The source of the Blue Nile : $b a record of a journey through the Soudan to Lake Tsana in western Abyssinia, and of the return to Egypt by the valley of the Atbara, with a note on the religion, customs, etc. of AbyssiniaHayes, Arthur J.
Religion
The source of the Blue Nile : $b a record of a journey through the Soudan to Lake Tsana in western Abyssinia, and of the return to Egypt by the valley of the Atbara, with a note on the religion, customs, etc. of Abyssinia
Hayes, Arthur J.
Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Religion; Sudan -- Description and travel
The landlord of the settlement, “an amateur exorcist, almost by
instinct, as if anticipating something wrong in that part of his
domains occupied by the Franks, made his appearance in the very nick
of time. This bloated and limping dotard, who had wasted his youth
and manhood in folly and vice, for which, in his old age, he sought
to atone by discarding one after the other of his former wives,
and by poring over the legends of saints and martyrs, no sooner
hobbled into the hut than the possessed woman, as if struck by a
magnetic wire, burst into loud fits of laughter and the paroxysms of
a raving maniac. Half a dozen stalwart fellows caught hold of her,
but frenzy imparted a vigour to her frame which even the united
strength of these athletes was barely sufficient to keep under
control. She tried to bite, kick, and tear every one within reach;
and when she found herself foiled in all those mischievous attempts,
she convulsively grasped the unpaved wet floor, and, in imitation of
the hyena, gave utterance to the most discordant sounds. Manacled
and shackled with leather thongs, she was now partly dragged and
partly carried to an open grassy spot; and there under the starry
vault of heaven, and in the presence of a considerable number of
people, the conjurer, in a businesslike manner, began his exorcising
art. The poor sufferer, as if conscious of the dreaded old man’s
presence, struggled frantically to escape his skill; but the latter,
disregarding her entreaties and lamentations, her fits of unnatural
gaiety and bursts of thrilling anguish, with one hand laid an amulet
on her heaving bosom, whilst, with the other, he made her smell a
rag, in which the root of a strong scented plant, a bone of a hyena,
and some other abominable unguents were bound up. The mad rage of
the possessed woman being instantaneously hushed by this operation,
the conjurer addressed himself to the _bouda_ (evil spirit), and,
in language not fit for ears polite, requested him to give his
name.” The demon is always masculine, whatever may be the sex of
the person possessed. Question and answer followed, and finally
the “conjurer” formally exorcised the demon. “‘I command
thee in the name of the Blessed Trinity, the twelve apostles, and
the three hundred and eighteen bishops at the council of Nicaea,
to leave this woman, and never more to molest her.’
“The _bouda_ did not feel disposed to obey the conjurer; but on
being threatened with a repast of glowing coals, which the majority
do not relish, he became docile, and in a sulky and ventriloquizing
tone of voice, promised to obey the request.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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