Mittu rain stones

103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.B.45

Previous Other Number:

63 2 [frame 4]

Accession Number:

1998.343.40.3

Description:

A round perforated stone (possibly an old digging-stick tool?) sitting in a sherd of pottery in the bush, identified as a Mittu rainstone. Although there were only a few Mittu families left at the time Evans-Pritchard photographed these stones, known as dohu ndabi or 'stones of thunder', they were treated with respect and he was not allowed to touch them. They were also protected during bush burning activities, although no longer used by rain-makers due to the fragmentation of the Mittu group.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1929 March

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Warab Tonj

Group:

Mittu

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Ritual , Ritual Object , ?Tool

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p. 98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S. SUDAN, DARFUNG. VARIOUS TRIBES. Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.

Notes on print/mount ms pencil - "65/2" ms ink "Mittu Rainstone"

Notes on card mount m/s pencil - "SSS overall 8.89"

Other Information:

In C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932, page 479-80) they note that 'among the Mittu proper, rain-making is no longer practised owing to the virtual extinction of the tribe, but in the old days it was a flourishing art. The rain-stones still exist, and the place where they lie in the bush is treated with considerable repsect. Care is taken not to let them suffer in the annual burning of the bush, and Professor Evans-Pritchard, though permitted to photograph them, was not allowed to touch them. Besides these axe-heads-used by Bongo, Beli, and Mittu alike-there was a large stone of the Bushman digging-stick type, known to the Mittu as dohu ndabi, meaning "stone of thunder"; this type was unkown to the Beli.' On page 474 they add that 'The Mittu, about whom Schweinfurth and Junker tell us a good deal, have to-day almost entirely disappeared. They call themselves by the name of Wetu, only a few families are left, and these are mixed with Mundu, Babukur, Moro Kodo, and other tribes. They appear to have had very much the same type of social organisation as the Beli and other tribes of the Bongo-Mittu group.' [Chris Morton 20/1/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 20/1/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]