Possession, Demoniacal And Other

by T K Oesterreich

  Janjare or Janzirri—? from Khanziri, a hog. The same as Nakada. Sometimes, if not forcibly prevented, the person possessed, naked, except for a monkey-skin, will rush about devouring or rubbing his body with all kinds of filth, and pushing an onion or tomato into the mouth is the only cure. On other occasions he hops round a few times, then puts a stick between his legs for a hobby-horse, and prances. Finally, he simulates copulation, falls to the ground, and pretends to sneeze.3

  Another spirit is called Be-Maguje:

  The dancer wears a loin-cloth, a quiver, and a bag in which are tobacco and a flint and steel. He carries an axe on his shoulder, a bow in his hand, and smokes a long pipe. He walks along, mimicking a pagan (the performance takes place in a Mohammedan district), and presently lights his pipe with a spark from his flint (the Hausas now use imported matches). He then calls out “Chewaki Tororo (two common pagan names) bring beer,” and on a person bringing him some, he drinks greedily, letting the beer run down his chin. He then gives back the calabash of beer, relights his pipe, and moves off.1

  A spirit of sickness, still clearly recognizable as such, is Nana Ayesha Karama:

  Nana Ayesha Karama is said to be a grandchild of Yerima. She has a farm of her own. She gives sore eyes and smallpox, the proper sacrifice being speckled fowls. Although young, she is by no means innocent, as her song shows. At the dance, she wears white, red, and pink cloths on her body, and two head-cloths, one tied on each side. She rushes about, claps her hands, waves a cloth in the air, and then sits down and scratches herself, and lets her head fall first on one side and then on the other, afterwards resting it upon one hand. If not given sugar then she cries, but if she receives enough she becomes lively again, and dances around once more, until she sneezes and goes.2

  The most interesting part of Tremearne’s narrative consists in the statement of one Haj Ali, a follower of the Bori cult, the principal passages of which I shall quote. It shows that we are here confronted to some extent by non-somnambulistic possession.

  Haj Ali was taken as a slave to Egypt, and one day while with his master Ibrahim at Sarowi, Nakada (also called Jato and Janzirri) took possession of him, and he foretold that on the third day his master would be summoned before the chief of the district, Tanta. On the departure of the bori, the listeners told Haj Ali what he had said, and asked him what he had meant, but he then remembered nothing of it, and simply told them that Nakada had mounted him, and that it must have been that spirit speaking through his mouth. A female Hausa slave who knew the wisdom of the bori, corroborated, and the people then became anxious, for clairvoyance is well known to the Arabs, and when on the third day the district head’s messengers arrived, they were terrified. However, the master, instead of being disgraced as he had feared, was given a post under the Government, and so Haj Ali had great honour, was taken to Mecca, and later on received his freedom. 3

  Haj Ali told me that when the bori first takes possession of him, he feels cold all over, and his limbs become so rigid that the other Masu-Bori have to cense them forcibly before he can move—I did not see them do this, however, it was not done on the first day, so far as I could see, though as each mount possessed was seized and forcibly pushed by several Masu-Bori through the crowd into the ring, it may have escaped my notice. He is not sure how or where the spirit enters; he says that it sits on his neck with its legs on his shoulders, and yet it is inside his head. But sneezing brings it out, though whether by the mouth, nose, or eyes he is not certain, because all parts may be affected. “A bori is like the wind, it is everywhere, so who can tell just where it goes in or out? One knows that it is there, and that is all.” The dancer nearly always has to wait some time for the spirit to get properly up, to settle down in the saddle, as it were, and he often glides around the ring or to and fro in it—this being supposed to be the bori floating in the air—or rather making his mount do so. At other times the mount became rigid, as has been stated.

  Sometimes, he says, the women do not become possessed, and then it is evident that some enemy has put a hairpin or something made of iron into their hair, or in their head-coverings, for the bori do not like iron. When this is supposed to be the case, a boka will commence to dance, and will jump and fall three times, on the last occasion managing to seat himself just in front of the women. He then abuses them, and, having ordered them to put their heads forward, he feels about to find the neutralizing influence, and upon its removal they immediately become possessed.

