitted, 

 but only his holiness (Man, 1908. 9). The Shilluk custom seems to supply the missing 

 link, and to justify us in holding to the explanation advanced by Dr. Frazer in those 

 African instances in which it cannot be proved or shown with a high degree of probability 

 that it is only the king's holiness (baraka, in Professor Westermarck's convincing example 

 from Morocco) that is transmitted to the new sovereign. 



