The gift of weather control is one of the most coveted. It is logical - after all, this is how you can save the crop from drought, or, on the contrary, interrupt the prolonged rainy season, or even divert the formidable typhoon aside. Anyone who can even accurately predict the weather will already gain real respect - and this is often beyond the power of many modern forecasters. On the other hand, the responsibility for unfulfilled obligations for the "weather masters" is very high.
DIGGER SENTASH
A person not only mainly consists of water, but also directly depends on it. This is clearly seen in the development of civilizations - almost all of them originated and flourished on the banks of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, and even at the junction of both. The water falling from the sky is equally important, so of all the options for controlling the weather, the ability to cause and stop rain was considered the most valuable in all centuries. The ritual of calling the rain is not only popular - it exists among the absolute majority of peoples around the globe, having originated quite independently, without any cultural ties. The details, of course, vary considerably.
Here is one of the most detailed rituals of the Guinean tribe, described by the English traveler Hugo Chateris in the 50s of the last century. While the men beat the tom-toms all night long, a local miracle worker called ju-ju sat motionless, whispering incantations, and a naked young woman, a shaman from a neighboring tribe, assisted him. When she moved from conspiracies to direct conducting of tom-toms, clouds gathered and rain fell - much to the surprise of the Englishman watching. Hindu brahmanas, to call precipitation, climb into barrels of water for four hours, continuously reciting prayers. Nepalese women from the Kapilwastu region dance naked in the rice fields. In Serbia, Romania and northern Bulgaria, the "Herman" rite is performed, burying a clay doll of a certain poor fellow who died of drought. One of the most curious ways to draw water from heaven exists among the Balkars, who hold a special stone for such an occasion - a sentash. To make it rain, the Sentash needs to be dug out of the ground, to stop - to bury it deeper. The ritual works flawlessly today, amazing the eyewitnesses with both the banal appearance of the miracle stone and the incredible strength of the downpour that starts steadily after it is excavated …
BLOOD FOR WATER
But sacred cobblestones and naked dancing are just flowers compared to many other manifestations of weather witchcraft. Rain is not a joke, the lives of a tribe, people, continent depend on rain. Blood is shed for the sake of rain - and it is good if in small quantities. On the island of Java, men whipped each other with rods on the backs until blood came out, which should have lured the clouds, and one of the tribes of Abyssinia began to fight each other to the death. Dieri from central Australia build a special conical hut above a deep pit, put two sorcerers in the hut and open their veins so that they sprinkle the blood of the inhabitants in the pit below them. Sorcerers also have to scatter fluff, symbolizing clouds, and then independently drag two huge stones out of the hut, somehow throwing them onto the tallest tree. Doubtfulthat bleeding people, even if they were sorcerers ten times, are capable of such feats, but if this does not help make it rain, then what else?
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More severe than the weather rites themselves can only be a punishment for their failure. Sorcerers, priests, shamans, and even leaders around the world received all possible honors as long as things were going well, but as soon as the drought began, they were treated very differently. In some parts of Africa, leaders who could not make it rain are at best insulted and beaten with sticks, at worst they are expelled and killed on the spot. On the coral islands of Niue there was once a monarchical system, but with one nuance - kings, at the same time high priests, faced the death penalty in lean years. As a result of several dry seasons in a row, everyone was so afraid to sit on the throne that there was simply no new king. A number of the tribes of the Upper Nile did not have monarchs in the usual sense of the word, but there were the Rain Kings who had a completely understandable gift. When the tribe needed rainthey gave the king a cow. Didn't help? He was already warned "in a bad way", with threats. If after that the rain did not start, the would-be spellcaster ripped open his stomach, in which he supposedly hid the showers.
SKULL, POTS AND PEASANTS
The ability to control the weather was attributed to some historical figures, for example, the outstanding Balkarian poet Kazim Mechiev. To call the rain, he did not even need to dig out that very stone, only to correctly use the horse's skull with spells inscribed on it with a chemical pencil at a precisely chosen time. They say that Kyazim was well versed in both esotericism and astrology, never refusing people to ask for help. The famous English writer Ryder Haggard was personally acquainted with the old woman Mujaji, the great shaman of the Transvaal (South Africa), making an incredible impression with the strength of character and domineering manners inherent only in royalty. Mujaji called for showers with special "rain pots" containing mysterious potions, personally launched rain dances, and controlled every aspect of the rituals. It was believed that upon reaching old age, the "rain queen" should commit suicide by taking poison, before passing on the knowledge to the successor. But Mujaji was so powerful that no one dared to demand that she fulfill the tradition.
In the domestic environment, a certain Yuri Zilbert is known, who in the last century personally learned to call rain and deflect lightning. The story goes that he was exiled to Voronezh along with Mandelstam, where he then, albeit a professional physicist, began to master the mystical ways of controlling the weather. Silbert came to the conclusion that the atmosphere is influenced by the united will of hundreds of people - and that is why the peasant processions of the cross work quite well to call rain. Having talked enough with a local witch and making inquiries about weather wizards of the past, the former physicist himself learned to concentrate energy in the right way. They say that then the NKVD took him away to launch especially severe frosts in the winter of 1941 …
PUNISHMENT FOR THE GODS
Curiously, popular resentment over the drought extended not only to shamans and chieftains, but also directly to the deities in charge of heavenly powers. Prayers are prayers, and the harvest is dying - and then people began to drag out their former patrons with might and main. Japanese peasants, for example, threw the image of a god with curses into a rotting rice field, and the Chinese even beat idols with sticks, both in drought and the prolonged rainy season. They once in 1888 put the statue of the god under arrest, releasing the poor idol only five days later, when the downpour stopped. The Europeans did not lag behind their Asian colleagues, mercilessly punishing images and statues of saints in especially bad weather. So in 1893 the citizens of Palermo threw Saint Joseph out of the church into the garden, so that he "personally convinced" that there was really a drought outside. Saint Angelo, patron saint of Licat,the angry crowd threatened to hang him if he did not give them at least a little rain. Only the peasants from Navarre acted softer and more consistently - when St. Peter did not "organize" the precipitation on time, his statue was carried to the nearest reservoir and dipped there several times.
We cannot live without water - that is why we call it as we can, angry at erroneous weather forecasters and looking at the sky with hope. It is not known which shaman or priest will help us most reliably, but if you show a little patience, sooner or later it will surely rain.
Maxim Filaretov