Abstract
EXORCISM IN ZANZIBAR.—Mr. W. H. Ingrains describes in the September number of Man certain customs observed by the inhabitants of the village of Makunduchi, Zanzibar, which are not found elsewhere among the natives of the island. The inhabitants of this village and the adjacent village of Jembiyani speak a peculiar and distinctive dialect, although both belong to the Wahadimu, the aboriginal inhabitants of the island. One characteristic feature of their culture is an exorcising dance performed by the women, the orchestra only consisting of men. The women possessed of the devil sit in a small tent while the dancers move backward and forward from sunlight to shade under a palm-leaf shelter. Some of the women carry iron tridents on long handles, others knives and swords, and others model outrigger canoes and paddles. As the devil cannot speak the local dialect, a special incomprehensible jargon is used. The devil can only be contracted at sea, and a legend of the origin of this state of possession has it that the devil first appeared from the sea in a canoe and holding a trident. It is suggested that the rite and legend may enshrine a memory of a cult of Poseidon introduced by early Greek sailors who, it is known, travelled along East Africa, and to whom the first description of Pemba and Rhapta is due. It is noted that a coin of Ptolemy X Soter has been discovered at Msasani, north of Dar-es-Salaam.
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Research Items. Nature 116, 555–556 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116555a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116555a0