Primal Myths

by Barbara C. Sproul

  REVELATION OF THE SECOND WORD The second word, revealed by Faro to Simboumba Tangnagati, was handed down by him to mankind after Faro’s victory and the extending of his power on earth. This revelation occurred at the place on the river which represents his genitals. Faro being essentially procreative, this place is linked with his seed and with the birth of mankind.

  The four male ancestors who descended in the ark married by exchanging their twins two by two. In order to transmit the word, Simboumba Tangnagati decided to sacrifice in the sanctuary on the hill (lu daga blo) the first twins of mixed sex born of these marriages. He asked the bard to make an arm-drum (tana) with the skin of the twins. The tree gwele, from which he carved the drum, grew on the hill and symbolized Faro’s only leg. Making a double drum of it meant dividing this single member into two legs like those of men, and also recalled Faro’s journey on earth with the water. Tama, the name of the drum, comes from ta (to go away) and refers to this journey. This is also why the bard, since the word was revealed, has, as the Mande say, to go on walking till he reaches Akka, “to follow Faro and testify to the distance he travelled.” The two drum skins gave complementary male and female sounds, and the sacrifice was made to ask Faro for the birth of twins in every lineage.

  To go from Kaba to Tamani, where the sacrifice was offered, men were led by the mannogo ble which entered the sanctuary with the rising water. Thus he showed the way to men, going before them. They went east, along the right bank of the river; by day they walked in the direction of the rising sun, by night, toward Sirius, which, at that time, rose in the east as soon as the sun had set. For the revelation of the word at Tamani, Simboumba Tangnagati carried the seeds from the sanctuary on the hill in order that he might “speak upon them.” These seeds were to multiply, as words multiply, in the fertile area of Faro’s genitalia. At each faro tyn which marked the activities of Faro and the part he played in providing seeds and procreation, twins were sacrificed in order that twin births might be frequent.

  When they saw, as on the first occasion by the entrance to the shrine, Sirius rising along with the sun, the first men halted at the place of Faro’s fecundity. Then, joined by Mousso Koroni Koundye, they crossed the river on stepping-stones; the bard remained alone on the right bank. Simboumba Tangnagati played on wrought-iron bells (simbo), image of Faro’s mouth, and said fifty words. These the bard Sourakata repeated on the opposite bank of the river, while he played the drum tama on both the male and female sides of the instrument. The fifty words proclaimed the propagation of human beings throughout the earth and the common origin of all lineages from Mande; it is said of them: “black people belong to the millet race and they should all possess the same knowledge.”

  The place where the bard stood gave its name to the village of Tamani. On the opposite bank the place where the men stood was called Do, “secret”; there is only a small bare hill there and nothing to recall the men’s halt because it was to be kept secret from Mousso Koroni, who was still seeking to reach Risius and the sun: “Mousso Koroni must never be able to find the spot.”

  The men, followed by Mousso Koroni, then went back to Kri along the left bank; Nounou alone went on beyond Kri and along the same bank to Sama, where he crossed the river led by the mannogo ble, and stopped at the site of the present Segou Koro.

  Meanwhile the bard went his way along the right bank of the river, walking east to Akka, the mannogo ble going before him to show the way. At Akka the bard gave his drum tama to the Bozo who were the first to arrive there.

  Now the bard had left at Ka the head of Faro which he had been given in heaven after the sacrifice, but he had brought the drum to Akka. So Akka is the head of Faro risen from the dead. The two drum skins recall the two geographical areas, Kaba and Akka, and the narrow central part of the drum is the river itself and hence Faro’s journey. The thirty ropes with which it is tied represent the first thirty words and also the thirty lineages. On his way back the bard came to Ka bringing the simbo which looks like “the head of Faro alive.” It was put aside in the same cave, together with the skull that had become the first drum.

  Sourakata’s journey, symbol of the continuous traveling of genealogists today, and the revelation of the word of which they have, from that time, been the heralds, gave one of its present names to the river: namely dyali ba, “the great bard.” The name refers both to Faro, owner of the word, and and to the first bard who was Faro’s “spokesman.” While he was staying in Akka, the bard saw the ark and, on his return home, he carved a harp of dogora or dura wood and shaped it like an ark; the four strings of the harp symbolized the four cardinal points.

