Then We Had A Recital Of The
Tales Common To Africa, And Perhaps To All The World.
In modern France, as
in ancient Italy, "versipelles" become wolves and hide themselves in the
woods:
In Persia they change themselves into bears, and in Bornou and Shoa
assume the shapes of lions, hyenas, and leopards. [26] The origin of this
metamorphic superstition is easily traceable, like man's fetisism or
demonology, to his fears: a Bedouin, for instance, becomes dreadful by the
reputation of sorcery: bears and hyenas are equally terrible; and the two
objects of horror are easily connected. Curious to say, individuals having
this power were pointed out to me, and people pretended to discover it in
their countenances: at Zayla I was shown a Bedouin, by name Farih Badaun,
who notably became a hyena at times, for the purpose of tasting human
blood. [27] About forty years ago, three brothers, Kayna, Fardayna, and
Sollan, were killed on Gulays near Berberah for the crime of
metamorphosis. The charge is usually substantiated either by the bestial
tail remaining appended to a part of the human shape which the owner has
forgotten to rub against the magic tree, or by some peculiar wound which
the beast received and the man retained. Kindred to this superstition is
the belief that many of the Bedouins have learned the languages of birds
and beasts. Another widely diffused fancy is that of the Aksar [28], which
in this pastoral land becomes a kind of wood: wonderful tales are told of
battered milk-pails which, by means of some peg accidentally cut in the
jungle, have been found full of silver, or have acquired the qualities of
cornucopiae. It is supposed that a red heifer always breaks her fast upon
the wonderful plant, consequently much time and trouble have been expended
by the Somal in watching the morning proceedings of red heifers. At other
times we hear fearful tales of old women who, like the Jigar Khwar of
Persia, feed upon man's liver: they are fond of destroying young children;
even adults are not ashamed of defending themselves with talismans. In
this country the crone is called Bidaa or Kumayyo, words signifying a
witch: the worst is she that destroys her own progeny. No wound is visible
in this vampyre's victim: generally he names his witch, and his friends
beat her to death unless she heal him: many are thus martyred; and in
Somali land scant notice is taken of such a peccadillo as murdering an old
woman. The sex indeed has by no means a good name: here, as elsewhere,
those who degrade it are the first to abuse it for degradation. At Zayla
almost all quarrels are connected with women; the old bewitch in one way,
the young in another, and both are equally maligned. "Wit in a woman,"
exclaims one man, "is a habit of running away in a dromedary." "Allah,"
declares another, "made woman of a crooked bone; he who would straighten
her, breaketh her." Perhaps, however, by these generalisms of abuse the
sex gains: they prevent personal and individual details; and no society of
French gentlemen avoids mentioning in public the name of a woman more
scrupulously than do the misogynist Moslems.
After a conversazione of two hours my visitors depart, and we lose no
time--for we must rise at cockcrow--in spreading our mats round the common
room. You would admire the Somali pillow [29], a dwarf pedestal of carved
wood, with a curve upon which the greasy poll and its elaborate _frisure_
repose. Like the Abyssinian article, it resembles the head-rest of ancient
Egypt in all points, except that it is not worked with Typhons and other
horrors to drive away dreadful dreams. Sometimes the sound of the
kettledrum, the song, and the clapping of hands, summon us at a later hour
than usual to a dance. The performance is complicated, and, as usual with
the trivialities easily learned in early youth, it is uncommonly difficult
to a stranger. Each dance has its own song and measure, and, contrary to
the custom of El Islam, the sexes perform together. They begin by clapping
the hands and stamping where they stand; to this succeed advancing,
retiring, wheeling about, jumping about, and the other peculiarities of
the Jim Crow school. The principal measures are those of Ugadayn and
Batar; these again are divided and subdivided;--I fancy that the
description of Dileho, Jibwhayn, and Hobala would be as entertaining and
instructive to you, dear L., as Polka, Gavotte, and Mazurka would be to a
Somali.
On Friday--our Sunday--a drunken crier goes about the town, threatening
the bastinado to all who neglect their five prayers. At half-past eleven a
kettledrum sounds a summons to the Jami or Cathedral. It is an old barn
rudely plastered with whitewash; posts or columns of artless masonry
support the low roof, and the smallness of the windows, or rather air-
holes, renders its dreary length unpleasantly hot. There is no pulpit; the
only ornament is a rude representation of the Meccan Mosque, nailed like a
pothouse print to the wall; and the sole articles of furniture are ragged
mats and old boxes, containing tattered chapters of the Koran in greasy
bindings. I enter with a servant carrying a prayer carpet, encounter the
stare of 300 pair of eyes, belonging to parallel rows of squatters, recite
the customary two-bow prayer in honor of the mosque, placing sword and
rosary before me, and then, taking up a Koran, read the Cow Chapter (No.
18.) loud and twangingly. At the Zohr or mid-day hour, the Muezzin inside
the mosque, standing before the Khatib or preacher, repeats the call to
prayer, which the congregation, sitting upon their shins and feet, intone
after him. This ended, all present stand up, and recite every man for
himself, a two-bow prayer of Sunnat or Example, concluding with the
blessing on the Prophet and the Salam over each shoulder to all brother
Believers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 18 of 127
Words from 17471 to 18475
of 128411
