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
Parkyns has also given an account of a similar disorder called
_tigritiya_, which may be the same as the _zar_ mentioned by Stern,
though from the description, it appears to be more serious. The
_tigritiya_, says Parkyns, is the near relation of the _bouda_,
“but generally a far more disagreeable and dangerous devil than
he. His dependents are supposed to be found in great numbers in
Godjam, which province, indeed, is celebrated for sorcerers of all
kinds. The first symptoms usually are the gradual wasting away of the
attacked person, without any cause being apparent either to herself
or her relatives. At last, however, after dieting, and the ordinary
medicines have been unsuccessfully tried, it becomes a matter of
suspicion to her friends, who determine, on ascertaining, whether or
no she be afflicted with this devil. The first thing to be observed
is to feed her daintily and dress her neatly. As her complaint and
this treatment advance, she becomes peevish and fretful, and is
always longing for something or other. Whatever she demands must
be procured, else she will become sulky, and, covering up her head,
remain sometimes for days without eating or speaking. Ornaments of
all kinds require to be borrowed for her, often at much trouble to
her unfortunate relations; for she is rarely satisfied unless she
gets an assortment of those worn by both sexes, even to the lion’s
skin of a warrior; and these are frequently almost impossible to
procure. With some persons it is necessary to have recourse to music
before the real cause of their complaint can be discovered. Drums
and other musical instruments are collected outside the chamber door,
and the musicians suddenly strike up all together, when the patient
is not expecting it. If her illness be of an ordinary kind, she will,
of course, beg of them to desist, but, if possessed, she will leap
or fall from her couch to the ground, and commence shrugging her
shoulders and swinging her head to and fro in time with the music;
beginning with a slight movement, but gradually increasing in pace
as she appears to become excited, till at last her motions are
so violent that a spectator is led to fear for the safety of her
neck. It is truly wonderful to see a sick person whom you have just
beheld stretched on a bed, a weak, emaciated bag of bones, apparently
without strength to rise, keeping up this very fatiguing motion with
a velocity and power of endurance that would be astonishing even in
an ordinarily strong person. On the music’s ceasing she rests, and
then begins to speak, telling _his_ name (that is, the devil’s)
and his family; and it is usually after this that she demands the
trinkets, specifying each article that she requires, and making their
production the condition of her dancing again. She, as I before said,
generally contrives to name objects that are most difficult to obtain,
such as the silver-ornamented velvet worn only by great war-chiefs;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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