from an account by Verrier Elwin, a British anthropologist
who lived among the Saora people of India (1955),
as quoted in the
book Shamans Through Time
"Every shamanin [female shaman] is called to her sacred
duties at about the time of puberty as a result of a remarkable
dream-experience....which results in her "marriage" to a tutelary
from the Under World. This spiritual marriage is not generally a bar
to marriage on earth....and the girl usually marries a human husband
after a few years. But her dream-lord seems to be equally real to
her; to hear a shamanin talking, it is not always easy to say which
of her two husbands means more to her.
"This experience may follow or precede some formal training in
divination. Sometimes a girl whose family has had no previous
association may be called to it in a dream and the dream-husband
himself may teach her the art. More commonly a girl belongs to a
family where the shamanin tradition already exists; the mother or, as
so often, the father's sister is a shamanin and begins to prepare the
little girl from an early age for her future life. The
dream-experiences, therefore, are not unexpected....
"The dream which forces a girl into her profession and seals it
with supernatural approval takes the form of visits of a suitor from
the Under World who proposes marriage with all its ecstatic and
numinous consequences. This "husband" is a Hindu, well-dressed and
handsome, wealthy, and observant of many customs to which the Saoras
are strangers. He comes, according to tradition, in the depth of
night; when he enters the room the whole household is laid under a
spell and sleeps like the dead.
"In nearly every case, the girl at first refuses, for the
profession of shamanin is both arduous and beset with dangers. The
result is that she begins to be plagued with nightmares: her divine
lover carries her to the Under World or threatens her with a fall
from a great height. She generally falls ill; she may even be out of
her wits for a time, and wanders pathetically dishevelled in the
fields and woods. The family then takes a hand. Since in most cases
the girl has been having training for some time, everyone knows what
she is in for, and even if she herself does not tell her parents what
is happening they usually have a shrewd idea. But the proper thing is
for the girl herself to confess to her parents that she has been
"called," that she has refused, and that she is now in danger. This
immediately relieves her own mind of its burden of guilt and sets the
parents free to act. They at once arrange the girl's marriage with
her tutelary....
"After the marriage, the shamanin's spirit-husband visits her
regularly and lies with her till dawn. He may even take her away into
the jungle for days at a time, feeding her there on palm wine. In due
course a child is born and the ghostly father brings it every night
to be nursed by the girl. But the relationship is not primarily a
sexual one; the important thing is that the tutelary husband should
inspire and instruct his young wife in her dreams, and when she goes
to perform her sacred duties he sits by her and tells her what to
do."