  NOUNOU’S PART Nounou, the fourth human ancestor, who was a hunter and a medicine man, was led by a mannogo ble across the river at Sama and followed it “in order to possess both banks and see if the bard’s speech could be extended.” He carried with him his three medicine shrines. Suddenly he came to a hill called kulubana which blocked the road and prevented him from occupying the whole region. This was at a place now called Segou Koro where he settled down.

  Mousso Koroni, still trying to find the seeds she had lost and to fight Faro, joined Nounou, “leaving traces wherever she went.” Following her treacherous advice, he tried to cross the hill and, to this end, caused the mannogo ble to be caught in order that he might sacrifice it and obtain his own sano field, with eight plots, on the hill at Segou Koro. Nounon died on account of this; for he had committed sacrilege by killing the mannogo ble. He was buried in his house in Segou Sorokimo.

  The antelope, dage, which Faro had sent to watch the shrines, carried Nounou’s vital force in its horns and ran from Segou Koro to Mande, along with Nounou’s souls which had come back to life. Using the shrines and the trees that grew in the field and had become the basic medicines, Nounou changed himself into a snake and hid in the Ka cave on the Kouroula hills in Mande. The dage and the mannogo became taboo for his descendants, who were called Kouloubali (or Koulibali), a name which, according to popular etymology, recalls the name of the hill.

  Mousso Koroni, left alone, went wandering about, begging and “leaving traces in all the fields she tried to cultivate.” Starving and miserable “she at last went east and was never seen again.”

  The three ancestors who stayed in Mande, when the time came for them to die, disappeared under the wooden shrine built in the initial field and also became snakes (mina). Today in the Ka cave in Kri live four mythical snakes representing the four ancestors.

  From the descendants of the ancestors of the ark human beings multiplied. There were first the five mythical generations from whose supposed marriages a complex system of matrimonial alliances derives. The fifth of these generations consisted of forty-four descendants, among whom twenty-two males symbolically represented the twenty-two faro tyn; they are said to be the several ancestors of all the lineages who regard themselves as “coming from Mande.”

  —Germaine Dieterlen. “The Mande Creation Myth.” Africa, 1957, 17 (2), 124–138. London: Oxford University Press.

  KRACHI

  The Separation of God from Man

  This fragment of a tale from the Krachi people of Togo envisages a primordial unity between sky and earth, god and man. Because of people’s disrespect, the god Wulbari eventually retreated from earth and rose to the sky “where one can admire him but not reach him.”

  IN THE BEGINNING of days Wulbari and man lived close together and Wulbari lay on top of Mother Earth, Asase Ya. Thus it happened that, as there was so little space to move about in, man annoyed the divinity, who in disgust went away and rose up to the present place where one can admire him but not reach him.

  He was annoyed for a number of reasons. An old woman, while making her fufu outside her hut, kept on knocking Wulbari with her pestle. This hurt him and, as she persisted, he was forced to go higher out of her reach. Besides, the smoke of the cooking fires got into his eyes so that he had to go farther way. According to others, however, Wulbari, being so close to men, made a c
onvenient sort of towel, and the people used to wipe their dirty fingers on him. This naturally annoyed him. Yet this was not so bad a grievance as that which caused We, the Wulbari of the Kassena people, to remove himself out of the reach of man. He did so because an old woman, anxious to make a good soup, used to cut off a bit of him at each mealtime, and We, being pained at this treatment, went higher.

  —Raul Radin (ed.). African Folktales. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, Bollingen Paperback, 1970, p. 28—Retold from material in A. W. Cardinall. Tales Told in Togolan. London: 1931.

  FON

  The Great Gods

  Descendants of the Adja people, the earliest inhabitants of Dahomey who had established a kingdom on the coast by the twelfth century A.D., the Fon achieved supremacy by the sixteenth century. They were conquered in 1738 by the Yoruba, to whom they paid annual tribute for some two hundred years until King Gezo rebelled and won independence. The French negotiated a trade pact with the king in 1851, but later, finding Gezo’s successors more difficult to deal with, intervened militarily and annexed the region. Dahomey was incorporated into French West Africa in 1904 and gained independence in 1960.

