Head-hunters, black, white, and brown

by Alfred C. Haddon

The following afternoon we all went to the zogo; Bruce came too. Strangely enough he had not previously seen or heard of this zogo. We had with us the Mamoose, Enocha, Jimmy Dei, Ulai, and Kaige, all of whom belonged to the zogo. We learnt the names of the stones, and then at our request the zogo men placed themselves in the right position and attitude for consulting the zogo, and then they were photographed. It was very suggestive to see the reverent affection the old men had for the zogo, and they seemed gratified at the care with which it had been cleaned and mapped.

This famous zogo consists of a collection of stones, on each of which was formerly placed a large shell, usually a great Fusus or a helmet-shell; each stone, with its shell, represented a village or a district of the island. A little way off was a single stone and shell that stood for the whole island. Divination was accomplished by the voices and movements of birds, lizards, insects, or the appearance of natural objects. Anything that happened to the separate stone and shell concerned all the inhabitants of the island; but anything that happened to one of the grouped stones and shells related only to the man or men who live in the house or district represented by that particular stone and shell. There was thus a means for both analysis and synthesis.

At the eastern end of the group of stones were a large number of giant-clam shells; many were concentrically arranged, and formerly there were more of them, the smaller within the larger, so that the whole must have looked like a huge white rosette, and safely ensconced in the centre was a small star-shaped stone, the zogo itself; the concentric clam shells formed the “house of the zogo”. In other words, the small stone was the oracle, the clam shells were its shrine. Tomog Zogo acted as The Police News, The Hue and Cry, and a morning newspaper, with a little prophesying thrown in.

PLATE VII

THE SHRINE OF ZABARKER

TOMOG ZOGO

A very limited number of men belonged to this zogo, and they consulted it only at daybreak, “small fellow daylight.” Those who came to inquire of the oracle would stand up in a particular spot and say, “Tomog Zogo, you know everything, tell us the truth.” After they had asked the definite question for which they required an answer, they sat down on some leaves, with their legs crossed under them, with their closed fists on their knees.

It is a fixed belief amongst most savage peoples that no one gets ill or even dies from natural causes, but that all these misfortunes are due to magic, and it is necessary to find out who perpetrated this evil. Supposing, for example, someone in the island was sick, the friends of the invalid would approach the men who belonged to Tomog Zogo, and would ask them to find out who had brought this misfortune on their friend. Next morning the zogo men would start before sunrise, and would ask the zogo, “Who made So-and-so sick? where does he live?”

Then the inquirers would sit down in a row and wait. By-and-by a lizard might come out of one of the shells; this would indicate the house where the man lived, and later, by means of careful inquiries in the village, they would try to discover who he was. When they had satisfied themselves, they would tell him to take his sorcery stone and to put it in the sea. As the stone was cooled by the water, so the patient would recover from his illness. Whether the man had made sorcery or not, he would always own to it and do as he was told, partly to save trouble and partly because he was pleased to have the reputation of being able to perform this kind of magic.