ABSTRACT
The next spirits to be considered are the Babbaku or “Black Ones,” all of which either farm or hunt in the forest, and are no doubt either pagan nature-gods or else ancestral spirits. Strangely enough, the chief of these is not Kuri, but Dakaki (Crawler), or, as he is better known in Hausaland, Mai-Ja-Chikki (The Drawer along of The Stomach)—i.e. the snake. He it is who, when the bori are released, comes out first and sweeps their playground. He gives any illness, the proper offering being four cala-bashes of milk and four eggs, placed alternately in a circle, though a sacrifice of a red cock with a black breast and a grey hen is made on important occasions. “If you leave the eggs and milk for three days in the gidan tsafi you will find the milk drunk and the egg-shells empty, a tiny hole having been pierced in each.” At the same time, Dakaki is very fond of blood, and is one of the first to drink that which has run from the sacrificed animal.