  Although the Fon usually speak of Mawu (moon, female) and Lisa (sun, male) as supreme, this myth tells of a greater God, the hermaphroditic Nana-Buluku who bore them and then retired from the world. Only one cult center for Nanu-Buluku exists; located in Dune, a small village northwest of Abomey, it receives half of certain offerings made to Mawu and Lisa in cult houses all over the country—tribute from worshippers of the divine children to their holy parent.

  THE WORLD was created by one god, who is at the same time both male and female. This Creator is neither Mawu nor Liza, but is named Nana-Buluku. In time, Nana-Buluku gave birth to twins, who were named Mawu and Lisa, and to whom eventually dominion over the realm thus created was ceded. To Mawu, the woman, was given command of the night; to Lisa, the man, command of the day. Mawu, therefore, is the moon and inhabits the west, while Lisa, who is the sun, inhabits the east. At the time their respective domains were assigned to them, no children had as yet been born to this pair, though at night the man was in the habit of giving a “rendezvous” to the woman, and eventually she bore him offspring. This is why, when there is an eclipse of the moon, it is said the celestial couple are engaged in love-making; when there is an eclipse of the sun, Mawu is believed to be having intercourse with Lisa.

  —Melville J. Herskovits. Dahomey. Vol. 2. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1958, p. 101.

  TWO

  NEAR EASTERN MYTHS

  ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHS

  Theology from Memphis

  Around the beginning of the historical period in Egypt (c. 3000 B.C.), the Pharoah Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt and built a new capitol at Memphis. Older cities, like Heliopolis, were close by and still important politically and religiously as cult centers. It was therefore the task of the Memphite theologians to demonstrate the superiority and priority of their new cult. This myth from the First Dynasty attempts to do that by celebrating Ptah, a local Memphite deity and hitherto god only of destiny, as the supreme creator god. Atum, the god of Heliopolis and the old creator god, is reduced in power and envisioned as the child and functionary of Ptah.

  The myth describes generative creation in verbal or mental terms: whereas the semiandrogynous Atum had created the world through masturbation (his fingers being the directing agent and his semen forming the raw material of creation), Ptah accomplishes the same end verbally (his heart serving as the directing agent and his mouth forming the raw material of words). After creating all the gods—most importantly the Ennead of nine main deities of the Heliopolitan pantheon—Ptah made ka-spirits (souls) and thus laid the foundation for an ethical order. In addition, he established the religious order by determining the form and functions of the gods, their shrines and appropriate offerings.

  At the end of the myth, an attempt is made to assimilate the increasingly popular deity Osiris into the Memphite cult by claiming that he had drowned and was buried in the city.

  The ritual use of the myth is evinced not only by its initial praise of Horus (an aspect of Ptah personified by the Pharoah in cult activities), but also by stage directions included for the ritual performers: “Words spoken [by] Geb [to] Seth.”

  (1) LIVE THE HORUS: Who Prospers the Two Lands; the Two Goddesses: Who Prospers the Two Lands, the Horus of Gold: Who Prospers the Two Lands; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Nefer-ka-Re, the Son of Re: Sha-[ba-ka], beloved of Ptah-South-of-His-Wall, living like Re forever. His majesty copied this text anew in the House of his father Ptah-South-of-His-Wall. Now his majesty had found (it) as (something) which the ancestors had made but which was worm-eaten. It was unknown from beginning to end. Then [his majesty] copied [it] anew, (so that) it is better than its state formerly, in order that his name might endure and his memorial be made to last in the House of his father Ptah-South-of-His-Wall in the course of eternity, through that which the Son of Re: [Sha-ba-ka] did for his father Ptah-tenen, so that he might be given life forever….

  (7) The Ennead gathered themselves to him, and he judged Horus and Seth. He prevented them from quarreling (further), and he made Seth the King of Upper Egypt in the land of Upper Egypt, at the place where he was (born), Su. Then Geb made Horus the King of Lower Egypt in the land of Lower Egypt, at the place where his father [i.e., Osiris] was drowned, Pezshet-Tawi. Thus Horus stood in (one) place, and Seth stood in (another) place, and they were reconciled about the Two Lands….

