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brightness. Because their minds are said to be stronger and their intelligence greater than that of ordinary children, they are thought to be able to remember things with ease. This intelligence is actively promoted by their parents through ongoing tests of their memory. Outstanding memories are also identified with consultants as they get older. It was suggested accordingly that "consultants know all there is to know because they remember everything" (11:505). This gift is important both in the confirmation of a child as a potential consultant and in the later reaffirmation of his or her abilities in the course of consultation. Keen memories are necessary because the consultants must know not only the ailments of the spirit and body but also the past problems of the family and village. Thus one man, whose father had died before revealing his family history, said that when he himself became a family spokesman he had to turn to a consultant to reconstruct the family past. |
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Children who will be consultants, in addition to being extraordinarily active and bright, are also described as being accident prone. They are said to be careless, to have no sense of danger, and to recklessly explore anything and everything without fear. Such curiosity brings with it many potential problems. Most consultants had had a serious accident during their youths; many had fallen out of trees or off roofs, while others had suffered from serious cuts. Such children, explained one consultant, "If they see a knife, they will pick it up without knowing it" (11:618). Another consultant, when asked when he first knew that he would become a consultant, pointed to a long scar on his leg from an accident in his youth (6:72). Most such accidents come from carelessness, but some are acquired from quarrels, for persons who will be consultants are said to anger quickly. The children who are designated as future consultants are aware that they are different from their peers, and some say that they were frightened at this. One explained that as a child "I cried every night without sleeping. If I wanted to sleep, it frightened me" (11:614). |
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The first treatment which such children receive is intended to calm them. This treatment is given when the child is around six or seven years old, a time when he or she is particularly aware of the fact of being different. At the same time, these children are given a distinguishing haircut, a single line of hair along the top of the head. Such coiffures are said to offer a temporary place of rest for the deity so that it will leave the body in peace. "You shave the head to allow a place for Kupon to rest," explained one person (6:72). This coiffure, like the unusual behavior associated with (and to a certain extent expected of) these children, serves further to distinguish them from other children around them. |
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Later in life, still other features reinforce the identity of the consultants as being different from the norm. Most consultants are said to be clairvoyant. They are believed to have an additional set of eyes through which they can view the goings on of both the mind and the world beyond (6:75). Because the power of clairvoyance is also frequently associated with the potential for malice and discord when it is misused, the fact that consultants have this power is often seen as further reason for their identities as "outsiders." So important is this factor |
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