The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 06 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 06 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
The meat is left for a night, or longer, and the
spirits are supposed to come and enjoy the smell, or drink the serum which
oozes from the meat, and to inhale the smell of the beer. The priest or
diviner will then sprinkle the people and the huts with medicine made from
the contents of the stomach of the ox. He places a little on a sherd; when
this is dry he burns it and calls on the spirits to smell the incense.
After the meat has been left for a certain time it is taken out and
cooked, and eaten by the men near the cattle kraal in public.... If the
trouble does not vanish after this ceremony the people get angry and say
to the spirits, ‘When have we ceased to kill cattle for you, and when have
we ever refused to praise you by your praise-names? Why, then, do you
treat us so shabbily? If you do not behave better we shall utterly forget
your names, and then what will you do when there is no one to praise you?
You will have to go and live on grasshoppers. If you do not mend your ways
we shall forget you. What use is it that we kill oxen for you and praise
you? You do not give us rain or crops, or cause our cattle to bear well;
you show no gratitude in return for all we do for you. We shall utterly
disown you. We shall tell the people that, as for us, we have no ancestral
spirits, and this will be to your shame. We are disgusted with
you.’ ”(461) Thus the sweet savour of beef and beer does not suffice to
content Caffre ghosts; they share the love of praise and flattery with
many gods of higher rank.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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