Sacred Rites: Divination by Animal Tracks

For the purpose of giving an initial understanding of Dogon religious practice, this films show a common method of divining. A shaman, the Dogon soothsayer, an elder of the village, enters the sacred ground. By members of his village, he uses a symbolic language to draw a representation of the village in the sand. He then drops peanuts at strategic places to lure the night jackals into the field. The following morning the shaman returns to prophesy the future from the tracks left by the jackal in the sand.