DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0163
90
H. F. Mathews
and wood are often bound round the leg below the knee to add effect to the steps of the
dancers.
The bull-roarer is also known. I was informed that it is used only as a toy, or to scare
monkeys and birds from the crops, but I have heard it in the distance, combined with all
the other noises of a Juju dance, and therefore think it very probable that it possesses
magical attributes.
The person who represents the Juju in the Juju dances is usually dressed in a closely
meshed and tightly fitting net, completely enclosing him from the crown of his head to the
thighs. He wears also a short kilt of dried grasses. The usual porcupine quills or pieces of
grass are thrust through the nose and ears and project through the net with peculiar effect.
Headdresses shaped like a guardsman’s busby and made of monkey skin are also worn.
If during a Juju dance one of the rattles breaks, the dance is immediately stopped
until a chicken has been sacrificed to the Juju, when the dance is resumed.
There is evidence of a belief in the continued existence of the spirit after death, as it
is customary to swear by the spirits of one’s dead parents, and there are ceremonies
for propitiating the spirits of the dead.
There is a tree whose leaves resemble those of the shea tree, and which is named by
the Hausa “namijin kadanya”, i. e. “the male shea”, which is believed to possess magical
powers, and of which the leaves are held to have sacred properties. Oaths are sworn on
them; they are attached to objects, such as bundles of thatching grass and the like, and
left on farms or in the bush, to prevent them form being stolen. They are also used as a
flag of truce between unfriendly groups of people.
If anyone kills a relative by stabbing or shooting it is believed that he will become a
leper. But if the relative is killed by strangulation, the murderer will not become a leper
unless he actually comes in contact with the dead body afterwards. In cases which have
been officially investigated, this risk has been obviated by the murderer using a rope or
hooked stick to drag the victim to the place where he intends to conceal him. If the man
murdered is not a close relative, there is no fear of leprosy. Contact with a murdered
body will not give leprosy to anyone except the person who committed the murder. The
basis of this belief is probably the very general confusion of the material with the spiritual,
whence springs the idea that the actual blood of a relative is closely associated with one’s
own spirit and with that of the family, and so must not be spilt. The literal spilling of
blood is avoided by strangulation. This explanation, however, does not account for the
avoiding of contact with the dead body afterwards. This may be due to a belief that
the spirit of the murdered man is still associated with the body after death, and is enabled
to avenge itself by transmitting sickness to the murderer, though only by actual contact.
All forms of sickness are attributed to bad magic of some sort or other, and although
native remedies are used for various illnesses their basis is believed to be magical. It
H. F. Mathews
and wood are often bound round the leg below the knee to add effect to the steps of the
dancers.
The bull-roarer is also known. I was informed that it is used only as a toy, or to scare
monkeys and birds from the crops, but I have heard it in the distance, combined with all
the other noises of a Juju dance, and therefore think it very probable that it possesses
magical attributes.
The person who represents the Juju in the Juju dances is usually dressed in a closely
meshed and tightly fitting net, completely enclosing him from the crown of his head to the
thighs. He wears also a short kilt of dried grasses. The usual porcupine quills or pieces of
grass are thrust through the nose and ears and project through the net with peculiar effect.
Headdresses shaped like a guardsman’s busby and made of monkey skin are also worn.
If during a Juju dance one of the rattles breaks, the dance is immediately stopped
until a chicken has been sacrificed to the Juju, when the dance is resumed.
There is evidence of a belief in the continued existence of the spirit after death, as it
is customary to swear by the spirits of one’s dead parents, and there are ceremonies
for propitiating the spirits of the dead.
There is a tree whose leaves resemble those of the shea tree, and which is named by
the Hausa “namijin kadanya”, i. e. “the male shea”, which is believed to possess magical
powers, and of which the leaves are held to have sacred properties. Oaths are sworn on
them; they are attached to objects, such as bundles of thatching grass and the like, and
left on farms or in the bush, to prevent them form being stolen. They are also used as a
flag of truce between unfriendly groups of people.
If anyone kills a relative by stabbing or shooting it is believed that he will become a
leper. But if the relative is killed by strangulation, the murderer will not become a leper
unless he actually comes in contact with the dead body afterwards. In cases which have
been officially investigated, this risk has been obviated by the murderer using a rope or
hooked stick to drag the victim to the place where he intends to conceal him. If the man
murdered is not a close relative, there is no fear of leprosy. Contact with a murdered
body will not give leprosy to anyone except the person who committed the murder. The
basis of this belief is probably the very general confusion of the material with the spiritual,
whence springs the idea that the actual blood of a relative is closely associated with one’s
own spirit and with that of the family, and so must not be spilt. The literal spilling of
blood is avoided by strangulation. This explanation, however, does not account for the
avoiding of contact with the dead body afterwards. This may be due to a belief that
the spirit of the murdered man is still associated with the body after death, and is enabled
to avenge itself by transmitting sickness to the murderer, though only by actual contact.
All forms of sickness are attributed to bad magic of some sort or other, and although
native remedies are used for various illnesses their basis is believed to be magical. It