The significance of the Elgonyi sunrise ceremony may be understood as follows:
An old man [Elgonyi] had suddenly exclaimed, In the morning, when the sun comes, we go out of the huts, spit into our hands, and hold them up to the sun
MDR ¶ 0They held their hands in front of their mouths, spat or blew vigorously, then turned the palms upward toward the sun
MDR ¶ 0The old man said that this was the true religion of all peoples, that all Kevirondos, all Buganda, all tribes for as far as the eye could see from the mountain and endlessly farther, worshipped adhistathat is, the sun at the moment of rising
MDR ¶ 0Only then was the sun munga, God. The first delicate golden crescent of the new moon in the purple western sky was also God. But only at that time; otherwise not
MDR ¶ 0Evidently, the meaning of the Elgonyi sunrise ceremony was that an offering was being made to the sun divinity at the moment of its rising
MDR ¶ 0If the gift was spittle, it was the substance which in the view of primitives contains the personal mana, the power of healing, magic, and life
MDR ¶ 0If it was breath, then it was rohoArabic, ruch, Hebrew, ruach, Greek, pneumawind and spirit
MDR ¶ 0The act was therefore saying: I offer to God my living soul. It was a wordless, acted-out prayer which might equally well be rendered: “Lord, into they hands I commend my spirit”
MDR ¶ 0