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SAVAGE SUDAN 
plains. 1 When they see a whirlwind passing by, they 
say that God walks in it. Others say that the whirlwind 
is God. One man said that God is black, the underlying 
sentiment being that, since God is unseen, He must 
therefore exist in darkness. 
“ Man, the Shilluk believes, is made or created by 
God and, when he dies, is taken back by God. When 
a very old man dies they say he has ‘ gone to his people ’ 
•—meaning to God. 
“Here is a Shilluk form of prayer:—-‘God, leave 
us men alone, that we may escape; for you are great, 
you are God, and none can speak to you (in the sense 
of denying). You are God; whom you kill, die. Spirit 
is in you. You are God ; save us and we escape.’ While 
praying thus, some stand erect, spear in hand ; others 
kneel. 
“ In a sort of unconscious effort to bring the mystery 
of God nearer to the sphere of human comprehension, 
the Shilluks personify the Deity by introducing an 
intermediary of man-like form whom they call Nikawng. 
After praying to God as above, they offer a supplementary 
prayer to His subordinate, thus:—‘Nikawng, you were 
given the earth by God; you rule the Shilluks. Now 
go and intercede for us with God that the cow we are 
about to kill shall be a cow of God.’ The sacrifice is 
then killed and, the spear being -washed, the water 
(together with the contents of the stomach and intestines) 
is sprinkled over the people. 
“God is greater than Nikawng, His prophet; yet 
by reason of His incomprehensible distance and the 
mystery which shrouds His being, God is more intangible 
to the Shilluk than Nikawng whom he pictures as a 
man.” 
* In winter, after the universal grass-burning, these whirlwinds are 
charged with black burnt ash, and form vast rotating columns often 
hundreds of feet in height and speeding, a dozen at a time, across country. 
At Khartoum where, instead of ash, they are charged with sand, they are 
popularly known as “ dust-devils.” 