  (10) Words spoken (by) Geb (to) Seth: “Go to the place in which thou wert born.” Seth—Upper Egypt.

  Words spoken (by) Geb (to) Horus: “Go to the place in which thy father was drowned.” Horus—Lower Egypt.

  Words spoken (by) Geb (to) Horus and Seth: “I have judged you.” Lower and Upper Egypt.

  (But then it became) ill in the heart of Geb that the portion of Horus was (only) equal to the portion of Seth. So Geb gave his (entire) inheritance to Horus, that is, the son of his son, his first-born…. (Thus) Horus stood over the (entire) land. Thus this land was united, proclaimed with the great name: “Tatenen [another name for Ptah] South-of-His-Wall, the Lord of Eternity.” The two Great Sorceresses grew upon his head. So it was that Horus appeared as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who united the Two Lands in Wall Nome, in the place in which the Two Lands are united.

  (15c) It happened that reed and papyrus were set at the great double door of the House of Ptah. That means Horus and Seth, who were reconciled and united, so that they associated and their quarreling ceased in the place which they reached, being joined in the House of Ptah’ “the Balance of the Two Lands,” in which Upper and Lower Egypt have been weighed….

  (48) The gods who came into being as Ptah:—

  Ptah who is upon the Great Throne…;

  Ptah-Nun, the father who [begot] Atum;

  Ptah-Naunet, the mother who bore Atum;

  Ptah the Great, that is, the heart and tongue of the Ennead;

  [Ptah]…who gave birth to the gods;…

  (53) There came into being as the heart and there came into being as the tongue (something) in the form of Atum. The mighty Great One is Ptah, who transmitted [life to all gods], as well as (to) their ka’s, through this heart, by which Horus became Ptah, and through this tongue, by which Thoth became Ptah.

  (Thus) it happened that the heart and tongue gained control over [every] (other) member of the body, by teaching that he [i.e., Ptah] is in every body and in every mouth of all gods, all men, [all] cattle, all creeping things, and (everything) that lives, by thinking and commanding everything that he wishes.

  (55) His Ennead is before him in (the form of) teeth and lips. That is (the equivalent of) the semen and hands of Atum. Whereas the Ennead of Atum came into being by his semen and his fingers, the Ennead (of Ptah), however, is the teeth and lips in this mouth, which pronounced the name of everything, from which Shu and Tefnut came forth, and which was the fashioner of the Ennead.


  The sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, and the smelling the air by the nose, they report to the heart. It is this which causes every completed (concept) to come forth, and it is the tongue which announces what the heart thinks.

  Thus all the gods were formed and his Ennead was completed. Indeed, all the divine order really came into being through what the heart thought and the tongue commanded. Thus the ka-spirits were made and the hemsut-spirits were appointed, they who make all provisions and all nourishment, by this speech. (Thus justice was given to) him who does what is liked, (and injustice to) him who does what is disliked. Thus life was given to him who has peace and death was given to him who has sin. Thus were made all work and all crafts, the action of the arms, the movement of the legs, and the activity of every member, in conformance with (this) command which the heart thought, which came forth through the tongue, and which gives value to everything.

  (Thus) it happened that it was said of Ptah: “He who made all and brought the gods into being.” He is indeed Ta-tenen, who brought forth the gods, for everything came forth from him, nourishment and provisions, the offerings of the gods, and every good thing. Thus it was discovered and understood that his strength is greater than (that of the other) gods. And so Ptah was satisfied, after he had made everything, as well as all the divine order. He had formed the gods, he had made cities, he had founded nomes, he had put the gods in their shrines, (60) he had established their offerings, he had founded their shrines, he had made their bodies like that (with which) their hearts were satisfied. So the gods entered into their bodies of every (kind of) wood, of every (kind of) stone, of every (kind of) clay, or anything which might grow upon him, in which they had taken form. So all the gods, as well as their ka’s gathered themselves to him, content and associated with the Lord of the Two Lands.