  According to Abd Allah, at midnight on the last night of the rites, before the spirits have come again, the Sarauniya sits down almost opposite the mai-gimbiri (the player on the guitar), and sets fire to a pot of incense in front of her, while a candle is lighted in front and on each side of him.… And then, the bori spirits having reappeared, the dancing begins again, and lasts until dawn. Most of the people then go home for good, but the most influential of the Masu-Bori will sleep in the dakin tsafi that night, and sacrifice a white hen at midnight. That ends the rites, and the dancers recover as best they can, the effect lasting for several days in many cases, a diet of kola-nut being the best pick-me-up, which, on account of its stimulating properties, is regarded as being almost magical.1

  The following accounts also show the astonishing suggestibility of the Tripolitan natives, in spite of the fact that they live on the outskirts of civilization:

  I am told that Kuri’s mount must beat himself the proper number of times with the pestle or stick, otherwise he will suffer afterwards. One night, some years ago, not long after his arrival in Tunis, Haj Ali was taken by a friend to one of the other bori houses, and after a time Kuri mounted him, and he began to dance. The people there, not knowing him, gave him a big log to dance with, and he began to knock himself about so badly that they became afraid that he would kill himself, and stopped him. The friend argued with them, saying that he would answer for Haj Ali’s safety, but all in vain, and the drummers changed their call. The friend then took Haj Ali home, and he was so ill for four days that he could not rise. On learning what was the matter, the then Arifa ordered her own drummers to go to the house, taking a pestle with them, and on their arrival Haj Ali arose, got through the remainder of his performance, made up the required number of thuds upon his body and was quite well immediately.

  No mount must be given a drink during seizure, else he will vomit afterwards, and perhaps be so bad that he will die, so they say; but directly after the bori has gone, the mount may have a few sips of water. The vessel is not entrusted to him, however, a special person (Fagge or Mai-Ruwa) brings it and holds it to his lips. Kola-nuts are the proper stimulant to be taken afterwards, but, as there are so few in North Africa, coffee is drunk instead.

  During seizure a mount may have his arms stretched backwards three times; this is in order to render them supple and so avoid any injury to them! If a bori is treating his mount too severely, the other Masu-Bori clasp the mount in their arms (if it be a woman), or put his head under the arm of one of them (if a man), and hold him while begging the bori to be more gentle, especially in the presence of his “children”—the other Masu-Bori. If the spirit still persists, the mount’s neck and chin are touched, and the spirit “is sneezed away.”1

  Persons also fall voluntarily into a state of possession in order to heal the sick. Tremearne begged further details from Haj Ali:

  Asked to describe an actual case, he said that he went with another man, his assistant, at the beginning of the year to see a child thus afflicted, and fixed a day when they would return and divine. At the appointed hour they came, and Haj Ali, having wrapped a cloth tightly round his waist, and squatted down by the incense, began to rub his right hand round and round on the ground, fingers bent slightly downwards, and then to turn it over “so as to call the spirits out of the earth” and, apparently, to mesmerize himself. Soon he began to breathe heavily, and suddenly he grunted and yelled, and it was evident the bori had entered his head. Then the other man asked the bori who he was and he replied �
��I am Kuri.” Then the assistant said, “O Father Kuri, So and So is ill, will you tell me in what he has offended?” Kuri replied: “He threw hot water upon the Yayan Jidderi, and they have made his eyes sore.” Then the other said: “O Father Kuri, will you not cure him.” And Kuri asked: “What will you give me if I cure thee?” The assistant (having consulted the father) said: “We will sacrifice a he-goat to you.” Then Kuri touched his left shoulder (i.e., that of his horse, Haj Ali),2 his right shoulder, and then his forehead, and replied: “Very well, he will recover.” Apparently, Kuri then summoned the guilty bori (who had not responded to the summons of the incense), and arranged with him to forgive the child. Kuri then left Haj Ali, and he and the assistant went home neither going near the patient until several days afterwards, when they were sent for. On arriving at the house they found the child much better, and then they said: “You must now offer up the sacrifice which you promised.” This was done, and the cure was complete.

