“Conspicuous objects on the left of the pavilion were two Ajalela or fetish pots made by the present king (according to the customs.) Vide note [16]. Both are lamp black, shaped like amphoræ (amphoræ, for holding wine) about 4 feet high, and planted on tripods. The larger was solid, the smaller callendered with many small holes, and both were decorated with brass and silver crescents, stars, and similar ornaments. The second, when filled with water and medicine allows none to escape, so great is its fetish power; an army guarded by it can never be defeated, and it will lead the way to Absokuta.” Compare Pongol ceremony, [p. 275].
Catlin, p. 8.
“In an open area in the centre of the village stands the ark or ‘big canoe,’ around which a great proportion of the ceremonies were performed. This rude symbol, of 8 or 10 feet in height, was constructed of planks and hoops, having somewhat the appearance of a large hogshead standing on its end, and containing some mysterious things, which none but the medicine (mystery) men were allowed to examine.”
This must be considered in connection with the following.
Burton.
In the opening procession of the third day’s customs, Captain Burton tells us (ii. 2), “First came a procession of eighteen Tansi-no or fetish women, who have charge of the last monarch’s grave.... They were preceded by bundles of matting, eight large stools, calabashes, pipes, baskets of water, grog, and meat with segments of gourd above and below, tobacco bags, and other commissariat articles; and they were followed by a band of horns and rattles.”[215]
In another procession (ii. 47), “The party was brought up by slave girls carrying baskets and calabashes. (Query, of water?) These, preceded by six bellowing horns, stalked in slowly, and with measured gait the eight Tansi-no, who serve and pray for the ghosts of dead kings. (Query, eight dead kings?) In front went their ensign, a copper measuring rod 15 feet long and tapering to a very fine end; behind it were two chauris and seven mysterious pots and calabashes wrapped in white and red checks,” and presently “three brass, four copper, and six iron pots, curiosities on account of their great size.... Eight images, of which three were apparently ship’s figureheads whitewashed, and the rest very hideous efforts of native art.”[216]
Catlin.
In Captain Burton’s account of the articles paraded in the procession, the pipes (to which great mystery is attached), the horns and rattles (vide pl.), and the baskets of water are common to the Mandan ceremony. May not the eight stools be representative of the eight diluvian survivors. Vide supra, [197], Cabiri? Let us, however, confine our attention to the “baskets of water.” Compare with the following account in Catlin.
“In the medicine (mystery) lodge ... there were also four articles of veneration and importance lying on the ground, which were sacks containing each some three or four gallons of water. These seemed to be objects of great superstitious regard, and had been made with much labour and ingenuity, being constructed of the skins of the buffaloes’ neck, and sewed together in the forms of large tortoises lying on their backs (comp. [p. 138]; also [p. 269]), each having a sort of tail made of raven’s quills and a stick like a drumstick lying on it, with which, as will be seen in a subsequent part of the ceremony, the musicians beat upon the sacks as instruments of music for their strange dances. By the sides of these sacks, which they called Ech-tee-ka (drums), there were two other articles of equal importance which they called Ech-na-da (rattles) made of undressed skins shaped into the form of gourd shells,” &c. (Note the segments of gourd accompanying the water baskets in the Dahome procession, supra.) Catlin adds—“The sacks of water had the appearance of great antiquity, and the Mandans pretended that the water had been contained in them ever since the Deluge.”—pp. 15, 16.[217]