النوبة الجدد: أختلافهم الثقافي - الموّالات الثقافية والشعوذة والسحر ونزع الزوجات عنوة

Quote: We observe that in Mora as in Tira certain clans tend to accumulate magic faculties. The Gihi clan, for example, has the severe automatic kamradha, which roots intruders or burglars to the spot; it also punishes zo4 THE NUBA persona who steal or drink milk from its goats or cows with deafness; the Gilu people can finally call in leopards to attack anyone who stole their livestock. The Udelen clan commands an even fuller gamut of magic agencies: one of its automatic kamradha principles causes lunacy, and another death by lightning; it possesses one active kamradha magic against thieves, and another against adulterers. The different nature of the clan-hound magic (as compared with Tira) points to a different explanation of the fact that these two clans, at least, are so amply invested with magic powers. In the case of Gilu the accumulation of magic faculties might partly reflect the physical weight and size of the clan. But in the case of the small Udelerj clan a correlation of a different kind suggests itself: this clan, whose friendly temper and contentedness is of vital importance to the whole community, is made doubly secure by kamradha magic from those detractions which might upset its precious equanimity. Here, however, our explanation must stop, We cannot say why some clans should have a light, and others a severe kamradlta magic, or why some should be content with the 'automatic' variety while others can utilize the active, witchcraft-like principle. Neither the material nor the spiritual importance of the clans lend themselves to a correlation with the apportionment of magic properties. We can only suggest that the practice of 'borrowing' or 'hiring' active kamradha magic must to some extent counterbalance the irrational magic inequality of clans. The list of Moro clan magic seems shorter than that of Tira. Three forms of clan magic, for example, which figure prominently in the Tira clan system seem to be absent in Moro— locust magic, storm magic, and the magic cure of barrenness. But with regard to magic resources, the Moro hill community is not, or need not be, self-contained, and can benefit from the combined resources, though not of the whole tribe, of a number of hill communities. The majority of clan rituals and magic faculties, whether embodied in identical or different clans, repeat them- selves in the different Moro hills. But there are a few which are limited to single clans and (at least to-day) single hills. Umm Dorein can find the rituals and forms of magic of which she is deprived in her sister community, Lebu. There the Amrus clan boasts a strong magic against barrenness, and possesses a special, most powerful ceremony, called ednaa and performed in six years' intervals, which secures the fecundity of women of the whole Moro tribe. Another Lebu clan, Ludar, claims the magic control of wind and storms ; yet another, Dlu, conjrols locusts. Lebu, in turn, depends on the rain clan Udelen in Umm Dorein. Yet the local separation to some extent also weakens this magic inter- dependence. This is clearly shown in the case of the hill community of Kororak, which, being the result of irregular immigration from other hills, should feel this dependence on outside clan magic most strongly. The people of Kororak do feel this dependence, but they do not necessarily turn to the mother or sister communities to correct their own magic limitations. There is no locust magic in Kororak— a lack very severely TIRA AND MORO 305 felt during the locust invasions of recent years. But when I stayed in Kororak in 1940 the people had invited a famous locust expert from the Korongo tribe to their hill, who sold them a magic potion as an anti-locust specific. They did not for a moment think of enlisting the help of the locust clan in Lebu. It is true that the Lebu locust clan has lost ground even in its own country. The singular failure of its rites in recent years convinced the people that the Btrength of this clan magic had somehow ■waned. It might, they thought, be only a temporary eclipse, due to the fact that most of the old men of the clan were dead, and that only young men remained, who did not yet 'understand the magic very well'. On the other hand, there have been no signs of weakening in the wind and storm magic— as 1 could witness myself. I was staying in Umm Dorein when one of the longest and most severe dust storms ever known in the country swept the Nuba Mountains. The people associated it at once with the wind clan in Lebu, and were certain that some devilry of one of its members was the cause. Two days later the name of the man was known to everyone; afterwards I obtained the whole story in Lebu. Every family head of the Ludar clan, it appears, has a magic pot in his house, in which he 'keeps the wind 1 . This pot must never be moved, lest the storms break loose and devastate the country. Now, a few days before the dust storm a certain Mamedan Agingeli of the Ludar clan, whose boy had recently died, had abandoned