ABSTRACT
A vital aspect of Loonkidongi divining lies in mastering the system of interpreting their oracles, which is based on the number of pebbles thrown for each question. Within the Maa-speaking milieu generally, when assessing their cattle, their gains and losses, and even on insignificant topics, people are very number conscious. There is a finger language for numbers that is constantly used rhetorically by any speaker, forcing the listener to respond verbally: ‘I went there in how many days?’ (‘3’),‘And stayed how many?’ (‘5’)… In this way, among the conventional responses that punctuate conversation, numbers are the most articulate and visible.1 There is also the notion that numbers have a ritual significance as surface manifestations of hidden truths.Thus, certain propitious figures recur in the repetition of detail in ritualized performances, in enumerating formal gifts, and again when recalling events as though these reveal the hand of Providence.The manipulation of these patterns is directly comparable with the handling of other symbolic phenomena. Numbers intrude themselves constantly, as if to express an alert control over the ritual significance of events that are being discussed. On the other hand, normal conversation frequently bears on the uncontrollable where chance intrudes. This raises the problem of coping with uncertainty, and it is precisely this sort of problem that over-anxious Maasai may take to a diviner. In his hands, numbers have a different significance that shifts from quantity to portent.