  Before the Mai-Bori summons Kuri he is paid between two and five francs. On the child’s recovery he gets more money, and perhaps cloths for Kuri, or whichever bori has responded, as well. He gets the liver of the animal sacrificed and also a share in the flesh. Each Mai-Bori specializes in certain spirits, and Haj Ali would always be ridden by Kuri or Ma-Dambache.…1

  Bastian gives the following accounts from an unknown source:

  At the festival of the Aissaoua, in memory of the miracle of tfreir establishment at Algiers (under the standard of the marabout Mohammed Ben-Ais-Sa) the Mokadanni, or chief of the Sect, utters prayers for the fulfilment of which each of the Aissaouas prays according to his desires (health, fecundity, etc.), while the choir accompanies him as do the women in the gallery. To the rhythm of the tambourines, in which snakes are imprisoned, the Zikr dancers whirl with violent movements, placing pieces of hot iron on their hands, arms and tongue, and when they fall exhausted to the earth they are reanimated by persons treading on their stomachs.… They imitate the voices of lions and camels into which they believe themselves transformed, and tear thorny cacti with their teeth.2

  It is not without interest to compare with these modern accounts an earlier one from Africa. The geographer O. Dapper has given a detailed and circumstantial description of Africa in the second half of the seventeenth century. He relates the following of lower Ethiopia, or South Africa as it is called to-day:

  … These images of devils or idols are made by various masters who are called Enganga Mokisie. Their chief instrument is a tree-trunk and they make the images when they have reached a suitable age and are afflicted with disabilities or maladies, which takes place in the following manner.

  In the first place the said Engango Mokisie or rather devil-exorcist persuades someone to it; and this man then summons together his whole family, which is in some cases very numerous, and all his neighbours. Then they erect for him who desires to make his devil-image a hut of palm-leaves which must serve him as dwelling for the whole duration of the work. But it lasts for fifteen days during which he must have nothing to do with anyone and in the first nine days must not even speak.

  On either side of his mouth he has a parrot-feather and when someone greets him by clapping the hands he may not reply in the same way, but holds in his hands a small log, oblique, very deeply hollowed out in the middle, having a small hole on the top and with a handle behind. It has also at the end a carved man’s head; he strikes it with a wand in token of respect. The exorcist habitually has three of these wands, one large, one small, and one of intermediate size.

  When all is finished a tree-trunk is brought on to a level clearing where there is no tree or other growth. The relations and neighbours form a circle here; the tambourine-player who is in the middle begins to play, the exorcist to chant, and everyone accompanies him at the top of his voice. This chant is designed to praise the idols, solicit their aid, celebrate their divinity, etc. The initiator of the work, if he be not infirm, himself dances round the trunk. And this lasts for two or three days; during which time nothing is heard of the devil.

  The exorcist now brings himself to the attention of the initiator, which is done by means of a hideous voice while he is as yet invisible. Then the drumming, which began with the singing and dancing towards evening at about four o’clock and ends in the morning, leaves off for a while, and the exorcist taps on the aforementioned small log, mumbles a few words and makes at the same time some red and white spots on his own body and that of the initiator, namely on the temples, around the eyes, on the pit of the stomach as well as on all the limbs according as he (the initiator) is handled harshly or gently by the Evil One.

  When he is possessed he looks terrible, he leaps and behaves in a terrifying manner, cries out in an unearthly voice, takes glowing coals in his hands and bites them without taking harm. Sometimes he is taken unseen from the midst of all the spectators, led away by the devil into the wilderness to a solitary place where he bedecks himself round the body with a girdle of green herbs and remains two or three hours or even sometimes two or three days. During this time his friends seek him most diligently, but cannot find him, this search being assisted by the incessant beating of drums. As soon as the possessed hears the drums he returns towards them and is led to their accompaniment back to his house. Leaping and dancing goes on until everything is accomplished.

