Hé Gá

The Hé Gá is the Tagka term for the ancestor cults that act as secret societies divided by age. The word Hé Gá is meaningless, it is a onomatopoeia derived from the chants that accompany the secret ceremonies.

## Structure:

Each year during the summer the adults of the tribe will construct ritual circles away from camp that years Hé Gá ceremonies will be conducted in. Tribespeople will lay stones and place a idol in the center, while leaving small offerings around the site. These ceremonies worship different tribal ancestors each year as dictated by the local shaman, who oversees the preparations. These ancestors could be mythical founders, great clan warriors or even a recently deceased chief or shaman. Over the course of several days the children and elders will take charge of the herds while the adults carry out rituals in secrecy.

The Hé Gá is structured as a fraternal society that is a mirror of normal Tagka society. At the top of the cult is the 'chief' who really is a idol portraying the tribal ancestor who is being honored that year. The living chief of the tribe is forbidden from participating. Beneath the chief is the appointed overseers of the ceremonies, chosen tribespeople who act both as performers and enforcers to ensure the laws of the Hé Gá are not violated. Under them are the initiates, who are the healthy adults of the clan.

## Function:

During the Hé Gá, adults will placate the ancestors of the clan to ensure good fortune for the winter to come, as well as warding against evil spirits. More practically it is a way for the clan to reacquaint itself with the required rules of society, warn against taboo activities, and weed out wrongdoers.

## Ceremonies:

Several dances and ceremonies take place during the Hé Gá. On the first day the initiates will smear each-others faces with white ash as a reminder of each-others mortality, then they will dance around the ancestral idol while they chant the eponymous chant, "*Hé Gá Hé Gá Hé Gá*". All the while the overseers, masked as evil demons will move amongst the dancers, striking those the spirits deem guilty with a reed switch. The guilty then must confess their sins of the previous year or face ostracism from the clan. For the course of the entire Hé Gá, the initiates must always keep their white face paint.

On the second day the initiates work together to prepare a stew that will simmer over the course of the remaining ceremonies. This stew is a simple affair of roots, some meat and a broth-but the initiates 'sacrifice' locks of their hair into it as a sign of humbleness. Each night it is stirred until the final dance where it is consumed. On the night of the second day, the dancers repeat the dance of the first night.

On the third day, the overseers act out a dance to portray the life of the ancestor, and they bring out the idol for the initiates to humble themselves before, which involves laying prostrate on the ground and sprinkling dirt on ones head.

On the fourth day the stew is consumed in the course of a long dance. The shaman will have added hallucinogenic herbs to the stew and gradually the dance will become a frenzy, individual tribespeople collapsing to the ground in fevered fits. The overseers will dress again as evil spirits and choose the tribespeople deemed to be the next years overseers.

The morning of the fifth day the initiates dismantle the ceremonial site and wash their faces then give a offering to the idol which is then burnt. The site of the fire is filled with dirt and a small cairn will be erected atop it, which is left to sit for one last day before being scattered.