Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
who lived near them or died in them. In Ireland, the Rivers Boyne and Shannon derive their
names from goddesses who drowned in them after seeking wisdom from a magical well.
The importance of the Nile to the ancient Egyptians was reflected in a number of major and
minor gods being associated with the river. Hapi was the god who personified the river's
annual flood, the inundation of tears shed each year by the goddess Isis, in sorrow for her
murdered husband. Hapi, the Nile deity responsible for collecting these tears, lived in a
cataract near today's Aswan, surrounded by crocodiles and goddesses, some of whom were
frogs, others women with frogs' heads. Each year, at the start of the flood, Egyptians car-
ried out mass animal sacrifices to Hapi.
In numerous cases, the sanctity of a river is linked to a creation myth that arises from wa-
ter's position as a primordial element. The River Birem in Ghana, for example, is con-
sidered to be the spiritual force and fountainhead of the Akyem kingdom because legend
has it that the people of Akyem emerged from the depths of the river. Indeed, rivers,
streams, and other water bodies all across Africa are frequently regarded as the habitat of
deities and ancestors and hence treated with considerable reverence. The most prominent
of the river divinities in Yoruba cosmology, for instance, is Yemoja, ruler of the Ogun River
in Nigeria. Yemoja is the mother of all fish and the giver of children, and is customarily
brought offerings of yams and chickens by women who want to start a family. In many
parts of southern Africa, spirits who dwell in certain river pools are responsible for the cre-
ation of traditional healers (see below).
Many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia also traditionally enjoy close links to nature, in
which rivers and other elements of the landscape are central to their animistic spiritual be-
lief systems. Rivers, springs, lakes, and mountains are understood to have spirit-guardians
whose presence must be regularly acknowledged and honoured via a community's shaman.
For example, the Katun River is considered central to the culture of the indigenous Altai-
ans who inhabit the Russian Altai region on the confluence of its borders with Kazakhstan,
China, and Mongolia. Altaians consider the Katun to be a living being, and show appropri-
ate respect in several ways. These include not throwing stones into the river, saying special
words when crossing it, and not taking water from the Katun at night because this may up-
set the river's spirit.
A similar attitude toward rivers is found among the Mansi who live in the Tyumen region
of northwestern Siberia. Sacred rivers such as the Yalbynya must not be fished, and even
rowing a boat is prohibited in some stretches, so the vessel has to be pulled along from the
bank. Other reaches come with different embargoes: the extraction of drinking water is for-