  At length the exorcist asks the devil within the possessed, who is stretched out as if dead, what shall be offered to him. The devil replies by the mouth of the possessed and makes known what should be done. Then the man begins once more to sing and dance until the devil comes forth, after which he is often sick unto death. Something is afterwards done to his arm so that he may always remember what has been laid upon him.

  When these men swear, they swear by the ring; namely, that the devil who allows them to wear many rings may strangle them inasmuch as what should be believed is not true. Therefore they do not swear lightly, or else it must be true: and although a few light-minded persons do not pay much heed, they nevertheless hold strictly to what they have promised, even though they should perish on the spot, as has often occurred. When the devil speaks by the mouth of the possessed, as is frequent, the latter is greatly tormented, is thrown from side to side and foams at the mouth.… In various other ways all the other devil-images or Mokisien are made, with which the King surrounds himself in great quantities, but for the sake of brevity we will not go further into the matter.

  When someone amongst them falls ill they often employ these methods for several days and invoke the devil while dancing until he enters into the sick man. Then they ask him why this man is sick, if he has infringed his commands, and more questions of the same kind. The devil replies by the patient’s mouth and advises that certain gifts be offered so that he may recover his health.1

  As may be seen, states of possession amongst primitive races have also shown no change during the passage of centuries. These people are not, however, always disposed to show unquestioning belief in all the phenomena; amongst them are sceptics who in some cases, where the state of a possessed person is not entirely sincere, obviously give him an embarrassing time. Andrew Lang relates:

  The Zulus admit “possession” and divination, but are not the most credulous of mankind. The ordinary possessed person is usually consulted as to the disease of an absent patient. The enquirers do not assist the diviner by holding his hand, but are expected to smite the ground violently if the guess made by the diviner is right; gently if it is wrong. A sceptical Zulu, named John, having a shilling to spend on psychical research, smote violently at every guess. The diviner was hopelessly puzzled; John kept his shilling. 1

  Information concerning the possession-religions of Africa is far less complete than that relating to the Malay Archipelago. The religion of this latter region is purely spiritualist. In the eyes of its inhabitants the world is peopled by spirits able to enter directly into men, and this belief is not even in the background of consciousness—it is dominant. Possession, thank
s to which the living establish contact with the spirit-world, is not in any way rare—it is an everyday manifestation. The belief in particular gods is of entirely secondary importance as compared with the belief in spirits.

  The worship of spirits and the fear which underlies it, fills the religious life of the Bataks and all the animist peoples. It pervades daily life down to its minutest details: at birth, baptism, betrothals, marriage, the building of houses, seedtime and harvest the spirits play their part; in the felling of trees, the foundation of a village, in war, trade, smithery, agriculture, it is necessary before all else to satisfy them. With them are shared lodging and board, they have their part in all the possessions of the living, they are omnipresent and everywhere demand consideration. 2

  We are indebted to the missionary, J. Warneck, for very adequate information concerning this religion. His researches owe their great value to the fact that he has elicited detailed accounts from the native converts themselves, and published their stories in a form which preserves the impression of spontaneity.1

  Warneck’s works are particularly concerned with the Bataks of Sumatra, but the observations on their religion hold good for all the islands of the Indian Ocean.

  It appears from the statements of the natives that beside regular mediums other persons may also be possessed on occasion. As regards the facility with which possession may be induced in the mediums the accounts are not in entire agreement; according to one, they prepare themselves by fasting and by abstinence from all irrelevant thoughts, that is by a sort of concentration and expectation; according to another, the mere beating of the drum appears sufficient to bring on possession. In reality the procedure differs according to the individual concerned. Men and women are alike possessed, and there are also fraudulent imitations of possession for reasons of self-seeking. The possessing spirit is not a demon presumed to inhabit the human sphere, but always the spirit of a dead person who has sometimes reached a high degree in the world beyond; the possessed imitates the gestures of the defunct in a manner so striking that oftentimes the relations burst into tears. In certain cases possession is also multiple: several spirits speak by the mouth of the possessed and carry on a conversation, now friendly, now hostile, according to the relationships which existed in their lifetime.