his house and removed the magic pot to the new place where he decided to live. This, of course, released the storm. Opinions were divided as to whether he had done it consciously, in anger over the death of his hoy (who, as my informants had it, was killed by kamradha magic by a divorced wife of Mamedan), or unwittingly, with no thought of revenge. Whichever may have been the case, the situation was evidently far from safe; so, when the storm had blown itself out, the people of Lebu prevailed on Mamedan to restore the pot to its old place. This story has an interesting sequel. A few months later a yefiow-fever epidemic broke out in the Nuba Mountains, and the Moro, like most of the other Nuba tribes, associated the disease with that uncanny, terrible dust storm. But the Moro did not trace the causal nexus back to what they regarded as the primary cause of the storm : the dust storm must have caused the disease, as it were, in its own right. The specific nature of Moro clan magic clearly precluded an interpretation that would credit clans with even indirect magic influences other than those included in their definition. In stating that certain forms of clan magic are limited to single clans, existing in single hill communities, we were speaking with a slight inaccuracy. We should have spoken of local clan sections rather than clans. For the Amrus clan, which performs the fertility ritual in Lebu, also exists in Umm Dorein; so does the wind clan Ludar (called Ludhar in Umm Dorein); and the locust clan Dlu exists in both Umm Dorein (here known as Dula) and Kororak. However, the clan sections in Umm Dorein and Kororak do not share in the magic power which their clans claim in the mother hill, Lebu. This disappearance of ceitain clan magic in the offshoot communities is in striking contrast with the situation in Tira. The explanation seems to lie in another fundamental difference between Moro and Tira magic. The Tira magic is of an abstract and diffuse nature; but certain forms of clan magic in Moro are bound up with concrete objects and paraphernalia. Of some we have heard already; the wind magic of the Ludar clan is embodied in a magic pot (which must not be moved); the rain clan possesses special rain stones; the edotva fertility ceremony is linked with the worship of a sacred black stone (apparently a meteorite) which is kept in a secret place in Lebu; the locust clan uses a hole in the ground in its magic rites; the orapana ritual of the Gilu clan implies the use of four sacred drums. In a sense, the iron or brass objects used in the active kamradha magic, and even the automatic magic vested in the 'house', equally represent such concrete paraphernalia. Some of theBe paraphernalia cannot be moved. But even in the case of the clan magic whose paraphernalia can technically be moved, the magic does not follow the clan membere automatically wherever they go, as does the abstract clan magic of Tira. The concrete objects in which it is embodied must be divided and apportioned; they are subject to the rules of inheritance, and their changing hands entails considerations of seniority and similar qualifications, as does the changing hands of any valuable property belonging to house and family. If, for example, the young people or the junior branch of a family emigrate (as would often be the case), the emigrants would not be allowed to take the magic paraphernalia with them, and might even completely forfeit the title to the supernatural patrimony. The sacred drums of the Gilu clan are an exception that confirms the rule. Two families in this clan are in the possession of the drums, one in Umm Dorein, and the other, an emigrant family belonging to a different clan section, in Kororak; but the remaining families and clan sections of Gilu in Umm Dorein itself are without these sacred objects of their clan cult, and, although the old men of the whole clan share in the magic properties of Gilu, they must accept the leadership of this one family and its head in the celebration of their great ceremonies. It is clear that the existence of these magic paraphernalia, which become the property of a family and house, and which can be distributed only through the approved channels of inheritance, must also affect the situation in the single community and clan section. The Moro term nyagar uteri, 'old men (lit, grandfathers) of the clan', has thus two meanings. One refers to physical age: in this sense any old and experienced man can exercise the magic faculties of his clan, benevolent or malignant (this k also the situation in Tira). The other meaning refers to headship of a family or of the senior branch of a family : this position alone entails, in certain clans, the guardianship of the sacred paraphernalia and the leadership in the clan ceremonies. I cannot go more deeply into the religious implications of this situation. Let me only point out that here TIRA AND MORO 207 the conception of a clan magic vested in every member of the group is shading over into that of a special religious office, almost of an hereditary prieatship.