237 1 Kings xx. 41. So in Africa “priests and priestesses are readily distinguishable from the rest of the community. They wear their hair long and unkempt, while other people, except the women in the towns on the seaboard, have it cut close to the head.... Frequently both appear with white circles painted round their eyes, or with various white devices, marks, or lines painted on the face, neck, shoulders, or arms” (A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 123). “Besides the ordinary tribal tattoo-marks borne by all natives, the priesthood in Dahomi bear a variety of such marks, some very elaborate, and an expert can tell by the marks on a priest to what god he is vowed, and what rank he holds in the order. These hierarchical marks consist of lines, scrolls, diamonds, and other patterns, with sometimes a figure, such as that of the crocodile or chameleon. The shoulders are frequently seen covered with an infinite number of small marks like dots, set close together. All these marks are considered sacred, and the laity are forbidden to touch them” (A. B. Ellis, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 146). The reason why the prophet’s shoulders are especially marked is perhaps given by the statement of a Zulu that “the sensitive part with a doctor [medicine-man] is his shoulders. Everything he feels is in the situation of his shoulders. That is the place where black men feel the Amatongo” (ancestral spirits). See H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, part ii. p. 159. These African analogies suggest that the “wounds between the arms” (literally, “between the hands”) which the prophet Zechariah mentions (xiii. 6) as the badge of a Hebrew prophet were marks tattooed on his shoulders in token of his holy office. The suggestion is confirmed by the prophet’s own statement (_l.c._) that he had received the wounds in the house of his lovers (בית מאהבי); for the same word lovers is repeatedly applied by the prophet Hosea to the Baalim (Hosea, ii. 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, verses 7, 9, 12, 14, 15 in Hebrew). 238 1 Samuel ix. 1-20. 239 H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, part iii. pp. 300 _sqq._ 240 See above, pp. 52 _sq._ 241 1 Samuel ix. 9. In the Wiimbaio tribe of South-Eastern Australia a medicine-man used to be called “_mekigar_, from _meki_, ‘eye’ or ‘to see,’ otherwise ‘one who sees,’ that is, sees the causes of maladies in people, and who could extract them from the sufferer, usually in the form of quartz crystals” (A. W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, London, 1904, p. 380).