登陆注册
5561700000167

第167章

Like Nyakang himself, their founder, each of the Shilluk kings after death is worshipped at a shrine, which is erected over his grave, and the grave of a king is always in the village where he was born. The tomb-shrine of a king resembles the shrine of Nyakang, consisting of a few huts enclosed by a fence; one of the huts is built over the king's grave, the others are occupied by the guardians of the shrine. Indeed the shrines of Nyakang and the shrines of the kings are scarcely to be distinguished from each other, and the religious rituals observed at all of them are identical in form and vary only in matters of detail, the variations being due apparently to the far greater sanctity attributed to the shrines of Nyakang. The grave-shrines of the kings are tended by certain old men or women, who correspond to the guardians of the shrines of Nyakang. They are usually widows or old men-servants of the deceased king, and when they die they are succeeded in their office by their descendants. Moreover, cattle are dedicated to the grave-shrines of the kings and sacrifices are offered at them just as at the shrines of Nyakang.

In general the principal element in the religion of the Shilluk would seem to be the worship which they pay to their sacred or divine kings, whether dead or alive. These are believed to be animated by a single divine spirit, which has been transmitted from the semi-mythical, but probably in substance historical, founder of the dynasty through all his successors to the present day. Hence, regarding their kings as incarnate divinities on whom the welfare of men, of cattle, and of the corn implicitly depends, the Shilluk naturally pay them the greatest respect and take every care of them; and however strange it may seem to us, their custom of putting the divine king to death as soon as he shows signs of ill-health or failing strength springs directly from their profound veneration for him and from their anxiety to preserve him, or rather the divine spirit by which he is animated, in the most perfect state of efficiency: nay, we may go further and say that their practice of regicide is the best proof they can give of the high regard in which they hold their kings. For they believe, as we have seen, that the king's life or spirit is so sympathetically bound up with the prosperity of the whole country, that if he fell ill or grew senile the cattle would sicken and cease to multiply, the crops would rot in the fields, and men would perish of widespread disease.

Hence, in their opinion, the only way of averting these calamities is to put the king to death while he is still hale and hearty, in order that the divine spirit which he has inherited from his predecessors may be transmitted in turn by him to his successor while it is still in full vigour and has not yet been impaired by the weakness of disease and old age. In this connexion the particular symptom which is commonly said to seal the king's death-warrant is highly significant; when he can no longer satisfy the passions of his numerous wives, in other words, when he has ceased, whether partially or wholly, to be able to reproduce his kind, it is time for him to die and to make room for a more vigorous successor. Taken along with the other reasons which are alleged for putting the king to death, this one suggests that the fertility of men, of cattle, and of the crops is believed to depend sympathetically on the generative power of the king, so that the complete failure of that power in him would involve a corresponding failure in men, animals, and plants, and would thereby entail at no distant date the entire extinction of all life, whether human, animal, or vegetable. No wonder, that with such a danger before their eyes the Shilluk should be most careful not to let the king die what we should call a natural death of sickness or old age. It is characteristic of their attitude towards the death of the kings that they refrain from speaking of it as death: they do not say that a king has died but simply that he has gone away like his divine ancestors Nyakang and Dag, the two first kings of the dynasty, both of whom are reported not to have died but to have disappeared. The similar legends of the mysterious disappearance of early kings in other lands, for example at Rome and in Uganda, may well point to a similar custom of putting them to death for the purpose of preserving their life.

On the whole the theory and practice of the divine kings of the Shilluk correspond very nearly to the theory and practice of the priests of Nemi, the Kings of the Wood, if my view of the latter is correct. In both we see a series of divine kings on whose life the fertility of men, of cattle, and of vegetation is believed to depend, and who are put to death, whether in single combat or otherwise, in order that their divine spirit may be transmitted to their successors in full vigour, uncontaminated by the weakness and decay of sickness or old age, because any such degeneration on the part of the king would, in the opinion of his worshippers, entail a corresponding degeneration on manking, on cattle, and on the crops. Some points in this explanation of the custom of putting divine kings to death, particularly the method of transmitting their divine souls to their successors, will be dealt with more fully in the sequel. Meantime we pass to other examples of the general practice.

