"It Is
Difficult," He Said, "To Get The Exact Object Of The 'Orunda.'
Certainly The Prohibited Article Is Not
In itself evil, for others
but the inhibited individual may eat or do with it as they please.
Most of
The natives blindly follow the custom of their ancestors
without being able to give any raison d'etre, but again, from those
best able to give a reason, you learn the prohibited article is a
sacrifice ordained for the child by its parents and the magic doctor
as a gift to the governing spirit of its life. The thing prohibited
becomes removed from the child's common use, and is made sacred to
the spirit. Any use of it by the child or man would therefore be a
sin, which would bring down the spirit's wrath in the form of
sickness or other evil, which can be atoned for only by expensive
ceremonies or gifts to the magic doctor who intercedes for the
offender."
Anything may be an Orunda or Ibet provided only that it is connected
with food; I have been able to find no definite ground for the
selection of it. The Doctor said, for example, that "once when on a
boat journey, and camped in the forest for the noon-day meal, the
crew of four had no meat. They needed it. I had a chicken but ate
only a portion, and gave the rest to the crew. Three men ate it
with their manioc meal, the fourth would not touch it.
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