In Kapsiki/Higi religion shala is at once the transcendent creator and the indwelling counterpart that every person, lineage, ward, village, mountain, river and field is said to possess. Prayers, libations and sacrifices are addressed to the appropriate shala, and the acceptance of an offering is read in the death-flutter of the sacrificial animal. The shala are imagined as dwelling in a heaven much like the earth, where they act as living people do; there they are called mbeli pelε rhweme, 'the people up high.' Unusually for the Mandara region, the system dispenses with a cult of named ancestors, organising religious life instead around this personal, relational deity through whom rain, fortune and health are sought. The wild, invisible bush-spirits called gutuli are counted among shala's children.