The ban of the Bori; demons and demon-dancing in West and North Africa (1914) (14577105000)

Identifier: banofboridemonsd00trem (find matches)
Title: The ban of the Bori; demons and demon-dancing in West and North Africa
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Tremearne, A. J. N. (Arthur John Newman), 1877-1915
Subjects: Hausa (African people) Demonology Dance Ethnology
Publisher: London, Heath, Cranton & Ouseley Ltd
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



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r. Really this is your fathers palace (i.e. you are amongst your own followers)(This is the line given with the music in Chapter XVII.)Drink in your praises. Here is a bucket, a bucket of iron,Great Camel. The head of a lizard (is of no use) except as a charm.Yerima, to which town shall I return ?Great Camel. The head of a lizard (is of no use) except as a charm.You take me to Jan Gari or Boda,Whatever you dislike I will leave it,You take me to Sokoto or Rinno,Whatever you dislike I will leave it.O great One. Pride is enough for you,Great Camel. The head of a lizard (is of no use) except as a charm. The reference to the head of a lizard is that charms aresometimes made by writing a sentence on a piece of paper,placing it in the dried head of a lizard, and wrapping thewhole in leather, thus converting it into a laiya or talismanfor any ill to which the sentence applies. Why it isinserted here is more than my informants could tell me.Boda is a town in the Kano province, of which all the
Text Appearing After Image:
BORI—THE MOHAMMEDAN SPIRITS 305 inhabitants, botli male and female, are said to havebelonged to the bori at one time. Another song, not sopolite, is : He gives women a disease which cannot be cured,He afflicts them with worms which kill men,He has a two-storeyed house, a chiefs income.He preens himself, he changes colour like a chameleon.He has robes of velvet.Not all women have seen Daudu,Only those with marks on their mouths (many Hausas have them) or Arabs.O Yerima, your father is a mallam, your mother (has her lips) pierced. The reference to the chameleon means that he changeshis robe several times to show that—as a prince—he iswell off. The last line is somewhat in derision, for amallam should not marry such a woman since she is avery low type of pagan. Then come Mallam Dan Sangammi and Mallam AliGeshe, and with these may be considered two othermallams, although not next on the list—viz. Duwatsuand Dan Kalgo. Mallam Dan Sangammi (36), gives any illness, probablylumps on,