Abstract
Azande Oracles.—An extensive study of the oracle magic of the Azande peoples of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by Mr. E. E. Evans-Pritchard is published in vol. 11 of Sudan Notes and Records. Of all the methods of divination employed by the Azande, one, benge, stands apart. Benge is a red powder obtained from a creeper which, when mixed with water, forms a paste. This paste is administered to chickens, and causes spasms which may or may not end in death, and, according to the results, determining the answer to questions which have been put to the benge in the chicken's stomach. The creeper does not grow in the Azande country, but to the south of the Welle and some hundreds of miles away. It is obtained by men who on the journey must observe the requisite food and sex taboos. Any man, but not the women, may consult the benge oracle, but when the chief wishes to consult benge, it is administered by regular officiators of the oracle of whom the chief has two or three, and each of whom acts for a month at a time, observing the necessary taboos. When any but a chief wishes to consult the oracle, benge may be administered by anyone, even the man himself, or a friend, who has observed the taboos. Two consultations of the oracle are necessary on every occasion, and in the second the result must be the reverse of that of the first. Thus if the death of the fowl gives an affirmative answer on the first occasion, on the second it must not die. The method of consultation is for the officiator to hold the fowl between his feet and by means of a grass brush to put down the throat of the fowl one, two, or three doses of the poison; the questioner, sitting in front of him, puts the question to benge in the stomach of the fowl. When the case has been put fully before it, the chicken is held up on the hand of the officiator, when the case is again put to it more vigorously, while it shows the effects of the poison. If it is to die, death supervenes in spasms, and it is thrown on the grass. Of the oracles benge is the most important. It is used judicially and before all serious undertakings such as marriage. Its verdicts are socially and ritually binding.
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Research Items. Nature 124, 738–740 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124738a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124738a0