Possession — being mounted — is central and the vocabulary is explicit: the orisha is the rider, the devotee the elegun or horse. It occurs at drumming ceremonies where bata or dundun drums play the oro, the specific rhythmic phrases belonging to one orisha, with singers calling the praise names; the drums are consecrated instruments and the drummers are trained specialists. A person taken is attended by elders who prevent injury, may be dressed in the orisha's cloth and given its implements, and will speak, dance, bless, rebuke and prescribe as the orisha. Afterwards they have no memory. The community does not accept every occurrence as genuine: the criterion is behavioural, and a mounting that does not display the characteristic manner of the orisha in question is recognised as false. This is a religion in which the gods are held to be present and directly observable, and it is the feature that has attracted the most anthropological attention and the most external hostility.