IDNO

N.18952.ROS

Description

Distant view of a group of Banyoro people watching a priest ‘preparing for an augury’; the shadow of the priest is just visible in the foreground. The Banyoro boys in the audience appear to wear kanzus (white tunics).

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro

Cultural Affliation

Banyoro

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C29/120/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C29/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Similar image published in Roscoe, J., 1923. The Bakitara (or Banyoro): The First Part of the Report of The Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 65, Plate IX, with the caption: "Medicine man taking an augury”. [ED 14/12/2007]

Context: "In addition to these priests there were many medicine-men, who might be divided into two classes according to their duties. To the first and upper class belonged the rain-makers and a number of medicine-men who read auguries, using for the purpose the bodies of dead animals or fowls; these were consulted by the pastoral people in cases of illness either of themselves or their cows. They often employed assistants medicine-men of the lower class who were satisfied with smaller fees than the more important ones. These also dealt in auguries, but made use of water, seeds, sticks, and other means which will be described later. Agricultural people generally applied direct to these inferior medicine-men, who were concerned more especially with them.” (Roscoe, J., 1923. The Bakitara (or Banyoro): The First Part of the Report of The Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 27 - 28.). [ED 13/12/2007]

Context: "MEDICINE-MEN: Mulaguzi we Enkoko. This medicine-man was a royal servant of much importance, and not only possessed an estate in the country but had his house in the capital which he might never leave without special permission from the king and without putting a responsible representative in his place, for the king might summon him to the court at any time of day or night, whenever circumstance might require his presence. If the king fell ill, or if any report reached him of sickness in the country, whether of people or of cattle, or of any invasion or calamity, or if he wished to send out an expedition for any purpose, he would first send for this man to come and find by augury what steps should be taken. A rumour that any chief was becoming too powerful or was showing any signs of disloyalty was enough to make the king send for this medicine-man to come and by an augury reveal the true state of the case. Another of the duties of this medicine-man was to summon to the capital any medicine-man or rain-maker whom the king desired to see, and whenever he came before the king, he had to wear two bark-cloths, one knotted on each shoulder. On duty, he was always accompanied by a medicine-man of the lower order, who was a water-diviner.
When summoned by the King, the medicine man and his subordinate came into his presence and were told the cause of his anxiety, whereupon the medicine-man asked for a fowl, which he took home with him. He kept the bird in his house all night and in the early morning he and his companion, who carried the fowl and the implements of his trade, came to the entrance of the royal enclosure. A bowl of fresh water was brought to them and they knelt on the ground two or three feet apart and set to work. The fowl was put on its back and held whilst water was poured over it, and it was washed from its beak down. The medicine-man, holding its beak, rapidly cut its throat and watched the flow of blood; if it spurted out, or if the stream ran more freely from the left artery than from the right, it was a bad omen; but if the flow was steady and gentle and either ran evenly from both arteries or more freely from the right than from the left, the omen was good.
When he had learned what the bleeding had to tell him, he inserted his sharp knife, and, cutting the skin from the throat to the anus, proceeded to disembowel the bird, examining each part of the intestines and the liver and lungs, the markings and specks on which were counted and their position noted.
When he had collected what information he could from the fowl, he might direct that his augury be confirmed by the water-test, which was carried out my his companion, one of the lower order of medicine-men. This man came provided with a lump of clay and began his augury by digging nine holes in a line in the ground. In each hole he made a pot of clay like a native cooking-pot, eight inches in diameter and six inches deep. These were filled nearly to the top with water, and the man, having rubbed grease on his hands and arms, washed them in each pot until all the water was muddy, using as soap a piece of the clay with which he had made the pots.
He then took a small gourd-pot containing some liquid and dropped two or three drops into the water in each pot. The effect on the water was immediate and remarkable, for the muddiness cleared and there appeared either a star-shaped figure or clear broken patches. The star-shaped figure meant a good augury, while the blobs and patches were bad. The process was repeated in each of the nine pots and the augury given in accordance with the results.
If this confirmed the previous augury and the result was satisfactory, it might end the ceremony; but, otherwise, the chief medicine-man might say it was necessary to go still further and make the offering of a sheep and a cow or bull, consulting the augury shown by both. The King was asked to provide a cow or bull and a sheep of whatever colour the medicine-man named, and he sent for them to the flocks and herds kept for this purpose.
The animals had generally to swallow some of the king’s saliva upon plantain-leaves and were then taken to the house of the medicine-man and kept there all night. At daybreak a number of herbs and tree branches of special kinds were laid down inside the main entrance to the royal enclosure. The king and the royal family assembled and the animals were marched round them four times. The sheep was then thrown on its back on the heap of branches and herbs and washed. Its throat was cut and the blood caught and set aside, the manner in which it flowed being carefully noted. The body was opened and the intestines examined for the markings and white specks by which these medicine-men read their auguries, and the cow or the bull was treated in the same way. The medicine-man took some of the herbs from the heap on which the animals had been killed, dipped them in the pots of blood, and touched the king on his chest, his right cheek, his forehead, and under his knees. When, as was done in matters of less importance, goats or fowls were used, the king was touched with the blood on the back of each shoulder, on his left cheek and under his great toe. Princes and princesses of tender age were washed from head to foot in the blood, but those who were grown up, together with the king’s wives and all the servants who lived in the enclosure, had their chests touched with it, while some was smeared over the door of the throne-room and the ivory tusk which lay across the doorway. Any blood that was left was sprinkled over the assembled people. The meat of the sacrifices belonged to the medicine-man, who thus not only made the augury but by the offering averted further evil.
If the first augury had been unfavourable and the second was favourable, the first was ignored and the good result accepted. If this medicine-man was taking auguries for a case of sickness and he saw in the house a man whom he presumed to be the heir of the sick man, he declared that the sick man would die unless he gave special offerings to ward off evil.” (Roscoe, J., 1923. The Bakitara (or Banyoro): The First Part of the Report of The Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 34 - 37.). [ED 14/12/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 13/12/2007]