The Dinka are a congeries of independent tribes in the valley of the White Nile. They are essentially a pastoral people, passionately devoted to the care of their numerous herds of oxen, though they also keep sheep and goats, and the women cultivate small quantities of millet and sesame. For their crops and above all for their pastures they depend on the regularity of the rains: in seasons of prolonged drought they are said to be reduced to great extremities.

同类推荐
  • Confidence

    Confidence

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 胡子衡齐

    胡子衡齐

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 富翁醒世录

    富翁醒世录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 梦中缘

    梦中缘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 本事词

    本事词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 锦鹤难归

    锦鹤难归

    锦上花浓,柳摇暗默。子,处红墙中,精睿明知,理事慎然。女,处红墙外,娉袅仪婷,泰然自若。她执扇谨行,他宫道暗逢。阙留宫重,月出枝头。君,于明光厦,正襟危坐,端陟秉持。妾,于暗寒间,满目凄凉,玉容全非。落雁沉飞,玓瓅诲瞑。“妾与君断绝,此拜别!”
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 不完美艺人

    不完美艺人

    重生在蓝星,叶智……真的没有想那么多。他只想努力踏实做好自己每一步,然后告诉自己:“不想做学霸的艺人不是好的企业家!加油,你是最胖的!”画外音:“你,你很瘦。”叶智:“我很凶的。”画外音:“那你凶一个看看?”叶智:“喵~”
  • 灵渡逆旅

    灵渡逆旅

    序章:沙海摆渡坐标:鬼门关外,八百里黄泉,灵渡客栈。有人打碎了魔瓶。我重生了。我或许会永远隐遁于黄沙。我好像真的什么都不记得了。……过往的灵客:欢迎光临灵渡客栈!《演替·灵渡客栈》
  • 找个神仙谈恋爱

    找个神仙谈恋爱

    三亲背叛,天降横祸,这些还不够,她门天天像个被老天唾弃的人,厄运在同一天爆发!万念俱灰时,山中老翁一句话点悟:“天外有天,天外有仙。”天吗?属于她的天一直在千里外。仙?等待她的又是哪一个?神仙也只是多了相貌和法力,终究是人!大神,为她撑起保护伞,她却爱不起,魔王,把她捧在手心里,她又躲不起……修仙吧,身边还有个拖油瓶,他纯净的双眼和强大的法力让她不忍也不敢甩开。祈求众仙,如吾所愿,赐予她一个可以安身的云朵吧~
  • 启迪学生思考人生的故事全集:粉红色的信笺

    启迪学生思考人生的故事全集:粉红色的信笺

    人生仿佛是四季的轮回,生命的状态便是这四季的写照。每个人都有属于自己的春、夏、秋、冬,不必为沐浴春风而得意,也不必为置身冬季而叹息,人生中的每一个季节都是我们必经的过程,生命中的每一个时刻都是值得我们珍藏的记忆。
  • 佛说逝童子经

    佛说逝童子经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 吸血鬼与女妖

    吸血鬼与女妖

    可以一口气看完的快餐短篇文,看完细细琢磨吧!
  • 叶落无果

    叶落无果

    她不配进圣地书院?抱歉,正门进不去咱们走后门。什么?她上课偷偷看不良读物?没有师尊愿意收她为徒?!没事儿,她有稀有的炼器天赋,六界第一的仙尊不得不收她为徒!为了抢走男主,绿茶故意接近她做她好姐妹?呵呵,她表示一点威胁感都没有,因为她和男主之间有同生共死契约,孰轻孰重,一目了然!对话一/某男:“喂,叶果儿,你是猪投胎转世的吗?这么能吃?要是将来和个普通男人喜结连理,能不能养得起你都是个问题!”某女:“那我和你喜结连理不就好啦!”某男:“……”对话二/某女:“我要回家!”某男:“家?本王在哪,哪就是你的家。”某女:emmmm女主吃货爱哭鬼一枚,男主傲娇微直男一枚。另外附上各色千秋的男配,和智商不低不脑残的女配。虽然是修仙升级,但是偏向日常甜宠文。亲们~快到我的碗里来吧!
  • 明代:最后的汉家王朝

    明代:最后的汉家王朝

    讲述了明朝(1368-1644年)由明太祖朱元璋建立,历经十二世、十六位皇帝、十七朝,是中国历史上最后一个由汉族人建立的封建王朝。