THE SHILLUICS CONCEPTION OF GOD 221 
gazelle asked the lion to carry her child to the river, 
and the lion consented. They came to a pool of water, 
but it was small; then to a second, but it again proved 
small, insufficient to cover the hippo. The third, how¬ 
ever, proved to be the White Nile. The lion put the 
hippo into the river and it dived and remained down 
below and came up again and blew out the water and 
dived again ; when it came up, it said to the lion, ‘ Go 
now; you shall have the power to hide yourself in quite 
a small clump of grass, so that nothing shall see you. 
Your prey shall come right up to you, unawares, so 
you will be able to kill them on the spot; whereas the 
hyena shall have to chase his prey and will not be able 
to capture it; so he shall take to stealing sheep.’ 
“According to Shilluk legend, God also created the 
lion, hyena, leopard, and hare, the other animals being 
derived from these. 
“Another story of the Creation is also told, and the 
two can apparently be reconciled since some of the people 
believe both. A woman of God’s House—that is His 
wife—brought forth twins. One was black, the other 
white. She loved the black and hated the white child. 
The child cried and God heard it and asked the mother 
what it was. She said it was a child. God asked to 
see the child and she showed Him the white one and 
hid the black child. God gave her orders to rear the 
child. One day both children were crying at once and 
God asked to see the child. Again she showed him 
the white one, hiding the black child under a rag. God, 
being suspicious, raised the cloth and saw the black child. 
He said, ‘Is this a child too?’ The mother answered, 
‘Yes’; and God gave her orders to rear them both. 
When the children had grown up, God called them to 
him one day and said, ‘ Lick my feet with your tongues.’ 
The white one, being servile, obeyed; the black child 
refused. God thereafter loved the white man and showed 
great partiality towards him. God allowed them to 
