I. 4. V. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 63

Just before the rains the southern Midobis hold a quite different ceremony at the holy rock of Udru, a broken unshaped block of

granite some 2i feet high lying at the foot of Gebel Udru (called by

the Arabs "Mogran"), a large and conspicuous detached hill on the

south side of Mi'dob. The holy rock is called TeUi (northern dialect)

or Delli (southern dialect) and the same word in the Midobi language means God. Over it is built a rough hut of boughs, which is repaired

yearly before the ceremony, but left in bad repair for the greater part

of the year. The rock, when I saw it in July 1917, was still covered

with milk stains. Another smaller boulder near by had similar stains upon it and some stones and cow-dung on the top of it. This second

boulder was referred to as the son or younger brother of the larger

one, and the reason of its having also been honoured was said to be

that the hut built over the big boulder had so consistently fallen to

pieces that the people thought the rock was perhaps annoyed at the

neglect shown to the smaller boulder, so of late years they had taken

to making offerings to both. The stones and cow-dung had been

placed upon the smaller boulder by the children in play.

The ceremony at Udru is performed by certain old women of

the Ordarti section, who inherit the privilege from mother to daughter. The offerings of milk, fat, flour, meat, etc., are handed by the

votaries to these old women and by them placed on the rock. The

rest of the people stand some way off and pass the time jumping and

dancing and singing.

There is said to be another holy stone at which similar rain-

that siniply exuded from him. At Magnesia, a city of Asia Minor, we have more

particulars. There, at the annual fair year by year the stewards of the city bought a Bull, 'the finest that could be got,' and at the new moon of the month at the beginning of seedtime they dedicated it for the cit^''s welfare. The Bull's sanctified

life began with the opening of the agricultural year, whether with the spring or the autumn ploughing we do not know. The dedication of the Bull was a high solemnity. He was led in procession, at the head of which went the chief priest and priestess of the city. With them went a herald and the sacrificer, and two bands of youths and maidens. So holy was the bull that nothing unlucky might come near him; the youths and maidens must have both their parents alive, they must not have been under the taboo, the infection, of death. The herald pronounced aloud a prayer for

' the safety of the city and the land, and the citizens, and the women and children, for peace and wealth, and for the bringing forth of grain and of all the other fruits, and of cattle.' All this longing for fertility, for food and children, focuses round the holy Bull, whose holiness is his strength and fruitfulness."

The bull is set apart and fed and "it is good" for those that give him food. He lives on through autumn and winter but early in April the end comes. Again a procession is formed, senate and priests, "children and young boys and youths just come to manhood" take their part in it, and the Bull is sacrificed so that his strength and vigour may pass to his people. And "'when they shall have sacri-

ficed the Bull, let them divide it up among those who took part in the procession,' that each "may get his share of the strength of the Bull, of the luck of the State" {Art atid Ritual, pp. 86-89).