Health
It was believed that Abassi and Atai lived in the Sun. Abassi was thought to be the god of health. The tribesmen would often chant aloud to the sun in hopes that Abassi would hear their cries and heal them. It is believed that Abassi gave certain tribemen the ability to heal the sick through necromancy. Whenever someone in the tribe was ill, the chief would summon the witchdoctor. If the witchdoctor was unable to heal the ill person, the ill person was to be immediately killed because Abassi did not want them to be healed. Within a healing ceremony, the tribesmen would start a fire. All the people of the tribe were required to gather around as they sang songs of worship to Abassi. If the witchdoctor was unable to heal the sick person, the ill person would immediately be thrown into the fire.
Read more about this topic: Efik Mythology
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“In our great concern about the mental health of children, however, we have overlooked the mental health of mothers. They have been led to believe that their children’s needs must not be frustrated, and therefore all of their own normal angers, the normal ambivalences of living, are not permissible. The mother who has “bad” feelings toward her child is a bad mother.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The same soil is good for men and for trees. A man’s health requires as many acres of meadow to his prospect as his farm does loads of muck.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The sick man is taken away by the institution that takes charge not of the individual, but of his illness, an isolated object transformed or eliminated by technicians devoted to the defense of health the way others are attached to the defense of law and order or tidiness.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)