Among the Ibo people about Awka, in Southern
Nigeria, the priest of the Earth has to observe many taboos; for
example, he may not see a corpse, and if he meets one on the road he
must hide his eyes with his wristlet. He must abstain from many
foods, such as eggs, birds of all sorts, mutton, dog, bush-buck, and
so forth. He may neither wear nor touch a mask, and no masked man
may enter his house. If a dog enters his house, it is killed and
thrown out. As priest of the Earth he may not sit on the bare
ground, nor eat things that have fallen on the ground, nor may earth
be thrown at him. According to ancient Brahmanic ritual a king at
his inauguration trod on a tiger's skin and a golden plate; he was
shod with shoes of boar's skin, and so long as he lived thereafter
he might not stand on the earth with his bare feet.
But besides persons who are permanently sacred or tabooed and are
therefore permanently forbidden to touch the ground with their feet,
there are others who enjoy the character of sanctity or taboo only
on certain occasions, and to whom accordingly the prohibition in
question only applies at the definite seasons during which they
exhale the odour of sanctity.
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