Even in his elephant state he failed to remove the spirit of the tiger despite trying a few times. At this stage most of the possessed dancers have had the animal spirit in them removed by the shaman and returned to their seats. But as the show continued a few more dancers who were not performing tonight got possessed too and started going all weird.
It has been well over two and a half hours now since the show started. This also means that our three media friends who volunteered to take part in the dance must be tired but either too afraid to stop or they too must be possessed. Lucky for them someone went up to them (yes, after two and a half hours) to ask if they would like to stop. The first two happily said yes and returned to their places outside the magical circle.
If you think this cannot get anymore weird, again you are wrong. Our other friend who was dancing looked different in a scary way. As the person went up to him to ask him if he wanted to stop, he replied nothing. He was quieter than a mouse. He just went on dancing in the same circle he has been doing for the past two and a half hours. The person then tried to take the flat wooden horse from him but he scarily looked at the person and pulled the horse back and continued on his way. The person gave up and returned to what he was earlier doing. Still think that this is just a show? I, myself don't think so anymore.
Anyway, the shaman went round in his elephant state eating plants and digging holes as if searching for something. He then walked to a bridge, dug out some rocks and found a hole. He marked it with chalk and when back into the circle. There he started screaming some more before picking up hot burning coals and eating them. He then went back to the tiger possessed man to try to remove it. Again he failed.
This time the tiger possessed man picked up a coconut and started to bite the husk off while walking in a circle. He then threw it up in the air some two storeys high and continued his walk. I watched the coconut being affected by gravity, fall back down and hit him (tiger possessed man) right on the head and burst into pieces. No, not his head but the coconut. He then picked up a piece of the coconut and started eating it.
Oh yes, what I forgot to include in this article is the use of a whip to control the dance and the dancers. The whip was used to change the dance movement of the dancers during the dance and to contained the possessed as the shaman did his thing to remove the spirits. The person who tried to stop our media friend from dancing earlier returned with this same whip and hit him lightly (I hope) on the arm twice and suddenly the expression on his (media friend) face changed. He dropped the flat wooden horse and with a blank face slowly walked out of the circle and sat under the coconut tree. Phew! Safe at last.
Back to the Shaman and the tiger possessed man... things have gone on way too long and the fight between the Shaman and the spirit of the tiger that has possessed the dancer got more intense. For the many years that he has been messing with these spirits perhaps they have gotten bored of him and decided not to leave. But at long last the shaman succeeded and the dancer collapsed to the floor motionless, tired from the ordeal.
But who would remove the spirit from the shaman? How will this end? Questions and more questions.
Just when we through that the only issue now is with the shaman he gave out another scream pointing in the direction of the coconut tree. Unfinished business perhaps. He then gestured in a hostile manner for someone (or something) to come to him as if asking for a fight. Puzzled, the crowd looked towards the coconut tree and slowly without any expression on his face, our earlier possessed media friend walked towards the shaman.
The shaman gave out another scream and then grabbed the head of our media friend with one hand while pointing to the sky with the other. He gave out one more scream and our media friend collapsed on the ground. At last the spirit has left him leaving him exhausted and with no energy.
The shaman then walked towards a drum and stood on it. He yet again gave one very loud scream pointing to the sky before collapsing to the ground hugging the drum like a bolster. Another person and his daughter then went to him, picked him up, and helped him stand before walking him back to a chair where he sat and recuperated.
